Tomorrow’s two Conference Championship games promise to entertain and amuse. I am looking forward to the Chargers/Patriots AFC Championship, like every other football fan glued to the seemingly inexorable march of the Patriots towards another Super Bowl Championship. I know San Diego Mike and I will probably be on different sides of this issue, but I have to pull for the Patriots in this one. The Chargers will, I think, be stoked and highly motivated to play despite all their injury problems. They really seem to have come together as a team since they basically fell right off the radar screen after a woeful 0-2 start. It is apparent to me from some things I’ve read that the Chargers are still smarting a little about being ousted from the playoffs last year at the hands of the Bostonians. Unlike many people, I think the Chargers have a chance to actually win this game outright. Take the above-described historical motivation, add a little of the “us against the world” mentality that comes with being a 13 point underdog playing an undefeated opponent with a significant portion of the salary budget either sitting in the hospital or examining the particulars of their health insurance coverage very carefully, and then add to that the fact that in recent weeks at least three opponents have proven that New England’s defence is vulnerable over the middle with a commitment to the rushing game and a smart passing attack. The Chargers will need to avoid any self-destructive mistakes, but if they execute their defensive assignments to perfection, catch a break or two in the turnover battle or on special teams and manage to control the time of possession with either a healthy LT or his myriad of suddenly competent backups – they have a chance. The sad reality for the Bolts, though, is the sheer statistical improbability of all of those stars aligning. Predicted final score: Patriots 27, Chargers 20.
Despite the AFC game featuring an undefeated and undisputed Super Bowl favourite, the real fireworks will arguably saved for prime time, when Brett Favre and the Team for All Time (the Packers) take on some famous guy’s brother and the Team of the Moment (the Giants). This promises to be an intriguing matchup between a suddenly consistent and composed Eli Manning and Favre, the virtuoso of improvisation at the pivot position. The weather promises to add a little wrinkle that ought to make the game memorable (temperatures are expected to dip into the realm where car tires freeze kind of square). The fact that this game will be played on the NFL’s money nostalgia set, otherwise known as Lambeau Field just makes it all the better. There is a complicated space in my heart for Eli Manning: as a general proposition, I despise all sports teams based in New York City. Thus, a Giants loss is always a good thing in my books. The amount of unwarranted criticism that Eli Manning has taken from Giants fans fuelled by unrealistic expectations, however, keeps me rooting for him to succeed just enough to spite them and make them truly miserable. Eli has spent so much time being called upon to apologize for not being his brother and not being Tom Brady that you kind of wonder why he doesn’t just lose his shit on some of the reporters and columnists feeding the moronic frenzy by and inquiring in a profanity-laced tirade why they aren’t so indignant about, for example, Jeff Garcia’s failure to be Peyton Manning. According to my highly convoluted sports-affinity reasoning, therefore, it would be appropriate for Eli to do just well enough to make Giants fans miserable because they lost – but worse, because they were wrong, and obviously so, about him.
I can’t let the Eli situation and my private little sports feud with the people of the five boroughs get in the way of the Best Result Ever here, though. I must not devote any substantial psychic rooting energy to Eli Manning, lest that rooting mistakenly lead to a Giants victory over the Pack. Who wouldn’t watch a Packers/Patriots Super Bowl? What a game to remember Favre by, regardless of the result; unless he’s made some Chris Chelios-esque deal with Satan, you have to believe Favre’s days are numbered even considering the stats he put on the board this year. Throw into that game Tom Terrific, Moss, Welker, Maroney and the impenetrable shield that is the Pats’ offensive line, as well as the Packers’ young group of stars including Ryan Grant and the Biggest Stage in Sports is pretty much set up for a monumental confrontation on the order of the guitar wars at the end of Crossroads. Who will be the Ralph Macchio of this year’s NFL?
My prediction for the Packers/Giants game: Vince’s ghost, lunatic cheeseheads and car-battery commercial cold 23, Giants 16.
Update: AFC – Patriots win their 18th with no defeats, and along the way craft a tribute to Can-rockers Rush by ensuring that the final score was 21-12. NFC – Sorry to say it, but Brett Favre looked a lot like a lot of other senior citizens in the Wisconsin deep-freeze, i.e. a little bewildered about why the hell he wasn’t in Florida instead of freezing his ass off. Meanwhile, Eli played his butt off and managed to overcome some monumentally bad breaks (two missed field goals in the late going, not to mention the Giants’ interception that became a fumble). Result: Sorry Eli, notwithstanding my inner joy that you’ve proven your critics wrong, I have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever rooting for the Pats in Super Bowl XVII.
We in San Diego have other reasons to dislike Eli, despite his success and poise; heading in to the 2004 draft, the Chargers had the number one pick and were expected to exercise it on their most glaring weakness — quarterback — as it had been since 1998, when they lost out on the Peyton Manning lottery by one pick.
Along comes Pa Archie who said that he wasn’t going to let his son play for any team that was 4-12 the last season. I understand — the Chargers kinda threw Ryan Leaf into the NFL shredder like he was every bit the equal of Peyton, which he wasn’t; Leaf could have used a lot more seasoning and tutelage, but as the number two pick, you’re expected to do miracles and the less he learned, the more he reverted until those unrealistic expectations caused him to crack. Peyton’s still playing; Ryan’s coaching college ball in Texas. If I’m the Manning patriarch, I have valid concerns here. But it’s less the message than the delivery, really: playing in the NFL is still a privilege extended to relatively few, and for those high picks, even fewer. You serve who you’re picked by as best you can, and they pay you like they mean it. By letting Archie be the fall guy on it, Eli revealed that (1) he believes he’s above the process and (2) he’s not man enough to take responsibility for himself.
The epidemic of late contracts (see JaMarcus Russell, etc.) and holdouts lately is precisely because teams that pick first have had miserable records. Those future stars want to secure their future, and that’s understandable. You do that laundry at home and in private; you don’t put teams in the untenable position of saying how much they believe in you while rolling the dice on your unproven NFL career.
Yeah, Eli’s not Peyton. And he never will be.
I hear you and understand – believe me. I’ve had a similar long-standing grudge against Eric Lindros based on similar reasons – his refusal to play in Sault Ste. Marie when drafted there in the OHL, his refusal to play for Quebec when drafter there in the NHL. My grudge existed even though I was not a fan of either the Soo Greyhounds or the Quebec Nordiques; I found Lindros’ pickiness and intransigence, and the fact that many of his positions were being advocated for him by Bonnie and Carl (his Mom and Dad) distasteful.
In other words, I think you (and every Chargers fan at least, if not footbal fans in general) are entitled to that grudge.
There’s a difference between that, though, and the New York media harshing on the guy for not being Peyton. Let’s face it, there’s about fifty quarterbacks in the league who aren’t Peyton, and only one of them – arguably – is better (Brady). My point is that New Yorkers, as usual, have been spoiled with sporting riches and don’t even appreciate their own good fortune. They should all be sentenced to spend a couple of decades rooting for the Lions and the likes of Charlie Batch, Scott Mitchell and Joey Harrington to truly understand the difference between “bad” quarterbacking and “un-superstar-calibre” quarterbacking.