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If I could pick one franchise to
never win another game, the St. Louis Rams would come
in second. First would go to the Duke Blue Devils
basketball team, who lost to Florida State today. I
literally jumped up and down in my leaving room cheering
when I saw that.
The regular season has come
to an end. So sad. No doubt, the NFL has
the best regular season of any professional league.
It's something the NBA is trying to figure out again
with little success. I think a big part of it is the
"memorability" (TM
Cyd Zeigler, 2002) of various games and players from a given
season. Here are some of my more memorable people and
events from this last season, and the awards to go along
with them:
The
All Important
HOTTIES OF THE YEAR:
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3) Tom Brady, QB, New
England Patriots (this
is a really bad pic of him) |
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2) Adam Archuleta, DB,
St. Louis Rams. |
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1) Trent Green, QB,
Kansas City Chiefs. |
PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Kordell Stewart, Pittsburgh Steelers. Who could
have seen this coming? Jerome Bettis. He called
it back in the summer - said Kordell was happier in the new
offense and was zipping the ball around. Congrats to
Stewart.
DISAPPOINTING PLAYER OF
THE YEAR: Doug Flutie, San Diego Chargers.
After bemoaning "the chump" for the last two
years, I climbed on his bandwagon this year. He
finished the season with a 72.0 quarterback rating and a
15-18 TD-INT ratio.
COACH OF THE YEAR:
Bill Belichick, New England Patriots. Not a
single publication I saw had the Patriots finishing higher
than fourth in the division. After an 0-2 start and
his Pro Bowl quarterback out for several weeks, Belichick turned in a masterful coaching job that brought his team to
11-5 atop the AFC East. Rounding out my Top 5 coaches
of the year: 2) Marty Schottenheimer, Washington; 3)
Steve Mariucci, San Francisco; 4) Bill Cowher, Pittsburgh;
5) Dan Reeves, Atlanta.
DISAPPOINTING COACH OF THE
YEAR: Jim Haslett, New Orleans Saints. He
never had his team prepared for a game and let them get
slaughtered their last four games to finish 7-9.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:
LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers. Behind
one of the worst offensive lines in football, Tomlinson was
at times dazzling, compiling over 1,600 yards of total
offense and 10 touchdowns.
TEAM OF THE YEAR:
Chicago Bears. I know Jim hates to watch them, but
they simply poured in some miracle games and some gutty
wins, all amidst a quarterback carousel.
DISAPPOINTING TEAM OF THE
YEAR: New Orleans Saints. They have talent
at every position, yet finished with a 7-9 record after
getting blown out their last four games.
GAME OF THE YEAR:
How could I not pick it: San Diego 27, Buffalo 24,
October 28. After the Bills scored a touchdown to
go ahead with under two minutes left, Ronney Jenkins
returns the kick-off, with penalty, inside the Bills' 20
yard line. For the winning score, Doug Flutie
dodges a tackle and scrambles into the end zone, beating the
team that cut him just months earlier.
PLAY OF THE YEAR: (Tie
- both same game.) With one shot left to take the game
to overtime against the Cleveland Browns on November
4, Chicago Bear Shane Matthews threw the ball into
the deep right corner of the end zone where his receivers
knocked the ball back to a waiting James Allen for the tying
touchdown. Then, in overtime, a Tim Couch pass
was deflected into the hands of Mike Brown who ran
the ball back for the winning touchdown - and kept running
all the way to the locker room.
And now I leave with you with
some parting thoughts:
Cris Carter is THE
whiny little bitch.
Randy Moss IS the
greatest player in the National Football League.
The Titans ARE
finished.
I hate the Rams.
I hate the Packers
almost as much.
My Super Bowl pick:
New England 27, Chicago 17.
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Did Brett Favre ‘‘let’’
Michael Strahan set the all-time NFL season sack mark? We’ll never know, but
it sure looked that way. Strahan was sackless all day
and Favre and the Packers had the ball with less than 3 minutes to go and a nine-point lead. No way they
would pass. But on first down, Favre faked a handoff and rolled right. Strahan came hard at him, and Favre
simply dropped to the ground. Strahan fell on him and got the sack.
Favre said he audibled and some Packers were upset that Strahan got the mark against them. Giants
offensive tackle Lomas Brown thought Favre assisted
Strahan: ‘‘Sure, I was surprised at the play, too. But it just shows me what a class act Brett Favre is. I
love the dude. And I’m sure he’s Michael’s best friend
now, too.’’
My Three Hottest Players
 
From left: Brian Finneran, wide receiver, Atlanta
Falcons; Mike Vanderjagt, kicker, Indianapolis Colts;
Bill Schroeder, wide receiver, Green Bay Packers. Ed
McCaffrey of Denver would have made it had he not been hurt
all season.
(Submit your all-hot picks on our Discussion
Board)
The Packers are thrilled to be playing a wild card
game at home at Lambeau Field next week against San Francisco. The Pack has never lost a playoff game
there. But if their defense played like it did against the Giants, it’ll be one-and-done. Green Bay allowed 524 total yards and 24 points.
I have the worst luck in winning football pools. On Sunday, all I needed was the
Tennessee Titans to beat the Cincinnati Bengals and I win $440 in a season-long
pool. But, as my luck would have it, Tennessee blew a 14-point lead, had their quarterback knocked out of
the game, dropped what would have been the game-ending interception, and allowed the Bengals to drive 55
yards to set up the winning field goal.
Here is my quick take on all 12 playoff teams:
NFC
--St. Louis: Best team in football right now, book a trip to New Orleans.
--Chicago: Still can’t believe a team with that weak
offense will do anything and they can’t be lucky every week.
--Philadelphia: The Eagles’ defense is awesome, but
they can’t run the ball.
--Green Bay: Brett Favre is a magician, but even he can’t plug that sieve-like defense.
--San Francisco: Can’t see them winning at Green Bay
and St. Louis in consecutive weeks.
--Tampa Bay: They’d be a force at home, but all their
playoff games are on the road so look for a quick exit.
AFC
--Pittsburgh: Kordell has been shaky the past two weeks, so defense must come through.
--New England: Playing as well as anyone in the AFC, but were 191 yards rushing
they allowed to 1-15 Carolina a bad omen?
--Oakland: This team is 4-5 down the stretch and will
win no more than one playoff game.
--Miami: Can win home wild card, but look for their annual second-round swoon.
--Baltimore: Don't expect a Super Bowl repeat. Their
offense is pedestrian and the defense is nowhere near as
dominant as last year.
--New York: Nice win Sunday at Oakland, but I have a hard time seeing them doing it twice in a row (which
may be the case if Baltimore wins tonight).
If form holds, the
AFC playoffs will be wide open, the NFC predictable. Since 1990, when
the NFL went to a six-team playoff format, only one NFC team
that played in the wild card round (Green Bay in 1995) went
on the the NFC title game. This bodes well for top seeds St.
Louis and Chicago, as each gets a bye next week. In the
AFC, seven wild card winners have gone on to the
championship game, with three (Denver, Tennessee and
Baltimore) going on to win the Super Bowl.
Bonehead call of the day was
the one made by Cincinnati, down by 1 in the fourth
to Tennessee and facing third-and-goal at the 2. For some
weird reason, the Bengals had running back Corey Dillon
throw a pass, which was intercepted at the 1. Lucky for the
Bengals, they went on to beat the Titans on a last-second
field goal.
Washington Redskins coach Marty
Schottenheimer deserves a round of applause for getting
his team to 8-8. After starting 0-5, the 'Skins continued to
play hard until the end. Bring him back and the 'Skins win
the division next year.
Finally, since this our last
installment of this feature this season, I want to thank Cyd
for providing me with endless chuckles with his comments. He
was smoking some pure crack this year.
My Super Bowl pick:
St. Louis 33, Pittsburgh 24.
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Michael
Strahan of the New York Giants set an NFL record for
most sacks in a season, when he recorded his 22 1/2 on
Sunday against Green Bay. Strahan beat the mark set by the
New York Jets' Mark Gastineau in 1984..