Morris and Wm. Clement are the co-champs of the NFL Divisional Round Playoff Pool. The victors went 6-2, with Clement winning on all but the Colts and on the under of Panthers-Bears and Morris winning on all but the Pats and on the over of Seahawks-Redskins. Home teams-visitors and favorites-underdogs split on the week, and the under went 3-1. Champs: testify. Chumps: recognize.

As a staunch N.E. fan, it’s going to take me some time to get interested in watching pro foozball again (although, I’ll be happy to when the ‘Burgh beats the Broncos).

Wouldn’t be so bad if they had lost fair and square. But, to be playing better football and then to hand the game over to Snake eyes Shanahan hurts.

Congratulations to the winners. I guess.

Sunday, January 15, 2006 will be remembered as the day that the NFL became the WWF (I'm not calling it the WWE, dammit). I don't care what the hell the NFL says, the Polamalu INT decision was manufactured tension by the NFL to keep, what was a blowout game, interesting. Gotta make sure the advertisers who paid for that last 5 minutes of the game get their money's worth...

I half expected The NatureBoy to sneak up behind the ref after the replay and whack him with a chair. It's turning into pure theatre....

I agree with the ‘keep it interesting’ angle and I’m not necessarily a conspiracy theorist, but I do think that the NFL, Number one in sports ENTERTAINMENT, might work to give one team an advantage over another if it’s going to make for good theater.

Most people (and especially ones in the NFL) wanted glory boy Peyton and unfortunate human tragedy story that was Dungy to win and potentially go on to play in SB40. So, the opponent in order to overcome refs making calls that could skew the outcome of the game has to beat the chosen team (the Colts) to win. Which the Steelers did.

I think this goes, to a lesser extent, along with happened in the Patriots/Broncos game. Not that it ended up mattering, but I think the Patriots were going to have to knock the Broncos off decisively to win that game as evidence by many questionable calls that went against them. My contention is that the NFL would have tried to do anything so that this year it wasn’t the Pats, again, in the SB.

Unfortunately, even as they demonstrated that they were the better team, the Pats helped the agenda along by putting a gun to their collective heads and pulling the trigger.

It’s about marketing and just as the NFL has done a good job of leveling the playing field, so to speak, with regards to trying to make all teams competitive, they relish market diversity not dominance.

"the opponent in order to overcome refs making calls that could skew the outcome of the game has to beat the chosen team (the Colts) to win."

Well....yeah. What I meant was that the Steelers had to SOUNDLY beat the Colts (bad calls included) to get out with a victory. Which they did very well.

I knew those shock treatments were worth it! Man, the Colts screwed the pooch.