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)
True to form, yesterday’s National Football Conference (NFC) game between the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers did not disappoint. Never mind that it took an improbable second-half comeback by the Seahawks for this game to generate the kind of excitement we’ve come to expect of conference championship games.
After all, with the Packers sitting on a 16-0 lead and the Seahawks having thrown almost as many interceptions as completions at halftime, this game was generating nothing but Zzzs. Watching it play out in torrential rain only aided the somnolence.
But one had to be a dead fish not to be electrified watching the Seahawks execute a fake field goal attempt for a touchdown, score a two-point conversion with a Hail Mary pass, and recover an onside kick that led to another touchdown — all within a two-minute span late in the fourth quarter. This forced the Packers to pull off some heroics of their own, including a long (48-yard) field goal just for an overtime-triggering tie (22-22) at the end of regulation.
But frankly, when they followed up all of their fourth-quarter heroics by winning the coin toss to take first possession in overtime, the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks seemed assured of a rendezvous with destiny. Indeed, it only took a few snaps for quarterback Russell Wilson to make up for his four interceptions by tossing a 35-yard touchdown pass to secure sudden-death victory, 28-22.
Alas, my post-game high did not last long. You probably recall the post-game rant following last year’s NFC championship game that made Richard Sherman a household name:
He might well be the best cornerback in the NFL, but chances are that you never heard of the Seahawks’ Richard Sherman until the media made a barking fool of him on Sunday.
Unfortunately, the takeaway (especially for young Black boys) is that you have a far better shot at fame in America today by acting like an obnoxious jerk than by displaying real talent. And amoral corporate sponsors will only reinforce this socially demeaning value now by rewarding him with lucrative endorsement deals.
Which is why the story here is not Sherman’s postgame rant, as the media would have you believe. Rather, it’s the media (and advertisers) choosing to elevate his rant over the game itself.
(“‘Thug’ — the Politically Correct Word for Nigger,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 23, 2014)
It was hardly surprising, therefore, that little-known Seahawk players tried to emulate Sherman with post-game rants of their own — clearly hoping to stir up Campbell Soup-like endorsement deals too. But it was a real snooze watching them do so. Thankfully, I don’t think they’ll find the media, let alone advertisers, as interested in their testosterone/steroid-fueled gloating as they were in Sherman’s.
In any event, apropos of rendezvous with destiny, the Seahawks are now poised to become the first NFL team to defend their Super Bowl title since the New England Patriots did it in 2003-04.
How fitting then that they will have to beat the Patriots to do so. In fact, thank God that NFC game ended up providing so much excitement. Because it more than compensated for the bore the American Football Championship (AFC) game between the Patriots and Indianapolis Colts turned out to be.
The Patriots trampled the Colts (45-7) in a game that will be remembered more for an allegation of cheating off the field than for the execution of any play on it:
The NFL has confirmed it is looking into charges the New England Patriots cheated Sunday night when they clinched a trip to the Super Bowl Sunday night by using deflated footballs … to make them easier to throw and catch.
If the Patriots did cheat, it would not be the first time. The team was penalized a first-round draft pick, fined $250,000 and head coach Belichick was personally fined $500,000 after an investigation by the NFL determined the team had illegally videotaped their opponents hand signals during a 2007 game.
(FOX News, January 19, 2015)
I have only one point to make about this:
- Even if proven true, the Patriots would clearly be happy to absorb the relatively light penalties as the cost of doing business. After all, a few draft picks and even a $1-million fine would be a small price to pay to get to the Super Bowl for the sixth time and have a shot at a fourth title during this Belichick-Brady era.
That said, my home team, the Washington “Epithets,” have been too busy setting new precedents for futility and providing new highlights for derision to even make the playoffs. Therefore, I won’t have a dog in the fight when the Seahawks play the Patriots for Super Bowl XLIV in Arizona on February 1.
All the same, I’ll be routing for the Seahawks!
Primarily because, despite being defending champions, they are the underdogs; and I am psychologically disposed to champion the underdog. Indeed, Russell Wilson, the Seahawks’ relatively small quarterback, looks like the proverbial David. Tom Brady, the Patriots’ relatively big quarterback, looks like the proverbial Goliath.
But I am also picking the Seahawks to win because I’m so impressed with the poise, class, and humility a victorious Wilson invariably displays. His character is such that it not only compensates for that of the chest-thumping, trash-talking nincompoops on his team, but also stands in admirable contrast to the cheating that seems to have enabled so much of the Patriots’ accomplishments — with all due respect to Brady and the rendezvous with the NFL Hall of Fame that awaits him.
Go Hawks!
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* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Monday, at 1:13 p.m.