Football is like Politics

They both make for strange bedfellows. On Sunday the NFL played the last games of the regular season. With the NFL having relatively few games in a season, it means there are a lot of ties in the standings. It also means that a lot of games have bizarre influences on other games because of the tiebreakers.

Since the Redskins were playing the late game, and I arrived at the bar in time for the early game I asked to have the Buccaneers game on. The Bucs were playing the Raiders, and I really have no opinion about either team. I don't even do fantasy football, so that didn't enter into my rationale. I wanted the Bucs to win, because that would mean that if the Eagles won, then Dallas and the Eagles were out of the playoffs. I know it's petty wishing bad things on other teams just because they are rivals, but the Redskins season was over last week, so I had to have someone to root for.

But even odder than my selection was the Jets game. Living in Boston, most everyone around is a Pats fan. For the Pats to win a trip to the postseason, the Jets had to win. The Jets may have fans out there somewhere, but they don't have a lot in Boston. Except for last Sunday when a number of raucous chants of "J... E... T... S... Jets Jets Jets!" broke out in the bar.

Of course, how can I comment on Sunday's football results without reflecting on the Lions loss. I was pulling for them, I really was. A part of me thought it would be great to see history made as a team finished with no wins. But a larger part of me hates the Packers and wanted them to lose to the worst team in football.

Other anomlies of the season... How about San Diego going to the playoffs despite having an 8-8 season? 5 teams have better records and aren't going to the playoffs at all. Another way to look at it is half the teams have a better record! And how sad is it that the Pats aren't going to the playoffs despite having a 12-4 record? That's a good enough record most years to win home field advantage.

Maybe the NFL should add more games to the season, so there are fewer ties in the standing. There isn't much they can do about the 12-4 and 8-8 thing unless they regroup the leagues, or change the way the games are scheduled.

Anyway, I got a bit off topic in this, but my point is, just because a guy's wearing a burgundy shirt and rooting for the Bucanners doesn't mean he's a Bucanners fan. He might just really hate Dallas.