MY BUNKER – What is going on out there? Was it the lunar eclipse the other morning? Crazy people are shooting off guns in tragedy-magnets Virginia Tech and Hollywood. Just a week ago a giant wind storm out here caused $40 billion in damage and knocked down a big limb of our backyard avocado tree (though giving us seven big ones in the process). My wife has gotten into two car accidents in the last three weeks. My kids are acting like complete lunatics, and my fantasy football season came to an ignominious end in the first round of the playoffs. Can this year end soon enough?
A dark cloud seemed to hang over yesterday’s NFL action as well, as the pigskin punditry couldn’t decide which was the bigger story: another wacky, improbable, perhaps even force majeure victory for Tebow and the Broncos, and the Packers’ 19th consecutive win.
For the poor Bears, Marion The Barbarian did not crush his enemies, see them driven before him, nor did he hear the lamentations of the women…he made two of the goatiest gaffes in recent memory, both utterly devastating, and thus securing himself a small corner brick in the Tebow Cathedral of Legend. As for the Packers, they needed less than a half to dismantle the once, briefly, playoff-considered Raiders, and that was while losing their best receiver and relying on Ryan Grant to kill the clock the rest of the way. They’re rolling, it doesn’t seem like they’ve even broken a sweat yet, and they are now only three wins away not only from finishing the season undefeated, but to pass the 2003-04 Patriots’ record of 21 straight. Are Shula and Buonocotti and the rest of the ’72 Dolphins worrying about that toast yet? It’s almost enough to allow the good people of Wisconsin to not linger on Ryan Braun’s allegedly testing positive for synthetic testosterone.
Both Tebow and the Packers made for good stories yesterday, but has anyone yet mentioned the 400-pound gorilla in the room…and no, for once on this site that doesn’t mean Rex Ryan. This idea just hit me like cold wave, the sudden uncomfortable realization that there’s now a conceivable chance at a Super Bowl between a Packers team looking for immortality, and a Denver team whose immortality has already been secured, at least for their souls. The Packers just have the Chiefs, Bears, and Lions left, and their playoffs could include a tough rematch against the Giants. If the Broncos can hold off the Chargers (who have a much tougher road) and win the West, they get to host that first playoff game (where I can totally see the Steelers laying an egg) and, after that, well, anything can happen and probably will. You Jet fans may be excited now, but don’t you just know that if they had to play the Broncos again in the playoffs, it would end in similar fashion to the last time they played?
It will be the MOST WATCHED SUPER BOWL EVER. Something like that could permanently fracture the country, and I for one don’t think I’m ready for that yet.
I will, however, be ready for Grote2DMax & \ tomorrow.
