Anyone who knows anything about football knows that the most exciting day of the NFL season is Conference Championship Sunday, not Super Bowl Sunday.
Unfortunately, my enjoyment of this day of football revelry was undermined by the fact that my team, the Philadelphia Eagles, did not even make it to the playoffs this season.
All indications are that Vick and the Eagles actually bought into the hype by sports analysts about them emulating the near-perfect season Brady and the Patriots had in 2007. Moreover, given the way he and the Eagles fell apart during the playoffs last season, Vick can be forgiven the onset of anxieties about doing little more for the Eagles than the $100-million quarterback he replaced, Donovan McNabb.
(“Vick: why is everybody always picking on me,” The iPINIONS Journal, September 18, 2011)
In any event, true to form, Sunday’s NFC Championship game between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers (which the Giants won 20-17) and AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens (which the Patriots won 23-20) did not disappoint.
In fact, in an uncanny bit of symmetry, both championships were defensive struggles that came down to game-clinching field-goal attempts:
In the NFC game the Giants won when their kicker Lawrence Tynes nailed a 31-yarder in overtime. Whereas, in the AFC game the Patriots won when the Ravens’ kicker Billy Cundiff shanked a 32-yarder with 11 seconds left in regulation. Such is the life of field-goal kickers in the NFL: feast or famine, hero or goat.
I was actually pulling for the Giants and Patriots, respectively. Because my fallback allegiance is now with the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. And I would like nothing more than to see the Patriots get some measure of payback for the way the Giants ruined their chance at NFL immortality by defeating them in Super Bowl XLII (in 2008), ending their pursuit of the elusive perfect season.
(The 1972 Miami Dolphins is the only team in the modern era to have a perfect season capped by a Super Bowl win. I doubt any team will ever repeat this feat – as a very good Green Bay Packers team found out this year….)
Go Patriots!
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Vick: why is everybody picking on me
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