Monday, January 22, 2007

Eagles playoff scenarios

With all these mediocre NFC teams bunched up at 6-8 and still playoff eligible, I started thinking about the NFL tiebreakers. Rather than use best net points in conference games (#9 tiebreaker), or even common opponents (#4), why not settle it in steel cage matches with one player from each team. Who would be selected? Probably a bad-ass lineman for sheer brute force, or more likely your middle linebacker for the combination of size, speed, and nastiness. Imagine settling the AFC North with a match up of Ray Lewis vs. Joey Porter. The matches could be held over New Year's weekend in conjunction with the major college bowls. All-time steel cage players would be Ray Lewis, Reggie White (plus he'd have God on his side), and LT (assuming you could get him all coked up and in that "Let's go out and play like a bunch of crazed dogs!!" attitude, and not the "Frank, your wife is pretty hot" mode). But the all-time best would have to be Chuck Bednarik, right? He's not the athlete that Lewis is -- none of the older players would be -- but he was tougher and meaner than any, just ask Gifford. Who would you take of current and former players for a mano a mano match to get your team into the playoffs?

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