What determined the results of last week’s NFL conference championship games are being discussed in a disproportionate and foolish manner as usual, by a mass media that is beyond the point of no return.
In the AFC game, whether footballs were properly inflated, or not, had no effect on the outcome, as New England (Patriots) routed the Indianapolis Colts.
Yet it is the tantamount concern of those who determine what is discussed and its priority. Talk of Deflate-Gate is almost non-stop.
In the NFC game, the horrible, beyond conservative coaching of Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy, combined with late game Green Bay collapse/Seattle Seahawks surge led to Seattle, not Green Bay, gaining Super Bowl entry. That should be discussed.
Sadly, only some form of improper bad behavior by one of the players or staff on either the Patriots or Seahawks, the two Super Bowl teams, will knock the ridiculous “footballs” story from the top of the list.
The 24 hour news cycle and its demand just gets worse. I virtually ignore it. Can or will you?!!
The Super Bowl meeting between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, will be the 17th time the two franchises have met. All 16 previous were regular season games.
Each team has won eight times. When Seattle was in the AFC, the teams met 13 times and have met three times since the Seahawks moved to the NFC.
It is interesting that the man who scored the first points ever in a Patriots vs Seahawks game was Tight End Don Hasselbeck, playing for New England in a (31-0) win over the second year Seahawks on October 9, 1977.
Don Hasselbeck is the father of two NFL quarterback sons. Tim, who had a brief NFL stint, and Matt, the longtime Seahawk QB, who is still active with the Indy Colts and was one round from facing “SEA” in this year’s “Supe.”
Matt played in more playoff games as the Seahawks quarterback (11) than any other Seattle quarterback. He also started in the Seahawks 2005 Super Bowl loss to to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Proud Father
The New England Patriots will be playing in their eighth Super Bowl, their sixth since 2001.
New England is (3-4) in its previous 7 Super Bowl appearances, (3-2) since 2001 with Tom Brady as the quarterback and Bill Belichick as coach.
This will be the first post season meeting between teams from Boston and Seattle in any round of post season play in any of the four major professional sports leagues.
Boston teams: the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins have all won championships in the past 10 years.
Other than the Red Sox, those teams have also lost in rounds or games for their league championship.
The Red Sox won their first 5 World Series, then lost the next four, before winning the last three.
The Patriots have lost their last two Super Bowl games after winning three straight. Prior to that, they lost in their first two Super Bowl appearances.
The vaunted Celtics once won in 14 straight NBA finals appearances, while the Bruins lost in 5 straight finals during a 39 year title drought from 1972 until they won the Stanley Cup again in 2011.
On October 8, 1972, both the New York Giants and New York Jets played at home at the same time. This was after the common schedule, AFC/NFC format started in 1970 and all these years later, a surprise to me.
Neither game was televised in the New York area but luckily each team had a superb radio broadcaster: the Giants with Marty Glickman, and the Jets with Merle Harmon. We are nowhere near that fortunate today.
The Dolphins on their way to a perfect season defeated the Jets that day.
The Giants on their way to mediocrity that season, which was an improvement, routed the New Orleans Saints. An obscure Giants’ running back named Charlie Evans scored 3 touchdowns for the Giants.
Archie Manning, a somewhat known Saints’ quarterback, threw three touchdowns, none of them with the score close.
Two fine receivers, Dave Parks and Dan Abromowitz, each of whom led the NFL in receiving at one point in their career, gathered in those touchdown passes.
The venues for those games were the original Yankee Stadium for Giants/Saints and Shea Stadium for Dolphins/Jets.
Later that day in Baseball, the eventual World Champion Oakland A’s took a (2-0) ALCS lead at home vs the Detroit Tigers in a game televised nationally.
The Cincinnati Reds’ NLCS squaring game 2 victory vs the Pirates at Pittsburgh, was not televised.
Years later I reflect and say I guess it is good that the games are televised but so often I must shut the sound off to avoid the horrible announcing.
The teams play in antiseptic, corporate named stadium now. Yankee Stadium was ideal for football and Shea Stadium, even with its swirling winds was a far better place than the one now.
Alas, it is a good thing to complain but would be a “far, far better thing,” if something could be done about it.
The Seattle Seahawks, both a tremendous and fortunate team, advanced to their second straight Super Bowl overcoming the Green Bay Packers (28-22) in overtime.
In their bid to repeat as Super Bowl champions, in effect a semi -final game, Coach Pete Carroll and his “Seahawks” appeared through, trailing by TWELVE points late in the game.
However, the Seahawks rallied for an overtime win and now Carroll and the Seahawks are one victory away from repeating as champions.
Russell Wilson’s touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse won the game in overtime. Last year Wilson and Kearse also combined on the decisive touchdown pass in the NFC Championship game win vs the San Francisco 49ers.
Coach Pete Carroll had to experience some deja vu in reverse, this time nearly as positive as the other was negative.
While coaching at The university of Southern California, Carroll and his team had a chance to win back to back titles and seemed virtually assured of doing so with a TWELVE point lead vs the University of Texas late in the 2005 championship game.
However, Texas rallied to win the game behind the exploits of quarterback Vince Young.
A postscript of sorts; some out there will compare the two games but only AndyB Sports will tell you that Dan Fouts, who did radio analysis in yesterday’s game and the same for television with the great college football broadcaster Keith Jackson in the 2005 title game, was part of both games.
Stay tuned here for interesting facts leading up to the 49th Super Bowl.
It is early in the AFC Championship game with New England Patriots leading the Indianapolis Colts (7-0). I predict the Patriots will win this game and go on to the Super Bowl vs the Seattle Seahawks. Though I am not thrilled to say this, I truly feel this will be Super Bowl win number 4 for both Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in New England.
The Patriots will go into the Super Bowl probably a field goal or so underdog.
The Pats in 2003 and 2004 were the last team to win back to back Super Bowl crowns and my prediction, barring injury, is they will prevent Seattle from doing the same 10 years later.
In the NFC title tilt earlier this afternoon, I was not so impressed with Seattle winning, as it was more Green Bay losing.
I just wanted to give an early Superbowl prediction–the Pats will win.
Kudos to the Atlanta Hawks, whose more than stellar (34-7) record exactly halfway through the usual endless and unusually surprise filled NBA season, has them well out in front in the weak NBA Eastern Conference.
However, let’s not make any parade plans in Atlanta as the Hawks are still a long shot to win the title.
Atlanta sports history is wrought with overall failure.
The Hawks first season in Atlanta was 1968-1969. The franchise moved to Atlanta from St. Louis, where they won one NBA title in 1958, led by the great player, Bob Pettit.
In their 46 seasons in Atlanta, they have never even made the NBA finals, going (1-8) in games and (0-2) in their only two semi-final appearances.
The baseball Braves despite 14 straight divisional titles in the completed seasons from (1991-2005),– (there was no completed season in 1994 due to a labor dispute, something weak fans have forgotten while more idealistic, albeit masochistic ones like me have not) won just one World Series in that span and for that matter, in 48 completed seasons in Atlanta from (1966-2014).
The NFL Falcons have made but one Super Bowl since joining the NFL as an expansion team for the start of the 1966 season, which was also the first season that ended with the Super Bowl.
They lost to the Denver Broncos in their only “Supe” appearance and this season is their 49th sans a Super Bowl victory.
Both NHL Atlanta incarnations have moved the Flames to Calgary and the Thrashers to Winnipeg. Neither expansion team won as much as a playoff series in 14 combined seasons in Atlanta.
In fairness, the hockey teams were expansion teams but adding it up in 157 completed seasons of Atlanta sports there has been but one championship.
There have been only 6 finals appearances, 5 by the Braves and in 109 combined seasons, the Falcons, Hawks, Flames and Thrashers only made the semi-finals 4 times, winning just one.
Maybe the Hawks will change some of that negative history this season.
Starting in 2004, the NFL scheduled the regular season Thursday night opener between the defending Super Bowl champion and a team deemed very competitive from the same conference.
This year was the first time that the two teams who met in the opening night game will meet in the conference championship game.
In that first game back on Thursday September 4th, the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks routed the Green Bay Packers.
Now the two teams will meet in the NFC Championship game, also in Seattle, tomorrow.
It is the earlier championship game beginning at 3p.m. Eastern time and will be televised by the Fox Network.
Time flies as this will be the 21st consecutive telecast of the NFC Championship game by Fox, since it gained the rights beginning with the 1994 season.
It will be an interesting AFC East next season with the presence of former New York Jets’ coach Rex Ryan still in the division as the new coach of the Buffalo Bills.
Before guessing on how Ryan and the Bills will fare, no matter how educated or not educated it might be, let’s assess Rex Ryan’s coaching career and compare it with his father, Buddy Ryan.
Each won a Super Bowl title as an assistant coach, Buddy with the Jets and Rex with the Baltimore Ravens.
Buddy guided the Philadelphia Eagles to three consecutive playoff appearances from (188-1990) but failed to win a playoff game.
Rex and the Jets went to two consecutive conference title games (2009 and 2010), winning a combined four playoff games in the process.
There is such a fine line between victory and defeat in the NFL, if not in life, but to guess, I believe the Bills, an improved (9-7) team last season, would have continued to improve, no matter whom the coach.
With Ryan as their coach, I see no reason to change that GUESS.
This Sunday’s conference championship game is the third such meeting between the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots.
The first was after the 2003 season and was won by the Patriots at home.
In the 2006 season playoffs the teams again met for the AFC crown. This time the game was in Indianapolis and the game was won by the Colts, despite trailing by a (21-3) score at one point.
New England won divisional round games vs the Colts in both the 2004 and 2013 playoffs and thus holds a (3-1) edge in post season games between the teams.
Additionally the game Sunday will be the third one in which the current Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri faces his old team, the Pats, with whom he kicked on three Super Bowl winners.
He won in 2006 and lost last season.
Andy B Sports 