Don't Let Curry Bring You Down . . . The NFL Ain't that Bad

Ok, so Curry is justifiably bitter about how the season ended for the Jets. And he's also right that the NFL certainly contains a lot of suckiness thanks to the ridiculous media machine that feeds us nothing but NFL for five months plus a whole month's worth of draft coverage. But, this is the first year in a long time that I've been very excited about the NFL. I mean, this season the Football Gods were particularly gracious. Righteousness has been restored to the sport.


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It started last year when the Giants somehow defeated the evil empire that was the 2007-2008 Patriots. This year, the Belicheat-led Pats were left out of the postseason despite an 11-5 record (yeah, I'm laughing). The mockery that has been the Brett Favre Show won't be polluting our TV's for at least the next six weeks (sorry, Curry). The Cowboys, who declared themselves the champions before the season began while putting a chokehold on all the bad-boy NFL talent, were drubbed by 40 on the final game of the season to fall short of the postseason. The playoffs are about as wide open as they've ever been. I mean, the 8-8 Chargers could easily go on a roll and win the Super Bowl.

Fan bases that have endured unrelenting suffering over the past few seasons have been given truly magical seasons. I mean, Miami not only made it to the playoffs after going 1-15 the season before, but they did so by beating the Favre in the last game of the season with the quarterback that was cast off when Favre decided to un-retire. The Falcons (yeah!) finally look like a legitimate NFL franchise. Even when Mike Vick was leading the team to the NFC Championship game in 2004 I was never convinced that the Falcons were really that good. I think our point differential was only +3 despite an 11-5 record. Well, this season Arthur Blank's money was put to good use as new GM Thomas Dimitroff, rookie coach Mike Smith, free agent running back Michael Turner, and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, 23 year-old quarter back Matt Ryan have come together to turn a team expected to win no more than 4 games by most pundits into a legit contender in the NFC. Needless to say, that makes us Falcons fans very happy.

And even the top teams aren't quite as unsavory as they usually are. Having recently relocated to Nashville, it has been fun to watch the Titans bruise their way to the AFC's top seed. I'm not a Steelers fan, but it's hard to hate their old-school style. The NFC is about as wide open as it gets. Even the Giants seemed to have some rather large chinks in their armor during the last few weeks.

So don't dispair. Yeah, the NFL has it's problems, but this might actually be one of the most exciting postseasons in years. Besides, I get to watch the Falcons and the Titans for (hopefully) a few more weeks, which will keep my mind off of the Braves' disasterous start to the offseason, which I may or may not feel like discussing at some point.