All that being said, ESPN made a very wise choice in removing Joe Theisman from the Monday Night Football lineup.  Monday Night Football was dramatically downgraded this last year after the most recent NFL TV contracts.  ESPN won the right to MNF; however, NBC had already grabbed the rights to televise the premier games on Sunday nights.  ESPN used to have the Sunday night game which, while nationally televised, was never as good of a game as MNF.  That was all reversed in the latest contract.  ESPN essentially moved its mediocre Sunday night game to Monday night (and paid a boatload of money so it could keep its contractual promises to the cable companies that carry it) while NBC got better games on the more convenient Sunday night.  Theisman just came over from the Sunday night game and that was a big mistake.

I find myself screaming “Shut Up” at Theisman during his broadcasts which only serves to make me seem even crazier in the eyes of my family and friends.  But Theisman, plus the relatively lame match-ups this last season and the fatigue from Sunday, made me stay away from MNF for most of the season.  Hopefully, now I will be able to tune in again while not having to yell at the TV.

Despite my intense focus on the Bears and downing a six-pack of Bud Light, I did keep a few notes on the game (a stupid annual tradition):

Pre-Game Programming.  First of all, even I don’t need FOUR HOURS of pre-game nonsense.  I went with my family for a walk in the local nature center and that was a much better way to prepare for the game.  The kickoff show was really lame.  Circ de Soliel and the NFL just don’t mix well and this show seemed particularly lame.

Halftime Program:  Lame.  I never liked Prince and, like Circ de Soliel, the little elf from Minnesota is just a little too girly for a football game.

Post-Game Show:  OK, I get that Peyton Manning won a Cadillac.  The NFL is the most blatantly commercial sport I know, but have they just given up handing out an MVP trophy in exchange for a car?  If I were Peyton, I’d rather have the trophy.  Also, I like Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy but between them and Colts owner Jim Irsay I think I have had enough of the overtly Christian rhetoric.  The Lord got them there, thanks to God for the victory and other cheesy references were a little much for me.

The Commercials.  The commercials were very weak for the Super Bowl.

• Best Commercial: David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey.  That was funny.
• Wierdest Commercial: Robert Goulet ad for some snack food.
• Most Original Commercial: Garmin’s Japanese monster movie spoof.
• Least Effective: Career Builder who dumped the very funny (and, I think, effective) monkey ads for the office in the jungle series, none of which were very good.
• Honorable Mention: Carlos Mencia’s Bud Light ads.  I don’t know much about Carlos Mencia other than that he has a show on Comedy Central, but the Bud Light ads in the classroom and the one with the women who are in the living room during football both were very funny.
• Less Than Honorable Mention: CBS TV Shows.  A big reason the networks love televising the Super Bowl is that they can promote their shows.  Nothing on CBS looked even remotely interesting including Survivor: Fiji, Criminal Minds, the 84 CSIs, the new David Spade comedy and what seems like a very stupid formula sitcom with Charlie Sheen called Two and a half Men.

Well, that’s it for football commentary until after Labor Day.

Even though I have to keep telling myself that the results of a single game in the NFL are largely random because of so many factors that are outside of the control of the teams, it is hard to argue (or easy to be fooled) by the playoff record of one of my least favorite coaches, Marty Shottenheimer.  There is no reason that the Chargers should have lost that game.  The Patriots deserve their credit, they took advantage of stupid opportunities that were handed to them by the Bolts, but come on.  I know of no other coach that has the best record in the NFL, the top seed and loses the divisional game against a good, but beat-up, team and who should definitely lose his job as well (memo to Pete Carroll: call the Chargers front office RIGHT NOW!).  Coaches in the NFL have a lot more affect on the outcome of games and they can definitely lose games for their team, which Marty did (just like he has always done before).  His definition of an “aggressive call” appears to be to make a “stupid call”.  What were you thinking going for it on 4th and 11 so early in the game?  Where was the clock management at the end of the game?

My biggest fear is that, if he is fired, Marty will return as a ghost an inhabit the body of Lovie Smith.  Lovie, who may not need Marty’s help, appears capable of the same kind of stupid play calling and clock management that have lost Marty so many playoff games (even given good or decent teams).  The time-out at the end of the first half was unexplainable and the clock management at the end of the game was driving me crazy.  I’m very, very worried about the Saints next week.  Sean Payton is showing himself as one of the great, new and young minds in the game and they have a ton of weapons, none of which I think the Bears have an answer for.  Hopefully, everyone will prove me wrong and leave me scrambling to find tickets to Miami.

Colts @ Ravens

• Dan Dierdorf has got to be the worst color commentator in the NFL.  I just cannot stand listening to that guy.  I couldn’t stand him when he used to be on Monday Night Football and I still don’t like him.  How many times does he have to declare something as “special”?
• Prince has apparently been assigned the task of playing the SuperBowl halftime show.  I don’t really like or dislike Prince (or is that TAFKAP or that stupid symbol or whatever he calls himself today).  But is Prince really the best choice for a halftime show for a football game?  Wouldn’t he be better for the women’s soccer championship…in 1987?
• At least in the first half, the Colts really made the Baltimore defense look downright average.
• David Spade’s new sitcome, The Rules of Engagement, does not look funny.  Do we need another married guy vs. single guy formula sitcom?  I guess we do.
• I think Petyon Manning is in every other commercial.
• I’m not sure why I found myself pulling for the Colts, but I was.  I really don’t like Ray Lewis (but I like Steve McNair) and maybe that plus the possible upset made the game more compelling.
• I can’t believe the number of interceptions and complete lack of touchdowns. 

Eagles @ Saints

• I don’t know who Jay-Z is but, I have learned throughout this season that, he is back from wherever it was he went.
• The new UPS “whiteboard” commercials suck.
• I am glad that VW has been running the “Unpimp Your Right” ads–they are hilarious.
• Jeff Garcia is playing amazingly well and the Eagles really look like a much better team than I thought they were.  I wonder, if they win, what they are going to do with Donovan McNabb?
• The Saints are clearly the feel-good story of the year.  Now I need for the Bears to win so they can end the feel-good story of the year.

Well, today’s games were very entertaining and now I can really start to worry as the kickoff on the Bears game is only a matter of hours away!

Today’s Games.  The Jets never really had a chance but the game was interesting until the end of the half.  It’s tough to win in Foxboro in January.  The afternoon game was far more interesting.  The Eagles won at the very end of the game with a field goal.  I was kind of hoping for the Giants to win because, even if they would have won, they would have provided a weaker opponent for the Bears next Sunday.

Useless Stats.  I don’t understand the historical head-to-head statistic or historical team records.  Like when the press says that a given team is 30-20 against another team in their history.  How is that at all relevant?  The teams that played against each other in 1965 have no relationship to the teams playing today so why is the historical head-to-head matchup statistic at all helpful?  In today’s Los Angeles Times, Peter Yoon picked New England over the Jets as follows:

It’s tough to pick against a team that has won three of the last five Super Bowls.

I understand this stat a bit more because the quarterback and head coach are the same.  However, many of the players and assistant coaches have turned over since they won their first Super Bowl.  So, what does the success of that team have to do with today’s game against the Jets?

Kansas City at Indianapolis.  Two stories here.  Could Peyton Manning overcome a career of MVP-quality regular season play with a terrible post-season record?  Apparently, yes.  Although both teams seems to struggle early on, trading field goals for the first half, Indy finally started rolling in the second half.  The second story was the Indianapolis worst-in-the-league run defense going up against Larry Johnson, one of the league’s best running backs.  I think the stats ended up being something like 30-40 yards on 13 carries for Johnson.  Indy obviously spent the week figuring out how to stop the run.  Now, would it be possible for Indy to lend the Bears their defensive coordinator or at least their defensive line coach for a week or so?  The Bears could stand some better run defense.

Dallas at Seattle.  Wow, what a bummer for Tony Romo.  I really feel bad for that guy.  After cleaning up from the party and taking some Advil for what will be a long night of back pain and fixing my TV (it turns out it was the stupid DirecTV DVR that had frozen and needed to be rebooted–DirecTV is on my list of companies that I can’t stand and I promise a blog post on that sometime soon).  Anyway, this game provided a really exciting finish and also showcased why I really love watching the NFL.  As the fourth quarter ticked away, the strategy possibilities seemed to changed with each play, several of which were unusual and/or crazy plays.  Dallas, though, had the game won with less than two minutes left, down by one and in field goal position at extra point range.  Then Tony Romo, the out-of-nowhere quarterback sensation from Dallas just flat out fumbles the placement of the snap (it was a clean snap and Romo caught it fine but it just slipped out of his hands).  I mean, that just never happens and certainly not in games like this.  I guess this would be a classic black swan event…so rare as to be almost impossible yet it still happens.  As Chris Berman from ESPN says “That’s why they play the games.”  I was just watching the post-game press conference and Romo had to fight back tears on a couple of occasions.  What a bummer for him.  I wonder if Bill Parcells is done?

The first game was lame and the second very exciting.  The games tomorrow are more interesting to me.  I like Philly over the Giants and I like New England over the Jets.

Anyway, Nick Saban quit as head coach of the Miami Dolphins today to take the head coaching job at Alabama.  It’s no surprise since the move had been rumored for a long time and since he wasn’t really making an impact in Miami.  (Read Don Banks’ excellent analysis of Saban’s tenure in Miami.) I really think that the skill set necessary to succeed as a coach in the NFL is very different than the skill set needed in the college game.  Setting aside the role of randomness for a second, college coaches are really recruiters first and coaches second.  NFL coaches who do not also have general manager responsibilities have to actually focus on coaching because the NFL game is faster and more complicated.  In college, the top teams are expected to be undefeated.  In the NFL, there has only been one undefeated team…ever.

All that being said, I really think that Pete Carroll should take the NFL money that is bound to be dangled in front of him and run as fast as he can.  He has done very well at USC after being a washed-out loser of an NFL coach but, just like the program at USC, Carroll has totally rehabilitated himself and his value will never be any higher.  Once downside of his success is that he has set the bar very high and it is very unlikely that he will have success in the next few years on the same level as the last few years.  There are already a bunch of coaching vacancies in the NFL, with more on the way.  Carroll should get while the getting’s good.  Even if he fails in the NFL, as Saban and Spurrier have demonstrated, he can always go back to the college game but with a few extra million dollars in the bank.  If he succeeds and wins a SuperBowl, he’ll go to the hall of fame.  There’s no downside if he goes to the NFL and only downside if he stays at USC.

New Year’s Day is about football, although I don’t pay any more than passing attention to the college game and it’s extremely annoying lack of a playoff system.  Instead, I am focused on the NFL playoffs which are just a few days away from kickoff.  I am most worried about my Chicago Bears.  I was not able to watch the whole game last night because we had friends over but that was a blessing in disguise.  Brett Favre creamed the Bears in Chicago and exposed just about every weakness they have.  For a team with the best record in the NFC, the Bears are in trouble in the playoffs if they continue to make the type and quantity of mistakes that they have been making lately.  I like Rex Grossman, and I think he has the potential to be a very good player in the long run, but I have been waiting for 20 years at a shot at the SuperBowl and Grossman just doesn’t protect the ball well enough and it makes me insane!  I really think they should put the veteran Griese in for the playoffs to manage the game and let the running game grind away mixed with occasionaly controlled passing.  If Grossman gives up an interception return for a touchdown in the playoffs and the Bears exit early (and, this year, anything but getting to the SuperBowl would be considered an early exit), I am going to be very upset.

In other NFL news, it always cracks me up how teams fire coaches the day after the season ends.  I love the annual coaching turntable and, with the exception of last year when there were a ton of vacancies that were filled mostly with young first-timers, why so many teams keep hiring the same guys to coach them to mediocrity.  Jim Mora (now formerly of the Atlanta Falcons) and Dennis Green (now formerly of the Arizona Cardinals) both got fired today, not 24 hours after losing their last games and missing the playoffs.  I don’t really know much about Mora other than his dad is an idiot and he got to the NFC title game three years ago and was never able to build on that despite having Michael Vick.  Green is just an idiot himself and I don’t know why anyone expected great things from him in the first place, regardless of how much high-priced free-agent talent he has.  I mean, please, he had Randy Moss and Duante Culpepper (when they were good), the best record in the NFL and couldn’t make it to the SuperBowl (hopefully, they won’t be saying similar things about the Bears after this season).