With my 49ers long eliminated from the playoffs, the major excitement I've been getting from the NFL lately is watching other teams get eliminated. Yesterday was a great day for that, with a bunch of teams fell out of the playoffs on the last day of the regular season.
This year's most spectacular NFL collapses were by the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. Both teams were eliminated by dramatically losing three of their last four games, with me cheering against them every step of the way. This time last month, Brett Favre and the Jets were 8-3 and heading to the playoffs and the inevitable Subway Superbowl with the Giants (even though there's no subway to the Meadowlands). They ended the season losing to a Dolphins team led by Chad Pennington, the QB that Favre replaced, finishing the year 9-7, with a 1-4 record in December. As an added bonus, Miami's win also eliminated Bill Bellicheat and the Patriots, who will also be watching the playoffs this year. Any day that disappoints fans from Boston and New York is a most frabjous day for fans from ... everywhere else!
But the happiest part of yesterday for me was Dallas getting eliminated. The Dallas Cowboys have been my least favorite sports franchise for as long as I can remember, which is when they beat the 49ers in the 1972 playoffs. For 36 years, any day the Cowboys get eliminated from the playoffs has been like a double helping of strawberry shortcake with extra whipped cream for me. And each update on yesterday's Cowboy collapse against the Eagles was like taking another bite of sweet dessert.
Other NFL teams that were eliminated yesterday were the Bucs (who lost to the Raiders-- at home!), the Bears (who lost to the Texans!), and the Broncos (who had another major collapse and lost to the Chargers). This year's playoffs might be tough for me, because I don't have any teams to actively cheer against. There's still the defending champs, the Giants. No one wants to see them repeat!
Closer to home, hats off to Samurai Mike for being named the full time coach of the San Francisco 49ers. He took over a woeful team midway through the season, and led them to the verge of respectability. I saw the 49ers game against Favre's Jets a few weeks ago, and while they still don't have much in the way of talent, they have a lot of intensity and are fun to watch. Singletary ended the year with a winning record (5-4), and took the Niners from 2-5 to 7-9. Single digit losses qualifies as a great year in San Francisco!
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Closer to home, hats off to Samurai Mike for being named the full time coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
So I guess the niners won't be needing the services of Mike Shanahan then? I hear he's looking around.
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