Matt Legault
It all started at noon, nursing a Saturday night hangy. I emerged from my slumber around noon, hoping to catch a fleeting glance of the ESPN Countdown crew for one last drooling bukkake session on how great Brady vs. Manning is, while chowing down on a buffet of bacon, eggs and advil.
The day began on the couch and the evening finished on the couch, but in between I was treated to 6+ hours of why I’m an NFL football fan.
The day began on the couch and the evening finished on the couch, but in between I was treated to 6+ hours of why I’m an NFL football fan.
If you like offense, how about Peyton Manning hanging an effortless 400 yards passing and 500+ total yards of offense on a Bill Belichick-led defense? Or what about watching King Kaep pull the ball down when nobody was open or peeling out the backside on designed bootlegs and slicing through the vaunted Seahawks D like a hot knife through butter? There were no 42-38 shootout TD-fests, but make no mistake, these offenses were primed, prepared and clicking on all cylinders, with only spectacularly clutch, physical redzone defenses keeping the final scores in the over/under sweet spots.
If you like tough, aggressive smash-mouth football, all you had to do was watch tiny Wes Welker (in all his giant bobble-head helmet glory) running a full speed rib crunching pick-play on Aquib Talib early in that game to understand that even though Broncos-Pats was supposed to be the “finesse” game, those two teams weren’t gonna give up an inch. That the Legarette Blount freight train wasn’t passing through the Broncos station unscathed with “Pot-Roast” Knighton manning the middle.
Then there was the night cap. The violence of the Beast Mode cuts and power as he burst through the secondary combined with the scrappy hard hitting and often times chippy all leading to the gruesome video of Navarro Bowman having his leg nearly snapped off as he lay at the bottom of the pile, while both teams dug at the loose ball. Finally, in the dying moments you thought to yourself “here it comes, a new Tom Brady-esque, last second playoff game winning drive is coming. A new playoff legend about to be crowned!!!” and then, as they’ve done all year - BOOM! Fade to black as the Seahawks shut the door and head to NYC for a Legion of Boom vs. Peyton “the living legend” Manning Super Bowl.
As I lay there on the couch, I jotted down what my favorite story lines for the next two weeks might be:
- Peyton Manning riding his figurative white stallion into his little brother’s house, in search of an Eli-tying second Super Bowl ring.
- The Seahawks LOB playing the classic WWE heel character talking about how they’re going to rough up the fragile Wes Welker and Peyton Manning.
- Pete Carroll looking to prove all those critics wrong who said he was a college coach and couldn’t succeed in the pros.
And then it happened… As if the NFL had not provided me with enough glorious entertainment over the last several hours, they treated me to a tiny bit more, when FOX and Erin Andrews decided it was a good idea to throw a microphone in front of a notoriously loud mouthed and boisterous Richard Sherman. Whether you’d compare him more to a spitting, raging Rick Flair at the height of his WWE success or to a crazed lunatic suffering from some combination of a cocaine and steroid cocktail (not to be confused with his usual Adderall cocktail), the resulting 45second video clip was pure genius. The look on Erin Andrew’s face will live on in my mind forever.
So, on behalf of myself and NFL fans everywhere, thank you Denver, New England, San Francisco and Seattle for such a glorious day of football. And if I can submit one request to the NFL head office today - that hopefully will be picked up by other internet bloggers and pushed into the mainstream - can we please cancel next week’s Probowl and replace it with a Richard Sherman vs. Michael Crabtree Hell in a Cell match, with Jim Ross and Jerry “the king” Lawler at ringside calling the action?!?!?!
Submitted by Matt Legault
So, on behalf of myself and NFL fans everywhere, thank you Denver, New England, San Francisco and Seattle for such a glorious day of football. And if I can submit one request to the NFL head office today - that hopefully will be picked up by other internet bloggers and pushed into the mainstream - can we please cancel next week’s Probowl and replace it with a Richard Sherman vs. Michael Crabtree Hell in a Cell match, with Jim Ross and Jerry “the king” Lawler at ringside calling the action?!?!?!
Submitted by Matt Legault