Practice Run For Hibernation

Now that the NFL has only one more meaningful game left to play, it won't be long now here on the other side of the Atlantic before I'll have nothing to do with my midnight-to-three ayem time slot so scrupulously maintained in that blackness between Sunday evening and Monday morning.

You see, because of the difference between Eastern Standard Time and Inkberrow's, these last three weeks of playoffs following the 17 or so weeks of late night Sunday and late night Monday NFL games have rendered me a virtual insomniac, have altered my sleeping patterns so that Sunday afternoons are for sleeping and the predawn Monday mornings are for drinking tea and pinching myself awake as I attempt work my sleepy eyes into some sort of pregame state of readiness and alertness.

Now that we know the Patriots will meet the Eagles in the Super Bowl, we've got 13 days to contemplate how much we had the media and its relentless hype machine.

I've always hated the idea of a two week break before the Super Bowl. A media with nothing but time on its hands is a dangerously boring thing. There are so many ways to hyperinflate the term "genius" with Bill Belichick as though he were Einstein, before it becomes nauseating (and by my count, that mark was already surpassed about two weeks ago). There are only so many NFL players whose every bodily function I want examined with painstaking detail, so many quotes that can be made before they all dissolve into a maddening incoherency and apathy. There is no need for a two week break between now and the Super Bowl. We don't need the extra hype and we don't need to prolong the realisation that the meaningful bits of another season are over.

That said, if you are looking for ways to kill time in between, Kevin Hench's column entitled How To Fill Two Weeks Before the Super Bowl is worth a read although unfortunately, it won't take two weeks to read it.

You can also get a head start on some of the latent baseball hibernators by having a look through the Spring Training Online Guide.

I mean after all, with the NFL virtually over for anyone outside of Philadelphia and New England, what better way to fill the void than thinking about the baseball season to come?

According to the Sentinal's Mike Bianchi compares the Iggles' fans cry of "can you believe it, we're going to Jacksonville" with the exclamation of "can you believe it, we're having beets for dinner!" - not meant as a slight against Iggles fans but against Jacksonville, as if Bianchi's Orlando were any more appealing...

But worth noting is his coinage of the term City of Brotherly Flub. This, from the same man who coined the term "Chokelahoma" only weeks before. Is there any end to this man's talents?

*****

Whose soul do you think was sold in New England? They won the NFL Championship in 2004, the World Series in 2004 and are now on the verge of establishing themselves as a football dynasty for the ages in 2005.

I used to think I hated Yankees fans but believe me, the bile that is building against all fans of New England is growing by the week. For 86 years we (for those of us that old) had to listen to their whingeing about The Curse. They finally win and then after weeks of blubbering and retrospection about finally winning the World Series they've suddenly forgotten how long they waited because just as they're on the verge of nauseating the entirety of the sporting world with nostalgic tales of suffering, along comes "Genius" Belichick, the "perfect" Tom Brady and another run at the NFL's World Championship.

There should be a rule in professional sports that no one city (or geographical area) should be able to win more than one major professional title in one sports cycle. New England, you've had your fun. It's time to let Philadelphia in on it.

Although I would never begrudge the Red Sox fans their long-awaited World Series title, I've rooted against the Patriots at every feasible stage of the NFL's postseason for two reasons: One, I've never forgiven Bill Belichick for leaving the Jets in the aisle after Parcells "retired". And two, the Patriots had their miracle not once, but twice already and if they win a third, there will be no silencing the annoying fans of New England. At least not until the Sox are put down again by the Yankees.

So I'll be foolishly rooting for the Iggles just like I foolishly rooted for the Colts and the Steelers before them. Hopefully this time, things will turn out different.