You know, Bill, there’s one thing I learned in all my years. Sometimes you just gotta say, “What the f**k…”

- Joel Goodson, Risky Business

Sunday I completed a personally remarkable WildCard weekend.

My first half and full game spread picks completed the weekend a remarkable 7 of 8 – so impressive that my days of just giving you this type of knowledge for free is about its end. I mean Harvard ain’t free – am I right?

Of course when I become a Tout I will have to start using ALL CAPS a lot more often and will have to smother the lawyer living in my gut that says to not use words like GUARANTEE.  However, with the amount of dip I have eaten in the last couple of weeks, even if I don’t smother him he will be dead of heart disease before the Super Bowl.

Naturally my one loss came at the hands at my boys in blue, when they dared to take a lead into halftime against the Steelers. The Broncos dominated – then gave away – then shocked the world in beating a vastly overrated Steeler team on Sunday afternoon. Was it really an upset? The Steelers were decimated by injuries – no Mendenhall or Pouncey, Big Ben down to only one good rapin’ leg –  and a defense that is starting to look more like all reputation, no substance. Without Ryan Clark and his defensive Team MVP cell structure, the Steelers pass defense was almost Vikings-esque and that isn’t good.  

SIDEBAR: Personal note to Troy Polamalu: I mean, seriously? You make Pro Bowls, you get shampoo commercials, and the never-ending affection of football writers and then you become the personal punching bag of Tim Tebow and Demaryius Thomas? That’s an embarrassment. The only safety play I have ever seen more pathetic than your play on Sunday was when Dan Orlovsky ran out the back of the end zone. You should cut off all of your hair as penance. Or retire. Whatever.

But I’m not here to talk about the past. Let’s move on. To the Divisional Playoffs. I am riding an incredible picking streak. The Broncos are playing a full 2 weeks after anyone expected them to. At this point, we are all playing with house money, so in the immortal words of Joel Goodson I just say:

What the f**k.

Saturday

New Orleans @ San Francisco

First Half: New Orleans (-3)

Full Game: New Orleans (-3.5)

One team is the NFL’s own Air Show – an on-going series of aerial acrobatics by a group of interchangeable parts.

The other team is the earth-moving machine that the guys in Ocean’s Thirteen used to dig underneath the casino – slow, methodical, barely making noise yet constantly moving forward and seemingly unstoppable as it slowly crushes all in front of it.

Can the Saints’ aerial bombardment “shock and awe” the Niners into submission? Will the Niners stout, quick defense disrupt the Saints show and turn into one of those European Air Show disasters?

Playing the Niners presents 2 major challenges to the Saints – first the Niners defenders aren’t like the Lions. They are built for speed. Aldon Smith. Navarro Bowman. Patrick Willis. They all have speed.

Secondly, as the old saying that I just made up goes: you can take the team out of the dome, but you can’t take the dome out of the team. Even with the forecasted pleasant bay area weather, the Saints will face strange winds, thick, plush grass and cool, heavy air. None of those are things they see in the SuperDome – except maybe the heavy air caused by 75,000 fans stuffed with gumbo and boudin.

Between the Saints being a step slow and the speed of the Niners defense, I think the machine will be slightly off – like when your computer is running yet another Microsoft update in the background and every. Thing. It. Does. Goes. Very. Slowly.

On the other side of the ball, the Niners can minimize the risk associated with the phrase ‘starting playoff quarterback Alex Smith’ by pounding the ball. The Saints aren’t built on defense for a pounding ground game. As Alabama proved last weekend in their National Semifinal defeat of Oklahoma State, a dominant defense grounding a high flying offense and a meticulous power offense that limits mistakes can win.

What’s that?…College doesn’t have a playoff?… So we have no idea if Alabama could shut down OSU’s offense?…I don’t understand…The country’s 2^nd most popular sport can’t identify a definitive champion? …HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

Anyway – back to a sport that crowns a true champion. The Saints may move the ball in the first half and score a touchdown or two before the Niners adjust and throw a wrench in the machine so take the Saints and give the points in the first half.

In the second half, like a horror movie murderer that never runs but always catches the running teen girl in the tight fitting tank top, the Niners slowly ground down the Saints defense and clog their offense. The Niners not only cover the full game spread but win out-right.

Denver @ New England

First Half: New England (-7)

Full Game: New England (-13.5)

The Broncos are on a crusade.

Oh, yes – there is the “Drive to the Super Bowl” and whatnot but that isn’t what this team is about. The whole ‘glories on Earth’ thing is beneath them. They aren’t after trophies.

They are after souls.

At the end of the 1997-1998 season, the Broncos entered the playoffs as a wildcard and embarked on the ‘Revenge’ Tour as each week featured a team that they felt they owed. The Jaguars (wildcard) had beaten them in the previous year’s playoffs. The Chiefs (divisional) and Steelers (AFC championship) had beaten the Broncos during the regular season and the Packers (Super Bowl) were defending champs.

The 1997 Broncos were a Quentin Tarantino character without even realizing it.

This year’s Bronco team isn’t out to revenge past defeats. Rather they have taken on their leader’s persona and are out to vanquish evil doers. The Broncos aren’t beating football teams, they’re cleansing a game’s morals. One Commandment at a time.

Last week, was the defeat of a rapist.

Allegedly.

Next comes a cheat and philanderer.

Allegedly.

And then, were the Broncos to defeat the Patriots and face the Ravens (favored over the Texans), they would face thieves (that stole a team from the people of Cleveland) and a murderer (<cough>Ray Lewis<cough>).

Allegedly.

In three short weeks, the Broncos can cleanse these playoffs of the sinners.

They can exorcise the demons. This house will be clear.

But can good truly triumph over evil again? The odds are long. But they were also long against a Jewish carpenter once, and raise your hand if you just got home from worshipping Jupiter and Juno.

The Broncos have 2 things going for them (beyond the existential power of the Heavens). First Tebow requires poor secondary play to throw the ball well – he needs receivers with some space thanks to less than Brady-esque confidence and accuracy (see: Steelers and Vikings games). Thankfully, the Patriots have a pass defense as bad as anyone in the NFL.

Secondly, while the Patriots did dominate the Broncos a few weeks ago, they dominated because of Broncos mistakes. Three awful turnovers before half turned a lead into a deficit – and these Broncos are as likely to stage a large comeback as they are to make it rain at The Gold Club.

History has also shown that while the Patriots may be consistently strong, their Achilles heel has been playoff re-matches at home (last year vs. Jets and 2 years ago vs. Ravens).

I am tempted to say take the Patriots in the first half, but I think at best, they get a push with the 7 point spread.

It is just too many points. Take the Broncos for the first half and full game and feel the warmth and strength that comes with being on the side of the just.

Last year, in the inaugural ‘Doubling Down’ series, I had a shockingly successful run in picking both halftime and full time playoff games against the spread.  So let’s try it again and see if it was a fluke or if I should sell my home, move to Vegas and drive hookers around in a brand new Mercedes.

I think we all should stand up today and thank the University of Clemson.

We all face pressure every day. We all want to do our best when thrust in the spotlight. We all grow up dreaming of catching the winning touchdown pass, making the game winning shot or landing that perfect triple-lutz to steal the ice-skating gold from that Russian bitch who totally doesn’t deserve it but got great scores from the French judge because of some backroom deal even though she put that hand down on her last jump….umm…I think I’ve said too much.

But sadly most of us will not do any of those things. Most of us will endure mediocre athletic careers that see many more failures than successes. And even successes that can’t measure up to our lofty childhood dreams.

This is why we owe Clemson big thanks today. While many of us will fail to achieve our goals, almost none of us will fail as spectacularly or as publicly as Clemson did in the Orange Bowl last night.

We have seen a new bottom, and it isn’t us.

Go forth with head held high, knowing no matter what you do today, someone has done something significantly worse.

NY Giants vs. Atlanta

Halftime: NY Giants (-2)

Full Game: NY Giants (-3)

I really don’t want to pick this Giants team.

(What’s with all of the ‘this team’ stuff? Why am I suddenly the Jon Gruden of little read corners of the internet?)

A few years ago, I mercilessly mocked the Giants for even making the playoffs and spent countless words comparing Eli Manning to the kid from Dazed and Confused that is always pinching the bridge of his nose for no reason. They responded to my taunts by winning 3 road playoff games and then pulling off the greatest upset in Super Bowl history, so I like to think I did my part to usher in Michael Strahan’s retirement.

You are welcome.

This Giants team (SEE?? AGAIN!), reminds me a lot of that team. Underwhelming performance (they lost to the Redskins 3 weeks ago!! And the announcers keep saying that they are ‘peaking’!). A hit or miss running game. Defense that can dominate or disappear. Eli “I always look like I would rather be at an amusement park” Manning under center.

I could see them winning by 4 touchdowns or losing by 3. If I were in Vegas I wouldn’t touch this game with Justin Blackmon’s infected ‘thigh’. But I am committed to making picks, so I will take the Giants at both halftime and over the full game for 2 reasons.

1 – That 2007 team. Those who don’t remember the past…and all that

2 – The Falcons still have Tony Gonzalez who is genetically incapable of winning a playoff game or being criticized by the media. Where Shannon Sharpe helped win games by sheer force of personality, Tony seems to lose games the same way. Never count on Tony (or Matt Ryan, or Michael Turner) to come through in the clutch. Especially on the road.

Sorry Eli, at least one more week before you get to go ride the Tea Cups again.

Denver vs. Pittsburgh

Halftime: Pittsburgh (-5.5)

Full Game: Pittsburgh (-8.5)

And so it ends where it all began – my hometown Broncos.

We are here because for weeks on end, Tebow was able to perform magic tricks that would have impressed David Blaine (“elevation – PFFFT – try knocking the ball out of a runner’s hand without getting near him!”).

Unfortunately, Tebow strapped on a straightjacket and blindfold and locked himself in a box filled with water 3 weeks ago. The struggle stopped 2 weeks ago and the bubbles stopped on Sunday. The magic is over and we are left with a carcass getting riper by the week.

But – lo, I just saw the body twitch. The straps on the straightjacket appear to be coming undone. There may be a little life left in that body after all.

Big Ben comes in limping. Mendenhall is out for the season. Ryan Clark can’t play at altitude. The Steelers are the better team but they aren’t a dominant team.

The Patriots dominated the Broncos by capitalizing on mistakes and with an overwhelming offensive show. Frankly, the Steelers don’t have an offense like that (see: Week 17; 13 points scored at Cleveland where they spot you 3 points if you make it to the stadium on time).

Will the Steelers win? Yes, most likely – the Chiefs just won in Denver. Will they win by more than 8.5 (or higher, spread has been climbing up to near 10)? I don’t think so.

Take the Steelers and give the points at half (7-0, 14-7, etc.). Take the Broncos and the points for the full game (14-7, 17-10, 17-14).

The magician may not make it out of that water-tight box, but he will come awfully close.

To bet on the Patriots at the Broncos today, you will need to give 7.5 points. For those not regularly familiar with betting on football – that is a lot of points.

That is the same amount that the Giants are favored at home against the (4-9) Redskins.

It is more than the Saints are favored at the (2-11) Vikings.

Even the winless Colts are only 7 point underdogs to the Titans.

Did I mention the Broncos have a record of 8-5, lead the AFC West, have won 6 straight and are at home?

In short – you are insane to bet on the Patriots.

I admit that there is a chance that the Patriots blow out the Broncos. Just look at what the Lions did several weeks ago. The prevailing theory is that the Lions game is the blueprint of what a high-scoring offense can do to the Broncos.

But a lot of things have changed since that game.

The first and most important is that the ever evolving Broncos offense. Back on October 30^th, John Fox and Mike McCoy tried to run a traditional offense in Tim Tebow’s 2^nd start this season. It was a failure, and between turnovers and 3-and-outs the Broncos defense never stood a chance.

In the intervening weeks, the Broncos have constantly evolved their offense, from a spread option to a conservative but traditional running game. Each week has brought a different attack so not even Belichick is really sure what he will see today.

Unless, of course, he has reverted to his Spy Gate approach.

Can the Broncos slow the high scoring Patriots defense? They won’t stop them but they can hope to contain them. With one of the 5 best pass rushing tandems to put pressure on Brady without blitzing, little concern for an anemic Pats running game, and 2 veteran quarterbacks (with a history of success versus Brady) they should be able to at least keep the Patriots under their average, high scoring ways.

And that may be enough with an offense that should score more than it has the last few weeks.

The key to stopping Tebow’s passing game is tight coverage. He is just not accurate enough or confident enough to put the ball in tight windows. It is more than a coincidence that there have been 2 situations in which Tebow has thrown well.

1 – Late in games, when teams protecting a lead, drop into a prevent defense to preclude the long pass. With suddenly more space between his receivers and defenders Tebow gains the confidence he had when his receivers at UF ran wide open against inferiors opponents.

2 – Against a Vikings secondary that was so awful I entertained myself all afternoon by comparing Tebow to M. Night Shymalan, because the Vikings inspired me to think that Tebow was seeing dead people. With a secondary that bad, Eric Decker and Demaryious Thomas easily got open and Tebow could put the ball close enough for them to make plays.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Patriots secondary is pretty bad. The Pats are giving up 308 yards per game, good enough for dead last in the NFL.

Tebow should be able to complete passes, keep the ball moving and allow the running game to roll.

The Patriots will score points, I don’t doubt that. But so will the Broncos. And do you really want to have money against Tebow late in a close game?

Between a frenzied Mile High crowd and the inexplicable power of Tebow, there is little doubt the Broncos can keep within 7 points of the Patriots. Having won 6 straight games, none of which made any logical sense, why think the Broncos would suddenly get blown out?

For me, gambling on football comes down to figuring out which games are Gimmes and which games are Traps. The Broncos sure look like a Gimme to me.  

The only ones that can really think that laying 7. 5points on the Pats at Denver is a Gimme are the same folks that wrote an article before the last baseball season that the 2011 Red Sox might be one of the greatest teams ever.

Thursday, December 8, 2011 will go down as one of the strangest days in the history of sports. From the moment we woke up (at least those of us here out west) to the moment we went to bed, bombshells were dropping like we were in 1941 London.

We start with a superstar baseball player who may or may not be 31 years old signing a 10-year contract with a new team in L.A.. My favorite part of this is the catch-22 it puts Angels fans in. The only way a 10-year contract (ending when Pujols is at least 41 – that’s right at least) is worth this much is if Albert starts borrowing some of Barry Bonds training secrets. But then if Pujols borrows Bonds training secrets, the Angels become a laughingstock and it is totally not worth it.

Then a bunch of pitchers traded teams but none of them are life changing, so as a non-baseball fan I will cover them all thusly: fast forward to May, I switch on a <insert name of baseball team> game and say to myself: “Oh yeah, I forgot <insert name of pitcher traded yesterday> went to <insert name of baseball team>. Wow, he already gave up 5 runs and it is only the 3^rd inning? Good signing.”

By lunch time, the NBA had kicked into high gear as the Mavs pulled a Marlins “post-championship fire sale” for secondary players – Caron Butler to the Clippers and (possibly) Tyson Chandler to the Knicks.

But these moves were immediately eclipsed by Chris Paul’s knee brace….I mean Chris Paul trade rumors.

As the sun began to kiss the mountains here in Denver, it became confirmed that the Hornets were trading Paul to the Lakers in a 3 team trade that would send Pau Gasol to Houston and Lamar Kardashian to New Orleans – along with several former Rockets and Bruce Jenner’s left-over face skin.

At that point, the day has been fun, interesting and somewhat logical (even if the Angels overpaid by 4 years and $50 million). But like some sort of horror movie, as night descended, so did the insanity.

I would have thought it was a bad joke or the fever induced delirium of a bitter Gator fan when the first rumors of Charlie Weis becoming head coach at Kansas materialized. But then it actually happened.

A team desperate to be even relevant in the college football landscape went out and hired a proven loser. An arrogant, lazy coach living on an undeserved reputation who has done nothing but fail since he left the cold embrace of Lord Belichick. Rather than gain respect and attention by actually trying to build a real program through hard work, KU leadership decided to go for the sex tape approach to grabbing attention. Yes, releasing a sex tape is a good way to get attention, but then you are famous for all the wrong reasons. Let’s stop this analogy right here, because the words ‘Charlie Weis’ and ‘sex tape’ in the same paragraph are starting to make my eyes bleed.

KU will undoubtedly be mentioned more frequently on College GameDay next season with Charlie scooting around the sidelines – but most of that attention will be of the ‘what is wrong with KU under Weis?’ variety.

A long time Weis loather, I am thrilled with the jokes that this affords me but, as a FSU fan, saddened by the years of dominating UF that we have lost.

As we were still laughing at KU, David Stern took it as a personal affront and said “Oh, you think that was short-sighted and misguided? Well, take a look at this!” before disallowing the Paul trade.

Apparently some whiny owners complained about competitive balance. Which is an interesting argument, so I hope one of those idiots answer one question for me:

How does Paul signing with a big market team next summer as a free agent, netting the Hornets absolutely nothing in return, help them compete better than the 4 players and draft pick they would have gotten in this deal?

Apparently Dan Gilbert, owner and Chief Idiot on Charge of the Cavaliers would prefer every other team sit through their own Decision each summer as their superstars head to (literally) sunnier destinations.

What a long, strange day it has been.

In honor of the Trading Places Thursday we just witnessed, this week, we pick two games that involved some sort of swap. So which team won that ‘trade’?

Indianapolis @ Baltimore

SD: In the middle of a cold winter night nearly 20 years ago, the Colts snuck out the door and left Baltimore like Cal Ripken’s wife leaving Kevin Costner’s house. Allegedly. It took another decade but when Cleveland wouldn’t give Art Modell a new stadium for his crappy Browns, Baltimore finally had a team to root for again. Since both moves were completed each team has won a Super Bowl. Each team has produced one of the best players of the last fifteen years (Peyton Manning, Ray Lewis). Each team has a key contributor accused of murder (Marvin Harrison, Ray Lewis – again). In the end, the city of Baltimore got all of the same things that Indianapolis took from them, outside of an original scroll of On The Road, without having to move to Indianapolis. That sounds like a win to me.

Chicago @ Denver

A little less than 3 years ago, the Broncos sent a whiny Jay Cutler to the Bears in exchange for Kyle Orton’s neck beard and some draft picks. A year ago, this question would have looked like a no-brainer as the Broncos were headed to the #2 overall pick and the Bears to the NFC title game. But now, Cutler’s inability to stay healthy (or fight through injuries), his tabloid relationship with professional attention whore Kristen Cavalleri and the Bears perennial mediocrity must leave Bears fans scratching their moustaches and drowning their sorrows in Old Style. The Broncos are riding the high of the Tebow phenomenon, winning inexplicable games every week and becoming America’s (if not God’s) Team. Bronco country tried a time period in which we had a good, but not great team and a good but not great quarterback that we rode to early round playoff exits every year (see: 2000-2005). It wasn’t fun. Give me the lunacy and ridiculousness of the Tebow era any day, even if it doesn’t last any longer than his famous speech.

 When it comes to NFL disappointment, I live by the motto: It is better to burn out than fade away.

Over the last couple of years I have examined the Tim Tebow experience from every possible angle. Intellectual. Emotional. Historical.  Hysterical.

Being a Florida State Alum that watched Tebow tear my team apart for four years while building a media following second only to Brett Favre and being a Bronco fan now expected to accept and cheer for Him, I found myself as conflicted as a Log Cabin Republican. To deal with and try to understand this internal torment I became one of the leading amateur Tebowologists in the country.

But that now ends. There will be no more analysis, because I had an epiphany last night.

Trying to analyze Tebow is a waste of time. Analysis just doesn’t work for him. He is beyond analysis.

After Matt Prater kicked his game-winning overtime field goal for the Broncos last night in San Diego, pushing Tebow’s record as a starter this year to 5-1, I tweeted:

This is officially the end of rational thought. It is all feelings and beliefs from here on out.

And that is how I truly feel when it comes to the Broncos. Nothing can be explained with rational thought.

Should Tebow’s presence under center inspire the defense to allow 8 fewer points per game? No. But it has.

Should Tebow’s presence under center have taught the offensive line how to hold blocks for so long that Tebow actually gets visibly uncomfortable when they previously couldn’t block a pack of teenagers looking for an autograph? No. But it has.

There are no explanations. No analysis. Whether you are by-nature a Tebow supporter or Tebow hater, there is no point in waving stats in the air to support your argument. Statistics have nothing to do with it. Tebow’s stats don’t matter.

Tebow has transcended analysis.

In the sea of opinion lapping at the shores of the world wide web, there is someone espousing every possible point of view. One of the more interesting (to me) and popular ways of differentiating yourself is to intellectualize sports. Whether by going big picture and answering ‘what does it all mean’ or by slicing and dicing data to find the ‘true meaning’ of statistics, entire genres of sports analysis have been born.

I admittedly try to hang with the big boys in the ‘what does it all mean’ camp but can only go so far (state school y’all). Whether equating Brett Favre’s 3^rd down passing attempts to the late career works of Clyfford Still or developing a new Moneyball stat that revolutionizes how the game is played, my pseudo-intellectualism only goes so far.

But Tebow defies either category. No stat can ever quantify what he does – other than wins and losses. There might be a larger story to define him but in the case of Tebow that feels too trite.

It is easy to fall back on religious comparison when talking about Tebow – he even does it himself. But saying Tebow’s piety is the reason for his play opens the same arguments as debating religion in the first place.  It’s just best not to go there because religion can’t be debated. It is faith and faith is something you either have or you don’t.

Which brings us back to Tebow. We can debate him all day, every day, but his play comes down to one simple thing as well. Faith.

Yesterday afternoon, the Broncos trailed the Chargers 13-10 with 5:27 to play in the 4^th quarter and the ball on their own 26 yard line. It says something that as the Broncos took the field, there was not a doubt in my mind the Broncos would march down the field and, at a minimum, tie the game. None. Based on my Twitter timeline, I wasn’t alone in this.

It took an amazing diving catch by Eric Decker on a 3^rd down and Dante Rosario tip-toeing the sideline but those are almost a given at this point.

Yes, the Broncos had to go to Overtime, overcome a decision by John Fox to not go for it on 4^th and less than a yard and a missed Charger field goal but would we expect anything less?

I was always a supporter of Kyle Orton and desperately wanted him to succeed here but I never once would have had the confidence in Orton that he would win a game like yesterday.

I will never be able to explain why or how, but the absolute confidence in the Broncos is something I haven’t felt in about 12 years.

I felt it. I can never rationalize or intellectualize it. But I believed.

At the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, one of his tests to reach the room that holds the Holy Grail is a Leap of Faith – stepping off a ledge into a seemingly bottomless cavern with only a belief in a higher power to protect him.

Yesterday was the day I stepped off that ledge. There may be some rock-hard camouflaged pathway that explains why I didn’t plunge into unknown depths but I couldn’t see it then and I still can’t.

I chose wisely.

I should start by stating a simple fact. I love football. Even when my teams are nearly as disappointing as Two Broke Girls. I say this so you know that this criticism comes from a place of love.

Football fans are not good with time.

Maybe it comes from enjoying a sport where 60 minutes last over 3 hours, I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the football world just doesn’t seem to understand how time works.

The century is now almost 12 years old. It is still pre-pubescent. If it were a child, it still might be listening to its parents. While many twelve-year olds feel like events that occur each weekend are THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT HAS EVER OCCURED, over time they will learn that little Bobby not asking them to the winter dance wasn’t the end of the world (especially when he doesn’t quite finish the 11^th grade and ends up picking up trash for the county). Most college football fans have now lived in 2 separate centuries. Heck, they have even lived in 2 separate millennia. They should understand the concepts of time. But apparently they don’t.

All of this is a long way of saying, that I am getting tired of all fo these ‘The Games of the Century’.

The media is tirelessly building up this weekend’s game between #1 LSU and #2 Alabama as the most important football contest ever played. Naturally, it has earned the moniker Game of the Century, which makes it at least the 8^th or 9^th Game of the Century, since the turn of the century.

Can we please just stop. Are you really telling me that in the next 88 years there won’t be another game of equal import? Is this game more important than the USC/Texas national championship game of 2005? The Florida/Alabama SEC title game in 2009? The 2000 FSU/Miami game? Nebraska/Oklahoma game of 2002?

No, of course isn’t, but in a world where anything that happened last week is now ancient history, the here and now is always more important.

100 years is a long time. Less than 100 years ago, the Titanic sank and Theodore Roosevelt ran as a 3^rd party candidate for President. If TV is right, 100 years from now, we will be living in pod-like sky-scrapers, robots will wear aprons and be programmed with sarcasm and our clothes will come with unattached rings around the ankles.

In 1993, #1 FSU visited #2 Notre Dame for another Game of the Century. The game ended with Notre Dame winning 31-24 with FSU’s Heisman trophy winning quarterback Charlie Ward’s pass to the end zone broken up by some anonymous Notre Dame player that later was drafted too high by the NFL, was subsequently cut and ended up helping cause the 2008 financial crisis after landing a cushy job on Wall Street (some of this is speculation).

This game was truly a game for the century. Yet, less than 20 years later, we have already have at least 10 other Games of the Century.

If we are all puttering around our flying cars in 2099 still talking about the epic 2011 LSU/Alabama game, I will gladly acknowledge how wrong I am. But until then, let’s pour some Spike 80DF on all of this Game of the Century talk and kill it before it can take root further.

Coincidentally, I think there is at least one Alabama fan that can help us with that.

Shadow: It has really been an up and down year so far with THH.  Turner has yet to make his inaugural appearance…..perhaps he is waiting for the OU-OSU matchup when we should know if OU is firmly back in the National Championship picture…or not.  I haven’t managed to turn in entries for even half the weeks.  Lucky for the two of us, SuperDave still more than ably fills up this space each week with wit, wisdom, and carefully crafted reflections on football, society, and life.  Since this is the month of Thanksgiving…I am thankful SD doesn’t kick the two of us out for lack of activity.

In honor of all of these Games of the Century, THH this week found 4 separate match-ups that at one time or other was named a Game of the Century. This weekend we will cheer on the team we cheered on in that original match-up.

College:

LSU vs Bama (2011)

SD: Let’s start with this year’s Game of the Century. Really the only college football game that matters, and, even though I have an aversion to SEC over-hype that rivals my aversion to sitcoms on CBS, I have been looking forward to this game for weeks.  On one hand I have friends who went to Bama that live and die with the Tide and my all time favorite college football book focuses on Bama. On the other hand, I have always held an affinity for LSU; it feels almost like a cousin to FSU. It is in the top two of my college football game experience bucket list (1a and 1b are attending games at LSU and Ole Miss). For me this comes down to the coaches. Like any right thinking American, I can’t get enough of the Les Miles Crazy Train. Nick Saban is a humorless, loyalty-free mercenary that happens to be a very good coach. As I am reminded every day while sitting in a conference room surrounded by ambitious, arrogant Type-A’s, I will take a sense of humor over professional success any day. Geaux Tigers!

<Postscript: I wrote the entire preceding paragraph before reading this but I am now more confident in this decision than any I have made since I advised Mike Leach that the best way to deal with the spoiled, entitled son of a TV broadcaster is to lock him in a shed.>

Shadow: In 6^th grade I read a biography of Bear Bryant.  It was the first time in school that I had to read a non-fiction book of that length, and it was the only book on the list to choose from that had anything to do with sports.  Years later (last year in fact), I read Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer.  This is the last non-fiction book I have read.  There is nothing significant in these two facts, other than the fact that they seem to be telling me I should root for Alabama.

Texas Tech vs Texas (2008)

SD: For those that live in west Texas it is easy to feel lost in the shuffle. While you spend days worried about the government coming to steal your small patch of dust and weeds, and fending off waves of illegal immigrants invading your homeland to take jobs you have no interest in doing for less money that you would be willing to accept, the rest of the world just goes on spinning. But on one day in 2008, you were the center of the universe. #1 Texas, from that fruity, weird city of Austin came to town. In the end a dropped interception, a short out-pass and a missed tackle led to the upset few expected. For one day, west Texas was more than the place where a village was missing its idiot from 2001 to 2008. Being a loather of all things Burnt Orange (including the pretentious use of the word Burnt), I cheered on the Red Raiders that day. As I will again on Saturday.

Shadow: While watching this game, I felt the same way I feel anytime I am watching a game with two teams who have the word “Texas” as part of their name…..is there some way for both these teams to lose?  In matchups where I don’t really have any vested or passing interest in, I tend to pull for the underdog, so I was most certainly rooting for Tech and watched with dismay as they kept letting Texas back into the game.  When the Texas DB had the game handed to him and he dropped the interception I swear I had an inkling that something special would happen….and that special something would be the hearts of Texas fans breaking when Tech completed their own game winning drive.  That it happened in an unnecessarily risky manner with the pass to Crabtree with time almost expiring…well, that was just icing on the cake.

NFL:

Giants vs Patriots (2008)

SD: At Super Bowl XLII, the Patriots arrived undefeated on the season, while the Giants had won one improbable game after another just to get an invite. On paper this was a mis-match greater than heart disease against the menu from KFC. America may be the greatest favorite in global history, but we still love the underdog. I, however was cheering on the Patriots that day. As I said at the time, I like seeing historical greatness. Nothing about Eli Manning’s hail mary throw pinned to David Tyree’s helmet or the subsequent pass to gun and sweatpant enthusiast Plaxio Burress makes me think of greatest team ever. However, in hindsight, if I had known that this game would give us Michael Strahan yelling ‘More Meat!’ in a Subway commercial and that Tyree would be out of the league and working at a Subway 3 years later… I would have cheered even harder for the Patriots.

Shadow: I loved the Pats when they were underdogs and beat the Greatest Show on Turf (aided by the fact that I boldly predicted the win at a Super Bowl party where literally everyone else said there was no way the Rams lose).  I loved them being the first team in my memory to shun the ego-driven stylized individual introductions and asked to be announced as a team that day.  And then….as their success bred more success…and the head Hood Rat made his fashion statements….and they found a diamond in the rough QB late in the draft while the Broncos continued to fumble trying to find the heir to Elway….I began to hate them.  Really hate them.  And then came the perfect season.  And all through the season I hated them.  And in the playoffs I hated them.  And, truth be known, outwardly during the Super Bowl, I still pretended to hate them…..but secretly, and this is something I have never admitted until now, I was rooting for the perfect season.  Don’t know if it was because I was tired of seeing the ’72 Dolphins popping champagne every year….don’t know if it was because this could be something I would probably never see again in my lifetime….I can’t explain it.  But for that Sunday, I wanted Tom and Randy and Bill to finish the quest.

Denver at Oakland (1977)

SD: An AFC championship game may not be the Game of the Century for everybody but when a football-crazy town enjoys its first real success and plays its arch-enemy for a championship at the same time, it quickly becomes all consuming. Now, I was 2 years old at the time, living outside Kansas City, so I was most likely much more interested in finding out why Oscar was such a Grouch than this game. But I am confident that if presented carefully reasoned arguments for each team I would have been an early convert to Broncos country. I mean, their defense was named after a soda. What 2 year old doesn’t like the sugar rush of a soda?

Shadow: SD- you suck.  I didn’t think you could top the fact that you just made me admit to rooting for the Patriots….now you have uncovered my darkest NFL secret.  When this game was played, I had just turned 6, and I was still 18 months away from moving to Colorado from Iowa.  My mom was dating someone new (who would become husband #3 for her, and the person I still consider “Dad” for me).  I remember nothing from the game….I really only have spotty memories of much of the NFL prior to about 1981-82.  But here is what I do know.  When we moved to Colorado, my dad, and me by extension, were Houston Oiler fans..and this was due to the original “Snake”.  He was a big Stabler fan.  I could call my Dad for confirmation, but I have a feeling we were rooting for Stabler and the Raiders in this tilt with the Broncos.  There.  Are you happy?  I may have rooted for the Raiders against the Broncos.