The Chris Moeller Archives

Championship Sunday

If you're not excited about professional football this week, I don't know how and when you ever could be. As regional and divisional rivals, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears were both founded in 1919 and have played each other head-to-head 180 times, yet they'll go against each other in the playoffs for only the second time on Sunday, in the first instance since 1941, and for the conference title outright. In 1941, there was still a football team called the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cubs have played in the World Series since the last Packers/Bears playoff game.

What a terrible season to be a Minnesota Vikings fan. First, their team implodes in spectacular and embarrassing fashion a season after inelegantly pursuing Packers legend Brett Favre to be their quarterback. (Really, that was bad form. We can all see that clearly now, right?) Favre trainwrecks his legacy in a variety of ways of which we've all been made well-aware, and now they all have to watch the Vikings' two biggest rivals compete for a trip to the Super Bowl. For all involved, this is high drama indeed, and the Packers' once-maligned general manager, Ted Thompson, smells like a rose for having shed Favre in 2008 in favor of the quarterback's very assured and capable three-year understudy, Aaron Rodgers.

Over in the American Conference, the New York Jets advanced Sunday behind one of the greatest upsets in league history. The Jets had been whipped by the Patriots of New England, their biggest division rivals, 45-3, as recently as December 6th. Then, the day this fantabulous New York Post cover appeared on newsstands, the Jets ran their mouths like machine guns and proceeded to put a beat-down on Bill Belichek's hated Pats (who resorted to cheating to beat the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl 36). On Sunday, the Jets do battle with the formidable Pittsburgh Steelers, perennial title contenders, and winners of the 2005 and 2008 Super Bowls.

Conference championship weekend is always the most enjoyable of the football season. The Super Bowl in two weeks will be played, as usual, at a neutral site, and for the amusement of the corporate sponsors, but the games this weekend will be played in the bitter cold of Chicago and Pittsburgh, two great football towns, in front of the faithful. I'm jacked for both games myself. These aren't my teams, and football's not really my game, but I plan to be right there in front of my television Sunday from the moment of the first pitch.

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NFL statistics of the day (courtesy: St. Louis sportswriter Bernie Miklasz):

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, in the postseason before "Spygate" (details linked above) was exposed: 12 wins, 2 losses; 3 Super Bowl championships, 61% completions, 20 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, passer rating of 86.2%, sacked 20 times in 16 games.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, in the postseason after "Spygate" was exposed: 2 wins, 3 losses; no Super Bowl championships, 66% completions, 10 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, passer rating of 84.4%, sacked 16 times in 5 games.

posted by CM @ 5:33 PM