NFL: National Football Lie? Is American Football Chasing Story Lines?

Trust me Detroit Lion fans.  I understand how it feels.

Its not because of my team, the Denver Broncos, who experienced years of pain at the hand of underachievement and the unspoken "bad luck' of having underwhelming box office appeal.  Denver finally won a couple of Superbowls, and even our recent absence from the top of the mountain doesn't discount Pat Bowlen's drive to stick our flag atop the heap.  We may have withdrawals from missing our crown, but it doesn't make us Detroit, or Cleveland who has to consider the success of the Baltimore Ravens with either envious joy or  envious pain. Denver is no longer another Buffalo team where the Bills came excruciatingly close to winning but failed 4 times during their key championship runs.

Denver is not hapless or hopeless.  The Broncos have won and can certainly win again...maybe even soon.  The Detroit Lions are loaded with talent and can finally consider themselves a legitimate championship caliber team as well, but what Denver, Detroit and every other team in the NFL has no hope of ever being is America's most beloved team. The Dallas Cowboys own that title and that title dictated that the pass interference flag had to be picked up lest the selection of Tony Romo for NFL MVP be soiled along with that soiled flag that got usurped by the powers that be.

Denver is not Detroit, the sad victim of this sad story, and we are certainly not the Minnesota Vikings.

My stepfather (RIP) was a HUGE Viking fan- the same Vikings who are the victims behind the story of the Hail Mary pass itself. Prior to this mysterious officiating foible, the Hail Mary was called the Alley Oop pass.  On this fateful day, Roger Staubach (a Catholic) admitted to throwing the pass to teammate Drew Pearson and then praying "Hail Mary" after it left his hand.  Mary didn't cure any blind men, but she might have created a few out of the officials who did not call a rather obvious push-off by Pearson that allowed him to make the key touchdown. As Pearson raced to the end zone, stories say an orange was thrown from the Minnesota stands that flashed past national television cameras giving Viking fans- like my stepfather- the false impression that a flag had been thrown- and then mysteriously picked up for some un-American reason that, once again favored America's Team.

When dad discovered that their was no flag on the play, his anger had him attempting to make a call to the national offices of the NFL to voice his displeasure. Since this was the mid-70's, mom found the approach- and the yellow pages that he used to find Pete Rozell- to be a bit excessive. We kids joined her more reasonable bandwagon.  Besides,  my dad was the only Viking fan in the house and this was hardly the Broncos that were falling victim to the corporate compulsion towards America's Team, so what did we care?  In hindsight, dear old dad might have been on to something.

Why did they ever decide to create a national headquarter for officiating "support" if not to take away some of the power that allows on-field officiating crews to screw up the story line.

Did the officials officially hand Dallas the victory over Detroit?  NO! But they did do their best to keep the story line intact even when an obvious call threatened to curtail it.  My hunch, once again, was that this has everything to do with the up and coming MVP announcement that has  all flags pointing in the direction of Romo.

NFL officials, to the chagrin of many, are part time employees who do other really important things for a career which could impact their ability to obey the company instruction to remain "fair and balanced" like FOX news (wink, wink).  The general fan should hope that these guys maintain the integrity of the job by never letting it become their career, yet politics even exist in little league sports so the NFL is highly vulnerable to it. Good ol' boy referee's get the good ol' boy jobs while guys with integrity ref little league for life.  Even if you would like to call the game like you see it, today's NFL referee knows that New York video officials (the bosses) are watching and insist on changing the call as needed.  NFL fans who would like to see full time officiating should see that we've got it already in the form of New York city big bosses.  What might have been called an effort to speed up the game is now an entity of responsibility.  Who is chosen to officiate the game must be driven by the New York big bosses since now, the final call reflects more on the process than the people.  Integrity's wish is that such administrative leanings would never bend unfairly towards the money, but sensibility knows better.

Did New York snatch a flag from the field for the sake of Romo's MVP story, America's Team. and a huge money making story line?

New York better be glad that dad passed away because his beef with them goes way back and Google is a stronger search engine than those Yellow Page books.

Tony Romo For MVP? The Notion Alone Might Secure Dallas A Crown

For the love of Peyton, I actually started to think of my own team, the Denver Broncos, as Americas new team.  And then the Tony Romo for MVP conversation brought me out of my Mile High cloud.

Make no mistake.  The Dallas Cowboys are, and may forever be Americas team.  The roots of sports fandom run so deep that they create upshoots that appear throughout the world.  Michael Jordan is much more than an American sports hero and the Bulls are the NBA equivalent of the NFL's Cowboys as a result.  Cowboy fans may have quieted themselves over the past decade of mediocrity, but their silence was that of a malignant tumor waiting for any positive sign of the greatness of old.  Winning as the Cowboys have won in the past is a hard elixir to ignore once its sweetness has caressed your palate.

Jerry Jones probably have squeezed the hope out of every chance his team has had to return to the pinnacle of greatness by managing his organization with an iron fist that seldom yields the nectar of champions.  Whether or not his iron fist has finally squeezed out a running game of consequence and a defense that will complement shall unfold in the coming weeks.  Demarco Murray has performed so well that Tony Romo even thinks he is just better at football now. His team clearly didn't trust their MVP quarterback to let him go without the broken hand on Murray who played in yesterdays game with an injury.

So does the emergence of the C.J. Anderson run game in Denver mean Peyton Manning is worse or better as a quarterback because his team is winning without his typical exploits too?  Are we really of the notion that Tony Romo can read defenses better than he used to, and that run game thing is only fortunate to be along for the ride?  Romo has never been a horrible quarterback, and the Dallas Cowboys have never been a horrible team,  They have been consistently projected for greatness because the 8-8 mediocrity simply didn't fit the talent on paper.  The emergence of the Cowboys during this season comes when most of the analyst had given up on the notion of them being anything better than average.

One week ago, the Cowboys were actually on the fence between winning the division or being left out of the playoffs altogether.  That fate fell to the Philadelphia Eagles, but not until last night when the Cowboys trounced the Indianapolis Colts and the Washington Redskins pulled of an upset victory over a conference rival in the Eagles.  Not a moment before that unexpected occurrence has anyone mentioned Tony Romo as a potential MVP and suddenly he is leading the conversation?

The real reason for this debate is the reason Romo and the Cowboys are likely to be one and done in the playoffs.  The true MVP's of the league; Manning, Watt, Gronkowski, Brady, are either playing defense or playing on teams with an exceptional defense backing them.  Seattle titled the axis of power in the league and every team with a great quarterback has had to adjust to the demand of winning from the defensive side of the ball as a result.  Doing this demands an efficient run attack in order to win the TIME OF POSSESSION war that insures great defenses remain great on every play.  Overworking any defense will expose them, which is why the likely odds for a Superbowl matchup will be a Superbowl rematch including the two teams with the best defenses and the best run game/quarterback play to support said run games. (Sorry New England, but Gronkowski can't run the ball too....can he?)

Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch will be assigned to insure that the Legion of Boom remains sonic while Peyton Manning and C.J. Anderson will be responsible for unveiling their defense to a national audience hopeful that the John Elway influence will make this game more entertaining than the last.  I expect Manning to be unleashed in the second half of this years Superbowl game since he will essentially have been under wrap for nearly half of the season, but Wilson is always waiting to unwrap his talents.  If Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray make it through, it will be only because Romo shocked the world and outfoxed the defending champion Hawks, which I consider highly unlikely. If the lack of D in Dallas forces Romo to open up again and take the kind of chances that typically produced Cowboy mediocrity, the Legion of Boom (or some other playoff team) will spell his doom.

Foreshadowing the NFL.  Romo wins MVP while Broncos
and Seahawks repeat last years matchup.

Denver has the D to win it all, but Denver's defense will need to be other worldly because the wheels and skills of Wilson are slowly elevating themselves to a realm that we may have never witnessed in one player.  Elway had great mobility and an arm to boot, but even he couldn't make people miss so eloquently as does Wilson.  The end game ability of Wilson is a direct by-product of his willingness to win ugly or win off of the exploits of his run game and his defense, if need be.

Absent any lasting injuries to either teams key players, this match up is virtually etched in stone to my eyes.  Even the offensive barrage that I see happening in the second half of this epic Superbowl rematch lives in my imagination like a foreshadowed prophecy.  I fear the Seahawks quarterback more than I trust my own, but thanks to the Denver  D, the Broncos will avenge their loss by winning the Superbowl, but one day prior, Tony Romo will be named MVP of the league even though he won't make it to the Superbowl along the way(voting happens at the end of the regular season).

Barring an exceptional final game performance from one of the other top five MVP alternatives to Romo, Romo will win MVP because America's team won't be home for post-Christmas revelry this year. Romo will win it because every other candidate will have reasons why they haven't outshined an opportunity to recognize America's team again.  The Cowboys and Tony Romo will truly be lucky to even win one playoff game with the weaknesses in their defense, but Romo might still be handed an MVP trophy; not because he deserves it, but America's team does.  



POSTSCRIPT:

While listening to Dan Patrick talk about the belligerence of Marshawn Lynch, who chose to answer every  post-game question from reporters, with the words "thanks for asking that question", and nothing more, Patrick declared that Lynch should be suspended.  I wonder if DanPatrick thinks Bill Belichick or Greg Popovich or even Phil Jackson during his zen moments should be fired for being belligerent towards the media?

I think not.


ONE MORE THING!

Can't wait to watch the (6-9)Atlanta Falcons and the (6-9)Carolina Panthers fight for the division crown next week.   #dontchangeAthing