NFL Playoffs, week 1

It was another good week for us proponents of Peyton Manning, MVP of the NFL. Don't you just love it when you pick the right guy? It's like buying a stock that keeps beating the market quarter after quarter. Meanwhile, those who didn't buy the stock keep digging a deeper and deeper hole for themselves trying to explain why they didn't.

The man destroyed the Broncos in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year and set a postseason record for passing yards in a 4-quarter game. Stats like these have become so routine for Manning that it's easy to just take them in stride and fail to appreciate them for the truly mind-boggling achievements that they are. Think about that: a postseason record!

Of course, what would have been even more impressive is if Manning would have played a subpar game for 3 quarters, resulting in a close game in the 4th quarter and forcing him to lead the Colts on a dramatic last-minute drive for the game-winning touchdown.

Did that last sentence sound stupid to you? It sure should have. The idea that it's better for a quarterback to not play his best and win on a dramatic last-minute drive as opposed to just blowing the opposition out of the building in the first half is simply ludicrous. Yet this is exactly what sports reporters regularly do when they worship the "comeback king" quarterbacks over those who simply have those great, soulless statistics. Which is why it's so ridiculous for one to say something like, oh, I don't know, Manning's 4th-and-1 pass to Reggie Wayne after waving the punt team off the field against the Chargers was more impressive than anything else he did all season.

Meanwhile, over in Wisconsin, the Green Bay faithful are in agonies over another playoff heartbreak, thanks in no small part to another Favre meltdown to the tune of 4 interceptions. I'd like to know, who has the record for most playoff games with 3 or more interceptions? Favre has to be up there. If he hadn't had that one Super Bowl win, he'd be the one with the reputation for choking big games--often in spectacular fashion. And the year he did win the Super Bowl, he had a little help from his defense, which was ranked #1 in fewest yards allowed and #1 in fewest points allowed.

Remember: I'm still not saying that he would deserve such a reputation because I don't generally believe in such a thing as players congenitally choking in big games unless someone gives me some pretty overwhelming evidence. I'm simply pointing out what a flimsy basis there frequently is for such reputations. Reverse the outcome of one game for Favre, wherein oh by the way he was massively helped by the #1 defense in the league, and you have a completely different career story for the man.