NFL Post-Mortem

Alas, the season is over. Every year I reflect on the season, what might have been, and hope that next year is the year for my Giants. This year, it turns out, was my year for the Giants. It was a surprising, amazing, and incredible season that I'll not soon forget. The Giants underdog status continues on to next year. Everyone is predicting the Cowboys to be the best team in the NFC next year.

The Giants did something this year that was pretty amazing. Only one player on the team was named All-Pro. One. Almost every team, by design, has at least one representative. The only team that didn't in the NFC were the Atlanta Falcons. Of course, the Falcons aren't even putting out a highlight film this year. They are, however, publishing a highlight photograph. It might possibly be the tail-lights of Bobby Petrino's car as he left town.

The Dolphins hired Bill Parcells as their head of football operations. Parcells is the NFL version of Petrino. He's a smart football person, but has the character of a serpent.

Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins sees himself as a smart football owner, but he is anything but. His coaching search was done unprofessionally and left some good people out in the wind hanging. He finally hired Jim Zorn who has never been a head coach and never even been a coordinator. He was a great quarterback and sounds like he was a wonderful quarterback's coach. But....he has never called the plays or made the decisions. He is now interested in signing Chad Johnson from the Bengals. Snyder believes that if you just sign big name players you'll win. He doesn't understand the concept of team. Which is fine. The Redskins are in the Giants division so their failure is fine by me. The thing is, there are examples of teams in his division. The Giants, the Eagles, and the Cowboys all are prudent with signings and all went for experienced coaches.

I do hope that TO enjoyed his popcorn.

The post mortems on the Patriots made them sound like a team that went 1-18 as opposed to 18-1 and only lose to a hot team by 3 points. Of course, these are the same experts who picked the NFC championship game to be between the Cowboys and the Bears. The Giants and the Packers were predicted to have losing records.

Some Patriots fans have an online petition claiming that the game was stolen from them by the officials. When Brandon Jacobs got the first down they officials stopped the clock and added 6 seconds to the clock so that they could spot the ball properly. Patriots fans are saying that this play cost them the game.

The 5 sacks on Tom Brady didn't cost them the game. The consistent hitting of Tom Brady as he was releasing the ball didn't cost him the game. Not going for a field goal did not cost them the game. An inability to stop the Giants offense on the Giants last two possessions (excluding the 1 second run off) did not cost them the game. The simple fact that the Giants beat them in line play on both sides of the ball did not cost them the game. Actually, from a Giants fan's perspective, I wish more time had run off the clock. I think I lost some years in those final 36 seconds of the game.

I sincerely feel badly for fans when their team loses a heart breaking game. Well, there are some exceptions. Evil Empire teams do not count. Dallas in the NFL. The Yankees in MLB. Duke in basketball . Notre Dame in football. Other than for the Evil Empire teams, I do feel for fans.

But please folks, when you lose, you lose. There is always next year.

Speaking of next year, I cannot wait!