There’s Always…Next Season?

There are those moments where you transcend mere fandom, and you lose sight of things. The game is no longer “just a game”, but a matter of life and death, and damn anyone that stands in your way.

This period in a sports fan’s life is known as The Playoffs.

This weekend officially marked the beginning of REAL football playoffs (none of that wildcard crap). Saturday went as expected, with the Pats handily knocking off the Jags–although Jacksonville did hang in there for the first half. Anyone that knows me knows how much I loathe the Patriots, so you can bet your ass I was gunning for the Jags in what would’ve been a monster upset (and I’m not completely fickle–I have reason to cheer for Jacksonville since Maurice Jones-Drew is a fellow Bruin, and one badass mofo of a running back). Then Green Bay came back from their early deficit in the game, as Seattle proved once again that they are ginormous pansies that shouldn’t ever be hyped up.

And then there was Sunday. After the Colts blew it big time (not to discredit the awesome defensive performance by the Chargers) and got upset by San Diego, we finally got down to business.

My team of choice (and I am completely a bandwagoner) is the Cowboys. I like Terrell Owens. I like Tony Romo. Jason Witten is a beast and who can’t love Marion the Barbarian?

At the onset of the game, things didn’t look good. When Dallas’ crappy secondary and lackluster defense gave up an opening drive TD to Baby Manning and the Giants, that should’ve been ominous enough a precursor for how the game would be determined. The REAL turning point of the game, however, came in the second quarter. After a 10 minute offensive drive, with Tony Romo and the ‘Boys wearing down that Giants defense methodically and relentlessly, they are rewarded with a hard earned TD and only seconds left to go in the half.

And then the Dallas defense goes and flushes all that momentum down the friggin toilet. With a shitty facemask foul, and a complete lack of any intelligence in the secondary, the Giants end the quarter, tying it up with a TD drive of their own.

I was in shock. Had I been thinking with my head, I might just have turned the TV off then. But then I would have missed Patrick Crayton’s two asshole drops, crap play calling, and the debacle of Dallas collapsing in on itself like a dying star.

And on that last play of the game, with seconds to go, I would have missed Romo throwing the ball into triple coverage to TERRY GLEN of all people. Not to your superstar record breaking wide receiver T.O.

What pisses me off the most about all of this is that I know we are bound to hear a lot of naysaying, that the Cowboys lost in part because Tono Romo took a vacation to Mexico. Puh-lease.

At the very least, T.O. critics can choke on those expectations of verbal lashings and team destruction. In Owens’ own tear-choked words, “This is not about Tony. You guys can point the finger at him, you can talk about the vacation, and if you do that, it’s really unfair. It’s really unfair. That’s my teammate. That’s my quarterback. You guys do that, it’s not fair. We lost as a team. We lost as a team, man.”

Well said, T.O. Well said.

So we look on the horizon to next season…and in the meantime sit back and chill as the Bruins steamroll through the Pac-10 on their way to a National Championship.

Photo Courtesy of AP Photo