Real Football fans will tell you that the most exciting day of the NFL season is Conference Championship Sunday, not Super Bowl Sunday — as casual fans might say.
(“Historic NFL Championship Sunday,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 22, 2007)
AFC
The media hyped the American Conference Championship (AFC) game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos as a bout between their respective quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Arguably, Brady and Manning have been the two best quarterbacks in the NFL over the past 16 years. They’ve met 17 times over that period, with Brady besting Manning 11-6 in regular-season matchups. More significantly, going into this game, they were tied 2-2 in the playoffs. But Brady has led his team to 4 Super Bowl wins, whereas Manning has led his to only 1.
To be fair, even I was more interested in which alleged cheater would prosper than which team would win.
After all, Brady remains dogged by credible allegations that he masterminded the infamous Deflategate cheating caper. I reveled in the deflation of his all-American ego in “NFL on Brady’s Appeal: He Cheated, then Lied, and then Obstructed Justice,” July 29, 2015. And Manning remains dogged by credible allegations that he fueled his play over the past few years with performance-enhancing drugs.
It just so happens I commented on their improbable bond as cheaters a few weeks ago in “Steroids: Peyton Manning Caught on the ‘Dark Side,” December 29, 2015.
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Not just die-hard fans but even seasoned analysts are rushing to defend Manning. Except that they are defending him by denouncing Charlie Sly as if his name alone should discredit everything he said. What, pray tell, do you suppose they would have insinuated about the credibility of ‘Deep Throat’ in real time?
Mind you, I get it: Finding out that Peyton Manning cheated in Football is rather like finding out that Jimmy Carter cheated on his wife. Never mind that having Tom “Deflategate” Brady defend Manning’s professional integrity is rather like have Vladimir Putin defend Bashir Assad’s democratic values…
Manning is playing out the final year or two of his career. Notably, a career in Football that has been as celebrated and accomplished as Armstrong’s was in Cycling. It’s a shame his now seems fated to end in a similar fall from grace. What fateful symmetry….
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Perversely, Manning could now vindicate this symmetry and seal their disreputable bond. All he has to do is win this year’s Super Bowl with steroids dogging him, the way Brady won last year’s with Deflategate dogging him….
That said, this AFC game did not live up to the hype. In fact, the highlights of the first three quarters all featured Manning and Brady scrambling for their lives. And, unlike Cam Newton below, neither of them is known for exciting fans as much with his running as with his passing.
Granted, the last four minutes of the fourth quarter almost made up for the rest of the game. No doubt fans of both teams were experiencing heart palpations as the Patriots seemed poised to pull off a miraculous comeback. This was highlighted by two improbable fourth-down conversions and a touchdown with less than a minute to go, to pull within 2 points.
Only a failed two-point attempt stopped them from sending this game into overtime, during which I suspect a thoroughly demoralized Broncos team would’ve simply ceded victory to the Patriots.
But, as indicated above, I couldn’t have cared any less which team won. It turned out to be the Broncos by the hair on their chinny chin chin, 20-18.
As of the QB matchup: Manning passed for 176 yards with 2 touchdowns; and rushed for 11. Brady passed for 310 yards with 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions; and rushed for 13.
NFC
Instead of hyping the AFC game so much, the media should have hyped this National Conference Championship (NFC) game between the Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals much more.
Sure enough, Cam Newton and the Panthers wasted little time showing why: They scored almost as much in the first quarter as Manning and the Broncos scored all game, jumping to a 17-0 lead over Carson Palmer and the Cardinals. And Newton showed why he’s as good a passer as any quarterback and (almost) as good a rusher as any running back in the league.
As it turned out, it was mostly icing on the cake for the Panthers and humble pie for the Cardinals for the remaining three quarters. But I exercised my mercy rule and switched to Doc Martin on PBS after the Panthers went up 24-7 with 2 minutes left in the first half.
They ended up winning 49-15, scoring the most points in championship history.
As for the QB matchup: Newton passed for 335 yards with 2 touchdowns, 1 interception; and rushed for 47 with 2 touchdowns. Palmer passed for 235 yards with 1 touchdown, 4 interceptions; and rushed for 0.
Mind you, the Panthers should be playing out the most storied season in NFL history. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Super Bowl:
Gone was the Carolina Panthers’ 18-game regular-season winning streak, which dated to last season. Gone was their quest to be just the second team to finish a regular season 16-0.
[T]heir pursuit of history, to potentially join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only unbeaten Super Bowl champion, came to an abrupt end with the 20-13 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
(USA Today, December 28, 2015)
Their only pursuit now is for annual Super Bowl glory. I’m rooting for them to win it when they meet the Broncos for the Golden Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on February 7.
Go Panthers!
Super Bowl commercials
That said, I would be remiss not to comment on the annual hype surrounding Super Bowl commercials — for which companies are paying $5 million for a 30-second spot this year. Frankly, we are treated to so many previews that, by game time, they hold about as much interest as those eye-rolling commercials for erectile dysfunction.
I gather companies release them early to become trending topics online. Except that, like most topics on social media, people suck them up and spit them out in a viral flash.
Not so long ago, even die-hard fans waited with bated breath to see them air during the game; and the best ones trended, in real life, for days and weeks thereafter. These days, most people just see them as opportunities to go to the toilet.
Which raises the question: Why pay millions to run a commercial on TV during the Super Bowl, only to have people ignore it, when you can pay pittance to release it online during Super Bowl week, and generate viral interest? Surely it’s only a matter of time before this fact dawns on companies.
Then, of course, there’s this: I have watched many funny, even interesting Super Bowl commercials over the years. But none has ever moved me to purchase the product being advertised. You…?
NOTE: My team is the Philadelphia Eagles. But the only thing that distinguished them this season was firing head coach Chip Kelly before the final game of regular-season play. Hope springs eternal.
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Deflategate…