For those that were waiting for the Chiefs to collapse and for the Chargers to pull the AFC West crown out of their rear ends, your wait is over.
It ain’t happening.
The Chargers choked in Cincinnati on Sunday, losing to the Bengals, 34-20. And actually, choked isn’t the right word. Choked means that they had an opportunity to win and blew it in the end. But seeing as how the Bengals led the entire game and generally pounded San Diego for four quarters, “choked” doesn’t describe the Chargers.
San Diego fans probably knew that their team’s demise was forthcoming. The Chargers got off to another slow start and even though they started smacking teams in November, their loss to the Raiders a couple of weeks ago and their defeat on Sunday inevitably did them in. Their win over the Brodie Croyle-led Chiefs must seem like years ago.
Maybe if Vincent Jackson had played the entire season, things would have been different. Maybe if Antonio Gates had been healthy, things would have been different. Maybe…
It doesn’t matter. The Chargers are done and the Chiefs are your 2010 AFC West division champions. Who saw that coming in preseason?
Brett Favre wasn’t heroic. He was a hubristic fool. He wasn’t a warrior. He was an arrogant braggart who, whatever the homespun hokum of his Mississippi roots, perversely reveled in his pain to the point where his agent publicly disseminated pictures of his injuries like cheesecake photos–a deep-purple ankle lumpish and swollen, an equally deep-purple hamstring. The pictures did what Favre hoped they would: further reinforce his image as The Gladiator, The Samurai, The White Knight for whom guts in football, however stupid and wanton, is what counts.
Later, Bissinger says that Favre’s admission to his pain killer addiction and his playing the Monday night (against the Raiders) after his father died were contrived and carefully planned.
He has always been clinically grandiose beneath the “aw-shucks” country boy cover. He knows what sportswriters crave, not just the junk food of the noble warrior but the soul-aching confessional, which largely accounts for why he admitted to being a Vicodin addict in 1996. He knew that, when he decided to play a football game the night after his father died in 2003, it would not be perceived for the act of self-absorption it was, but as an act of courage after he carefully spun it as that’s what pappy would have wanted.
Self-absorption…really?
While we all know that Favre has a huge ego and a flair for the dramatic, I don’t think his deciding to play soon after his father died was an “act of self-absorption.” I think any athlete that had a supportive father would choose to mourn on the football field, the basketball court or the baseball diamond rather than wallow in pity and depression in some dark room somewhere. An athlete (and likely his father) would see not playing as a form of self-absorption. No father would want his death to hurt the chances of his son’s team getting a win in a crucial game.
And as for the chances of Favre, or any tough QB for that matter, taking himself out of the NFC Championship Game because of an ankle injury — well, it’s just unrealistic to think that would ever happen. I saw the game, and while Favre limped off after the play in question, he was moving around all right on it for the rest of the game. Do you think Minnesota fans wanted to see Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson in that situation? Hell no.
Bissinger’s official website describes him as “highly acclaimed” and “one of the nation’s most distinguished writers.” But this piece isn’t distinguished at all. It just seems like he has an ax to grind with Favre (ever since the pain killer admission) and he took this opportunity to kick a man while he’s down.
Four of the last five times the Vikings have had to pack their bags and play on the road, they’ve lost. That doesn’t bode well for them considering that their most important game of the season will also be played on the road.
Everyone wants to talk about Brett Favre’s magical Super Bowl run, but he and the rest of his team haven’t gotten things done on the road this season. They’re 4-4 away from the Metrodome, but three of those four wins came against the Lions, Browns and Rams in the first five weeks of the season. Those aren’t exactly powerhouse teams they played. Their other road win game against Green Bay in Week 8 when Favre threw for 244 yards and four touchdowns to help Minnesota rack up 38 points.
Speaking of Favre, you have to go back all the way to 1997 to reference the last time he won a road playoff game. He led the Packers to a 23-10 win over the 49ers that year, but he’s gone 0-3 on the road with nine interceptions in the postseason since then.
Granted, football is a team game and Favre wasn’t the only reason his teams have failed on the road in the postseason. Plus, previous outcomes have nothing to do with future results so if the Vikings do lose on Sunday, it won’t be because Favre hasn’t won on the road in the postseason since ’97.
That said, it’s worth noting that Minnesota’s Super Bowl hopes are resting on the fact that they must beat a solid New Orleans team in a hostile environment on Sunday. Toss in the fact that Favre has struggled on the road in the postseason and that the Vikings are 0-3 in their last three games away from the Metrodome and you realize what kind of situation Minnesota is walking into this weekend.
I’m not sure what this guy did to get arrested, but he got hauled off anyway. He was chanting “JETS! JETS! JETS!” and that’s about it. It’s possible something else happened off camera…I guess…
What a shame — he didn’t even get to see his team come back and win.
