Thoughts on the NFL

My New Year's resolution this year was to be more ambitious. I've followed through with that by scheduling tougher classes, producing more play-by-play sports at ComRadio and even am trying to get started working at a second radio station.

However, I feel that I haven't been consistent enough with my blog posts, so I'll try to get weekly thoughts on different sports and issues. This might be kept up... but who knows... I might start drinking more often again... (as I write this I just grabbed a Lionshead out of my fridge... not the greatest beer but definitely the best value in Central PA at $11 for a 12-pack of above average beer...at least I've always been good at not letting my mind wander).

So without further ado: My thoughts on the NFL (in bulletproof form, of course...people with short attention spans love bulletpoints):

• Success in the NFL Playoffs officially has nothing to do with talent, coaching or home-field advantage... honestly, momentum has become the only thing that matters... and apparently even the Cardinals can gain it.

• Donovan McNabb is officially 1-4 in NFC Championship Games, but if you're trying to blame this one on Donovan...sorry... not this time... and if you're gonna point at some of the bad passes he made, just go back and check out the three great throws he made for every bad one that got away.

• Pittsburgh became the premier NFL franchise the second Tom Brady got injured

• Baltimore beat a Miami team that hadn't played anybody, a Tennessee team that handed them the game on a silver platter 3 times before the Ravens finally accepted, after some gentle persuasion from the guys in pinstripes, and had a rookie QB on the road against a team he failed to beat already twice that season... How did anybody think Baltimore was going to win that game?

• MYTHBUSTERS: It is very difficult to beat a team three times on one season. EEEEH! wrong. Teams that have been in this position since the 1970 merger are 12-7, a 63% winning percentage. Statistically, what Pittsburgh did last Sunday is more likely to happen than Jay Cutler, Matt Ryan or Kerry Collins to complete a pass.

• Larry Fitzgerald might be the best WR in football, but I am not going to go as far as to say he definitely is, as most media pundits have proclaimed. People credit Kurt Warner's success to his receivers, but almost nobody credits Fitzgerald's success to his QB. I think both Andre Johnson and Steve Smith still have to be considered in that argument because their QBs aren't as good as Fitz's. This is why it is very hard to compare WRs in the NFL.

• Randy Moss, however, is unquestionably the most talented WR this year, and arguably ever...if his effort was only there. He's a lot like Darryl Strawberry in that way... once-in-a-lifetime talent, but Jeff Lebowski effort

• Darren Sproles' success just keeps reminding me that RBs in the NFL grow on trees. Blockers have gotten so big, so athletic and so polished that any RB who had success in college should succeed, if he has half-decent blockers. I can think of several recent cases of college star RBs that had the production, but not the tools scouts look for, and still have had success in the NFL.... Steve Slaton, Ray Rice, Selvin Young... just to name a few