The Ballad Of Ricky-Bobby: NFL Playoffs Boring? + Spread Picks

Heading into the wild card of the NFL playoffs, are we lacking the intrinsic excitement which we've come to expect from the world's best sports league?

RICKY:  The NFL playoffs begin this weekend. I'm supposed to be excited for this, right?

I love the NFL. The NBA has been making a run at it in my personal "what's your favorite sports league?" rankings in recent years (I mean, how could it not?), but I'd still probably take pro football over anything else. I love how concise the season is, I love down-field passing, I love speed demons like Chris Johnson and Percy Harvin, I love rooting against the Vikings and Packers, and I love the draft. The NFL is wonderful. I really do cherish it.

That's why it's kind of weird that I'm not really amped up for the playoffs to begin. I'm kind of 'meh' on the whole thing right now. Is this abnormal or do other Chicago-based football fans feel the same way?

Now, I realize my question is flawed from the beginning: I'm dealing with a half-Bears/half-Patriots fan here, and New England is in the playoffs. I can only imagine you're jacked up about watching the Pats in the postseason for the first time in since 18-1 happened, even if it is sans-Welker. But for me, it's hard to garner up any real passion for these upcoming playoffs.

Of course, this is all the Bears fault, but we don't need another post lamenting their ass sucking. But yeah: the Bears have ruined the NFL for me, at least this season. Maybe I need some time away to recharge my football batteries.

Is this wrong? Am I mentally and physically weak for allowing this to happen to myself? Or am I being reasonable, considering this postseason primarily involves Cedric Benson, Brett Favre, and the Packers' ponytailed-out linebacking corps?

I need help. Say something that will make me excited for football. Not even 5,000 words from Simmons could do the trick.

BOBBY: The spheres of my Pats and Bears fandom are so separate in my mind that it almost makes me laugh when people ask me to compare the teams. The Pats fandom comes with so much appreciation, enjoyment, happiness; the Bears fandom comes with anger, bitterness, resentment. I'm definitely in the school of NFL being number one on the favorite leagues list with the NBA making a hard push of late. So our perspectives aren't drastically different. What I'm saying is, I can actually see where you're at with this NFL lull.

While I do have a horse in the race, I'm more terrified than anything. Kind of in a "let's put our heads down and just trudge forward through this gauntlet as quickly as possible"-mode. The 18-1 playoffs = trauma which might not ever dissipate.

Setting my fear/anger and your meh/anger aside, it's not crazy to think these playoffs lack flair. I think it stems from...

Favorites Sucking Lately: It feels like the Colts and Saints haven't won in a month. Instead of the somewhat annoying "OMG undefeated?!" debate, we've been subjected to the incredibly more annoying "play or rest the starters?!" debate. Which really just argues fundamental and philosophical coaching differences and tries to "solve" things by finding a right and wrong (hint: there is gray area to the decision).

When favorites play well, it creates an aura of invincibility for the favorites and heavy motivation for the underdogs. Both of these things increase watch-ability of the games. Seriously, imagine if the Colts and Saints were 16-0 right now. Or at least 14-2 with some momentum. They ended the season a combined 1-5.

Rematches: This odd Week 17/Round 1 rematch thing. We shouldn't be burned out on these rematches, but I'm afraid it's happening subconsciously. It'll be over next round.

Favre: I don't need to explain this.

Stillers: Love or hate Pittsburgh, you can't argue they're dramatic. Big Ben might be fat and durable and lucky and successful and not smart, but man does he make things interesting. Their idiotic stretch of losing earlier this season robbed us from seeing a title defense.

Jets: What a lame-ass way to get into the playoffs. If we had the aforementioned Steelers or Texans, I think we'd be in better shape.

To recap... sluggish favorites, rematches?, Satan, no defending champs, and Jets. Maybe these playoffs aren't that exciting.

HOWEVA... I think you should be fired up for a few reasons.

1) It's Wide Open: I think anyone in the field (besides the Jets and Bengals) can realistically win the Super Bowl. That makes it like March Madness... with less white people.

2) We Won't Get Texas'd: What I mean to say is, we should have a high level of quarterback play in this tournament. We've got Brady, Rivers, Manning, A-Rod, Breesus, I'm Not Including Favre, Warner, Romo, and McNabb. The real drop off comes in the form of Flacco, Sanchez, and Palmer, and really, only Sanchez has the chance to epically bomb. So, eight of the twelve guys are pretty excellent. It should help the quality of the play, especially when it comes to keeping games competitive. Nothing is worse than seeing a team facing a lame duck second quarter deficit like 13-0 and thinking "it's over."

3) You Have No Choice: Maybe this wild card round will be weak, who really knows? But I guarantee you this thing will pick up steam. It's the NFL. It's just the way it works. There's no reason to fight it.

I'm gonna read the Simmons thing now.

RICKY: See, here's the thing: I know I'm going to get reeled in, eventually. I mean, what else am I going to do? Watch the Bulls? Blech. (note: upon re-reading this I realized: oh yeah, watch the 'Hawks! I'm improving, but still sub-par at this "hockey fan" stuff.) The last two Super Bowls have just been so good that's it's impossible for anyone to turn their back now. It'd be foolish.

But I do disagree with The Logo. This is not one of the three best sports weekends of the year. I'm just not feeling it this time around.

(Aside: Off the top of my head, the three best sports weekends of the year, not counting when the stars align and seemingly every team plays : 1. Opening rounds of March Madness (duh), 2. NFL conference championships, 3. NFL Draft)

With that being said...my total lack of interest isn't going to stop me from making picks against the spread. When we did this two years ago (two years ago!), I more or less laid the smackdown. The chances of that happening again this year? Remote.

NFC first.

Packers (PK) over CARDINALS

Drew's point this week about Warner is spot on. The guy is incredible. I assumed he had a down year this season for some reason, but then I checked the numbers: they dipped a bit, but everything but the yards are comparable to last year (and that's because he played one less game and attempted 75 less passes). We're one more great postseason away from "Kurt Warner: Hall of Famer?" not even being a debate anymore.

That being said, I'm still taking Green Bay. They've won seven or their last eight and I'm a true believer in Rodgers. Their D looks awesome, too. When did Charles Woodson get so good?

COWBOYS (-4) over Eagles

I expect this game to be nuclear warfare. At this point, I think I'd be more surprised if Desean Jackson doesn't have two 60-yard touchdowns. And isn't a "McNabb gives finger to critics, wins Super Bowl" story just destined to happen at some point?

I know the NFC East is the AL East of football so there's no fun in watching/talking about it, but I really do expect this to be a great game. I'll go as far to say that I'll pick the winner to go to the Super Bowl.

My choice in this one is Dallas (barely) for one reason: I think Romo is actually pretty good. He gets bashed unfairly more than any quarterback since......well, since McNabb. Remember, earlier this season, Mariotti wrote a column urging Dallas to start Jon Kitna. Jon Kitna!  Seriously. I'd link to it, but, you know, we have rules. Just trust me, he wrote that.

All the bad stuff that has happened up to this point in Romo's career seems a bit fluky. I think the Cowboys get it done.

BENGALS (-2.5) over Jets

Ocho Cinco v. Revis should be exciting - and it's always fun to root against Cedric Benson - but this is clearly the worst game of the weekend. Benson aside, there are obviously a lot of reasons to pull for Cincinnati, so I think I'll just avoid putting too much thought into it and go with them.

More than anything, I wish the Texans were in the playoffs. Passing!

Stupid Jets.

Ravens (+3) over PATS

Flacco's got a little bit of Big Ben in him. I wouldn't want him QB'ing my team, I know I shouldn't trust him on the road....but I feel like he could pull off some playoff magic. How many rookie quarterbacks have taken their teams to the conference championship game as rookies? I'm swayed by this, maybe a little too much.

One thing that worries me: Moss going off for like 200 yards and making us wonder "Man, maybe he's closer to Jerry Rice than we thought". Am I crazy for thinking a monster post-season makes Moss v. Rice a discussion?

That being said, Baltimore it is. The Pats will be back, but the dynasty is dying, if not already dead.

BOBBY: Spoiler alert, I think I told myself earlier this week that if all the spreads stayed low, I was going to take all the home teams (please still read this?). I may have went 0-4 in 2008, but I did rebound with a 4-0 last year. Seriously, one of my life goals is to go 11-0 against the spread in the NFL playoffs.

CARDINALS (PK) over Packers

I truly believe the Packers are a better team, but the Cards just feel more comfortable as a pick. Does that make me a wuss? I say yes.

Fitzgerald is just so damned amazing. He scares me. In the way Charles Woodson scares me.


The Eagles are one of the most likable teams in the playoffs, but I'm really just ready for Romo to win his playoff game (finally). Dallas got over that stupid/fake winning-in-December hump, and I think homefield should be enough to take this game. The Eagles talent withstanding.

I've also never bought into the "it's hard to beat a team three times" argument. It seems to happen enough.

BENGALS (-2.5) over Jets

Too easy. Not even worth talking about.

PATS (-3) over Ravens

I'm trying to put the bias aside (not possible), but as scared as I am for this game and as hard as I know it's going to be, I would still be shocked if the Pats got beat. Brady's never lost at home in the playoffs, they've really only lost one playoff game against a worse team in Brady's career (the Jake Plummer Broncos team in 2006... haha), the Pats can usually stop the run (which is Baltimore's biggest strength offensively), and don't sleep on New England's running game.

Once more...
Ricky: GB, DAL, CIN, BAL
Bobby: ARZ, DAL, CIN, NE


BobbyStompy is the assistant editor of Tremendous Upside Potential. He can be reached at stompaberdeen [at] aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.