NFL playoff picture: who to root for when your team isn't in it...

Tomorrow starts the wild card round of the NFL playoffs. If you're lucky, you still have your home team in the running to make it to the Super Bowl in about a month. But if you're like this fan girl, whose team let her down COLOSSALLY this year, or your team just didn't make the cut despite the best of efforts, then to keep the playoffs interesting, you need to find somebody else to root for...or at least somebody to root against. You could keep the Super Bowl interesting by investing a few bucks in a Super Bowl pool - that way you have a team AND a score to root for - but that's still a month away. You may navigate these next few weeks of playoff play your own way, but let's see who I'm considering (be forewarned - some of my decision-making methods make sense; some follow girl-logic):

ROOTING FOR:
1. Washington Redskins - yes, they beat out my New York Giants for the NFC East, but deservedly so...and considering how half-heartedly the Giants played, I don't even say that begrudgingly. They're a young team with a lot of passion and heart and they WANT each win...and they have a whole city in the nation's capital dying to support a breakout team with breakout players, dying for a Super Bowl win. Plus, they still kinda have underdog status. In lieu of having an actual team to root for, I like to adopt the underdog as my own.

2. Green Bay Packers - I couldn't care less about this team but if you read this blog, you know I am a HUGE Aaron Rodgers fan. Besides being a great QB, he seems like a class-act, and I would like to see him get a Super Bowl win.

3. Denver Broncos - ditto everything I said about the Packers but substitute "Peyton Manning" for "Aaron Rodgers" and add "another" in front of "a Super Bowl win." Especially after the way the Colts treated him, I love that Peyton has come back better than ever from the injuries that sidelined him last year.

ROOTING AGAINST:
1. New England Patriots - That robot Tom Brady. Hated enemies of my Giants. 'Nuff said.

Happily leaving 2012 behind (at least when it comes to NY sports)

What a thoroughly disappointing and anti-climactic years for New York sports. We should probably call it the Year of the Letdown. This sports fan is worn out from all the stomping my heart went through as I supported teams who obviously didn't want to win as badly as I wanted them to win. It can be discouraging and sad when you have more intensity and heart than the players who are actually PAID to have, you know, intensity and heart.

2012 started off great, sports-wise. The New York Giants once again lorded over the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl. A New York victory is always sweet, but sticking it to Tom Brady is always sweeter.

Alas, Super Bowl XLVI was technically part of the 2011 NFL season. Whether or not you think it counts for 2012, it was all down hill from there.

The New York Rangers actually finished first in the NHL Eastern Conference to make it to the Stanley Cup playoffs this past spring - woo hoo! A reason to actually watch hockey and maybe finally learn what this game is all about. They made it all the way to the conference finals - one step short of the Stanley Cup Finals - only to be eliminated by the New Jersey Devils. ::Sigh:: Guess this fan girl won't be becoming a hockey fan anytime soon (especially since the NHL lockout that occurred over the off season has kept hockey fans in a permanent off season for the 2012-2013 non-season.)

The New York Mets turned in a now-typical disappointing season. I don't even know where they fell in the final standings. The Yankees showed some signs of life, taking advantage of a less-than lackluster Red Sox team and winning, yet again, the American League East. I even went to more Yankee games this year than I have in forever - four or five I think - and as it turns out, I was bringing my daughter (and future female sports fan!) in utero to several of those games...but alas, even though the Yanks won the AL East, just as they do every year, they rolled over and played dead, as they do every year, once they faced the Tigers in the ALCS. It was beyond disappointing to watch - it was excruciating. And it didn't make me feel any better that the Tigers then rolled over and played dead in the World Series. That just made for a totally boring series.

The U.S. women's gymnastic team was a bright spot in the Summer Olympics that was otherwise eh. I don't think I even watched more than a few hours of it. It just lacked the same excitement and intensity of the last Summer Olympics and Michael Phelps' win after win after win. 

The New Jersey Nets came to Brooklyn this year - that was somewhat exciting. After years of lackluster Knicks playing, I had another team I could root for! Maybe I could start watching basketball again! And then, as it turns out, the Knicks actually got good this year! The Knicks are in first place! And guess what? Even though the Nets have had an uneven season so far, they're in second place. Do I see a glimmer of hope? Maybe. But it IS the Year of the Letdown, so I'll keep my cautious optimism at bay until we're further along in the season.

Which brings us back to football. If you're regular readers of mine. You already know how I feel about the Jets. If not, you can read about it here. They were eliminated weeks ago from the post season. The Giants FINALLY showed some intensity and heart in yesterday's final week game (albeit against the down-and-out Eagles) but it was too little, too late. You can't play three of the last four weeks of the season as if you're a Pee Wee league team, you can't hand over control of your post season destiny to three other teams when you had it squarely in your own hands, and expect to make the playoffs. So even though their victory yesterday was a blowout, the defending Super Bowl champs won't even see any postseason play.

Such is the Year of the Letdown.

New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, you are my only hope!!!!

Tebow Time over in New York? (Psst...it never started)

So word on the street - and by street, I mean everywhere - is that Tim Tebow won't be returning to the New York Jets next season.

First of all, why is this news?

Why would the Jets want him back? They never used him. (Case in point, when they decided to bench Mark Sanchez in this upcoming Sunday's game, they leap-frogged over Tebow to third string QB Greg McElroy to start).

Why would Tebow want to come back? They never used him.

This acquisition never made sense to me. Yes, Sanchez struggled, and yes, Tebow struggled while in Denver, but what team with a big name starting QB (Jets & Sanchez) acquires another big name starting QB (Tebow) without getting rid of the first?

Sure, there were intriguing possibilities before the season started - with 2 QBs, the Jets could maybe run a more effective Wildcat. With 2 QBs on the field at one time, it could add great versatility to the team's offense. But did any of these possibilities pan out? Nope. Tebow spent much of the season on the bench. The Jets would bring Tebow in for one play, essentially cooling off whatever groove Sanchez had managed to get into with his offense, and then bring Sanchez back in immediately, effectively keeping Tebow from getting into any kind of groove. It was a recipe for disaster from the start. The Jets basically shot themselves in the foot before the season even started by making this move.

Tebow is a good quarterback. Sanchez...was...a good quarterback. But Tebow is young and needs playing time to mature and gain experience in order to get better. Sanchez, somehow, has regressed in recent years after an initial promising few seasons...maybe instead of inspiring Sanchez to play better and retain his starting position, bringing Tebow to the team was a great blow that threw him even more off his game. In any case, the way the Jets played this year, its obvious that they don't look to Sanchez as their leader. And a great QB has to be a leader.

So I don't know what's in store for next season - to be honest, I'm a Giants fan, so I'm still stuck on this season, hoping this year's hodgepodge, uneven team can win their next two games and make it to the playoffs - but I'd say its in both Tebow and the Jet's favor for him to end up somewhere else.

Two more weeks left in the regular season - how are your teams' postseason prospects shaping up?

Sports commercials that make me laugh right now

After a rough week for New York football teams, with the Jets being eliminated (rightfully so - sorry Dad!) from postseason play and the Giants continuing to play what is just a super uneven season devoid of any kind of passion, I'm in need of a good laugh, so here are two of my favorite sports-themed commercials right now:

Tony Romo passes Troy Aikman for the Dallas Cowboys lead in TD passes, but what does that mean?

This is going to be a short post just fyi. In last night's game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Tony Romo became the Cowboys franchise leader in touchdown passes, surpassing Cowboys legend Troy Aikman.

I am a well documented un-fan of Romo and the Cowboys. I'm not a hater. I'm just saying, let's call a spade a spade. The Cowboys might've been a great team, Aikman might've been a great player, but the Cowboys of today are not the same great team - they're an ordinary team and Romo is an ordinary quarterback. He's not a bad quarterback. He's not even a mediocre quarterback. But is he a great quarterback? The Cowboys might make it to the playoffs every year, but so do half the teams in the NFL.

Troy Aikman led the Cowboys to not one, not two, but three Super Bowl victories. How many victories does Romo have under his belt?

So, for Romo to have more TD passes than Aikman makes me wonder - is Romo playing against better teams than Aikman was? He has more TD passes but fewer wins - or at least, fewer championships, and really, that's the golden ring to all these owners/coaches/players. Or is it just that statistics are, as I've always suspected, for the most part, completely meaningless?

Thoughts?

From Newsday.com: Source: Andy Pettitte to return in 2013 for Yankees

Taking a break from football and basketball and other fall sports - Looks like the New York Yankees will sign not only Pettitte but Mariano Rivera and Hiroki Kuroda for the 2013 season. I love Pettitte and I thought he did well when he wasn't injured last season, so I'm always happy whenever he returns. Mariano will be 43 but as a closer, age shouldn't be too much of a factor. Missed him last season. Kuroda was awful at the start of 2012 but turned into a dynamo - and with CC Sabathia also pitching, looks like the Yankees will have a formidable lineup.

Of course, pitching rotations always look great before the season starts. Ask me again a few months in when we know what injuries and mishaps we're REALLY dealing with.

Still, a Pettitte return would be a nice early Christmas present for this fan girl! :) If you're a Cablevision or Newsday subscriber, you can read the whole story here.

From NBC Sports: How I learned to stop worrying and love overtime

First, I just wanna point out how much I love this headline - I just rewatched Dr. Strangelove, one of my all time favorite movies, a couple of weeks ago (for those who don't know, the full title of Stanley Kubrick's classic movie is Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).

Anywho, nice little article by Michael David Smith about the (somewhat) new NFL overtime rules. As a rule, I am a huge, huge opponent to sudden death as a way to end a game, or any other method (like the shoot out in tied soccer games) where a team wins or loses, and sometimes in very important games, based more on luck (such as winning a coin toss to gain first possession) than on skill. I still am not convinced of the NFL changes, which are still semi sudden death, in that once one team scores a touchdown, whether or not the overtime period is over, the game is over, but the fact that BOTH teams now get the chance to get their offense the ball and that the first team to have possession must try to march all the way down the field for a touchdown rather than half-ass it to midfield and settle for a field goal, I guess is better than nothing. Anyway, you can read the story here.

And yay for a New York Jets win - yay, FINALLY! - yesterday. With some pretty sweet Mark Sanchez passes to boot (my dad, a staunch Mark Sanchez defender, must have been really happy to see that)! With the New York Giants on a bye week, it was up to the Jets to get me my New York win, and they came through when I needed them the most. Thank god.

Next up: Turkey Day showdown between the Jets and the New England Patriots. Can't wait!