In Front of the Odds Board- It was a day of upsets in the NFL. Some of them were mild.
The Rams and Cowboys winning in Buffalo and Cincinnati respectively? Not major surprises, but I would’ve guessed the other way.
Pittsburgh blowing it at home against San Diego? The Eagles somehow dispensing with the Bucs? Washington besting Baltimore in the Battle of the Beltways? The Vikes outlasting Da Bears? Those are bigger. Not huge, but each and every one of them worthy of the word.
And the Panthers beating the Falcons? By ten?
Wow. Only drunken North Carolinians (I’m related to a bunch) had the money line on that one.
I should call Cousin Mike, see if he had some action.
And when you put all of it together, what you get is one of the most topsy turvy weeks in the NFL in a long time. I dare say, if there were any King of the Hill pools still running, they’re all over now, Baby Blue.
So what are we to make of it all?
Any given Sunday, bla bla bla. But more than that is this:
2012 is clearly one of those NFL seasons when parity is in play. There really aren’t any dominant teams out there. Not of the sort that you look at and wonder: Gosh, who the hell’s gonna beat them?
There are certainly some top contenders: San Francisco, Atlanta, and Houston lead the pack. And don’t be surprised if one of them takes the whole enchilada in the end.
But really, it’s anyone’s game this year. So if you’re team’s still in the playoff hunt, then you’re dream is alive.
Christ, even the Jets could still do something this year.
Well, maybe not the Jets, but you get the picture . . .
Ringside – But this weekend the biggest upset of all, by far, came in the ring.
In case you missed it, Juan Manuel Marquez knocked out Manny Pacquiao in the 6th round of their fourth fight yesterday. And when we say “knocked out,” we mean precisely that.
A thunderous right hand from Marquez left Pacquiao motionless on the canvass with just one second left in the round. The ref didn’t even bother counting him out.
K – O
Pacquiao is of course one of the very best welterweights of all time. But this loss most likely signals either the end of his career, or the beginning of a sad, final phase in which he continues to fight but is never the same. Hopefully it’s the former.
But this fight also gives us pause to think about what might have been.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather: The Fight that Never Happened.
They were two of the best fighters in the world at their peaks, and their contrasting styles are the thing of legend. The ferocious, relentless puncher versus the defensive wizard.
It was supposed to happen but it never did because boxing has no real governing body. Instead, it’s awash in an alphabet soup of meaningless and virtually powerless organizations that do nothing other than hand out tin star belts.
WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO: Put ’em together and all you get… WTF.
Pacquiao and Maywether have two different promoters who don’t get along, and none of these pathetic sanctioning bodies could force the issue. So the fight of the young century never materialized.
Instead, they dodged each other (to be fair, Mayweather did more of the dodging) and kept fighting mostly inferior opponents, all the while collecting enormous paychecks.
Sh!t, Pacquiao even developed a second career as congressman in the Philippines while he was boxing, and still no fight with Mayweather. And now it will almost assuredly never happen. That’s something to get upset about.
And the greedy pieces of filth who are currently running boxing into the ground wonder why MMA is blowing by them in popularity. Fa sham, doc.
Grote2DMax gets filthy tomorrow.
