Grudging respect

The evil of grad school returned this week, delaying my ability to properly react to the events of the weekend in written form.  The general takeaway is that I should stick to predictions on college hockey, rather than the NFL.

Although the nights were wrong, the 3-2/4-1 split between the Sioux and the Gophers was pretty much right on.  For all my talk last week about wishing the Gophers a return to prominence, I was reminded on Friday night of the price to be paid if that should happen.  Most notably whiny people calling for penalties every time someone on their team is hit.  Having gotten a dose of that, I'm now throttling back on the desire to have a U of M team near the top of the standings again.  But I suppose expecting to not hate your rivals is asking way too much, best you can hope for is that they fall into obscurity.  Watching Minnesota play hockey this weekend did nothing to change my opinion that they can be a dangerous squad when interested, and that they will be back in the mix for league titles once they can get some continuity for a few seasons.  So I will enjoy the current situation while I can.

Flipping between the football and hockey games last Saturday was interesting, as I came to a bit of a realization. Perhaps this is blasphemy as a Vikings fan, but I was rooting for the Packers.  Sure there were the basic reasons, I've never gotten on board with Atlanta this season, always thought they were a flavorless team that benefited from an easy schedule.  Not to say they weren't good, just didn't strike me as being on the same level as a typical #1 seed.  Green Bay seemed like the better team, and their moving on to Chicago has provided a far more intriguing matchup.  All of that is just a moment-in-time excuse to drop the hate for a few hours. 

But in a bigger picture sense, those two games juxtaposed forced me to consider a broader question: Am I a fraud for giving fans of a rival team so much crap, considering I'm a fan of a rival team myself?  On the surface, there are many parallels between the Packers and Sioux.  Both play in a smaller city where they are the only show in town, both have many transplanted fans across the country (particularly MSP), both inspired a cult-like devotion among their fans.  So isn't it a huge inconsistency for me to root for one, yet terrorize fans of the other across the south metro, telling them to go back to Wisconsin?  Having some cognitive dissonance with this one.

Not to mention, the Packers have earned a tip of the cap this season, both the team on the field and the organization in total.  Basically they've made all the right moves with this team, building a squad with talent, depth and youth.  From drafting Aaron Rodgers, to hiring Dom Capers, and mining a diamond in the rough like Trammond Williams, everything they touch lately seems to turn to gold.  You may dislike them, but you have to give them credit for what they've built.  Their team held up to injuries, adversity and all comers, it's a performance that should be respected no matter who you root for. 

Listening to some Vikings fans this week has been a bit ridiculous, as they try to protest any sort of coverage involving discussion of the upcoming game.  Acting as if it shouldn't be covered locally, since it features two rivals.  To that I say, you may be a better Vikings fan than me, but you're not much of a football fan.  Sure I'll be rooting loudly against the Pack next season when the Purple have something on the line, but right now, relax and enjoy this historic matchup, hopefully it turns out to be a great one.

Because great games have been few and far between so far this postseason.  Only one of the four Divisional matchups produced what I would call a great game last weekend (Pittsburgh-Baltimore), sure there was a great gameplan (Jets D) a great individual performance (Rodgers dissection of the Falcons) and a great deal of free time to clean the bathroom/do laundry (Seahawks football rules!), but not nearly the amount of compelling football we usually see.  Every game doesn't have to be a shootout, but a tight game with at least a few offensive plays being made down the stretch makes it feel like you spent your three hours wisely, and that's always nice.

So now we move on to some matchups that few people saw coming.  I went 1-3 again last week, this time my gut was right and the Costanza system failed me, it's always something.  Way back at the beginning of this thing, I picked the Packers over the Colts in the Super Bowl.  And even though it will probably make things that much more depressing on the Twin Cities sports scene, I'm not losing my mind that they're on the verge of making that happen.  Sure either of the remaining NFC teams making a trip to the Super Bowl elevates them above the Vikings, but they were already there to begin with, so why worry about it?

When Packer or Bear fans tell me their team is better, I look them in the eye and say "Oh yeah?  Well f**k you!"  It's not a very graceful retort, but what am I supposed to do, argue the facts?  Sadly there's just nowhere to go on that side of things.  Sure you can pull out weak arguments like "Your team stunk in the '80s" or "You guys just got lucky this year", but in the end, we'll be second-class citizens until we win a title, and that's the bottom line.  So embrace it and just try to enjoy some football.  And don't kill the messenger, I'm in this with you, just the guy who's telling you how it is, none of us likes it.

Green Bay -3.5 over CHICAGO
Picked them to win it all in the beginning, nothing influencing me to change that now.  The Bears D did a nice job the last time the two teams met, and the did win the matchup at home, but Green Bay seems to be peaking.  Not to mention we're overdue for a Jay Culter meltdown, and after watching Williams play corner like he was disguised as a Falcons receiver last week, this feels like it.  Only shot the Bears have is using their terrible field to turn the game into a rugby scrum, ugly it up sufficiently to pull out a late win.  Frankly I think they keep the turf at that place intentionally bad to slow down opponents, but that's beside the point.  Might slow down the Packers a bit, but not enough.

New York Jets +3.5 over PITTSBURGH
Because I've been picking against the Steelers all year and figure being consistently wrong is still consistency. (You're welcome Jay)  The Jets looked like a team on a mission last week and the Steelers needed a Ravens meltdown to pull things out.  Add to that their O-line issues and I think Pittsburgh falls just short, in an ugly game full of punts.  Am I confident that Mark Sanchez will be able to make play #1 against the blitz he'll face this week?  No, but you've gotta pick somebody.