Packers-Cowboys: Can't see TV

It’s as if Bud Selig is running the NFL.

The best game of the week, perhaps one of the best games of the season, won’t be available to most viewers across the nation because most cable companies do not include the NFL Network, and the NFL Network is the only place where you can see tonight’s Packers-Cowboys game.

Why the dig at Selig? Because only baseball finds ways to keep its fans from viewing its games.

Until now.

The NFL was always good about televising the big games. Premier match-ups were scheduled for Monday night and the playoffs are staggered in such a way that every game is on everywhere. The league has even gone to a flexible schedule late in the season to move better match-ups to Sunday Night Football.

But there doesn’t seem to be any give on getting the NFL Network as part of cable networks’ premium packages.

The game isn’t available to most viewers in Manatee County unless they have Direct TV.

Is this the NFL’s way of trying to make even more money, or is the league slowly drifting toward the day when all its games will be on cable instead of the major networks?

Too early to tell, there.

All I know is the best game of the year not involving the Patriots and the Colts won’t be on in my house. Oh, sure, I had no problems seeing Miami and Pittsburgh splash around in the rain Monday. Best 3-0 game I had ever seen.

But the game that could decide home field advantage in the NFC playoffs?

Another chance to see Brett Favre shine in prime-time?

Most of us are out of luck.

Should have gone to bed

If you are like me, you stayed up late Sunday to watch the end of the Philadelphia-New England game because you had a feeling something big might happen and you didn’t want to be dreaming of a healthy Jeff Garcia when it did.

You remembered back to early October when your buddies and coworkers couldn’t believe they missed the end of the Cowboys’ wild 25-24 come-from-behind victory against the Bills because it was Monday and they found it tough to stay awake that late and, besides, no way were the Cowboys coming back in that one.

Ha.

If you are like me, you stayed up late Sunday hoping to see another fantastic finish, hoping the magic that has taken hold of college football would last through Sunday and you would be witness to a big upset – Philadelphia with a back-up quarterback knocking off the Death Star that is New England.

If you are like me, you were disappointed when A.J. Feeley was picked off in the end zone late in the fourth quarter, denying the Eagles a chance to tie the score with a field goal or take the lead with a touchdown.

Now, if you are not like me and you are a New England fan, then you have to know that all good teams have a bad game in them late in the season, a loss that should have been a win, and you are wondering if that was Patriots’ bad game of the year.
At least that’s what I’m thinking today.

It's football and nothing more

When will these coaches learn that football is a game and nothing more?

Yes, there is a lot at stake, especially at the college level where wins on Saturday equate to millions in the coffers for universities.

Florida coach Urban Meyer used to call his players “soldiers,” and when one went down with an injury, the next would pick up his rifle and move forward. Meyer has since dropped the analogy.

But Alabama’s Nick Saban hasn’t seen the memo or e-mail or whatever it is coaches use these days to spread the message.

After losing to Louisiana-Monroe 21-14 at home last week, Saban described his team’s chances of bouncing back Saturday against Auburn with this:

“Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event. It may be 9-11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, or whatever, and that was a catastrophic event.”

Losing to Louisiana-Monroe, however embarrassing for the Crimson Tide and their followers, was not a catastrophic event.

And beating Auburn has nothing to do with “changes in history.”

Maybe a better game-plan or better coaching or a better effort from the players.

Did losing to Louisiana-Monroe force Saban’s coaching staff and players to take a long, hard look at itself? I hope so. And that was Saban’s point. The Tide is now focused.

Terrific.

Why don’t you just say that?

Or would admitting that be, you know, catastrophic?

Bucs make statement

Now that is how you take control of a division.

You come off the bye week and throttle a team that appeared to be heading in the right direction after two consecutive wins.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers did that Sunday with a convincing 31-7 win at Atlanta.
The Bucs are now 6-4 and have a two-game lead in the NFC South over Carolina and New Orleans, who both dropped to 4-6 with losses Sunday.

Carolina has issues at quarterback, and New Orleans is streaky, having lost four, won four and now lost two straight. That’s the type of inconsistency that leads a team home in January.

The Bucs still have two of their next three on the road, but all of the six remaining games are winnable.

Unless something major goes wrong – like (gasp!) an injury to quarterback Jeff Garcia – the Bucs should sail to the division title and return to the playoffs.

This is getting old

The Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers play each other Sunday in a game that will become a footnote in history regardless of the outcome.

The two starting quarterbacks will combine to become the oldest quarterback duo in NFL history.

Vinny Testaverde will be 44 years, 5 days old.

Brett Favre, the kid in this one, will 38 years, 39 days old.

Combined that’s 82 years, 44 days.

Shouldn’t this game be played in Miami?

Actually, the game will be played at Lambeau Field, a fitting site for such a matchup. The Frozen Tundra is the second-oldest venue in the NFL behind Solder Field in Chicago.

Nothing says 0-14 like warm Tab

And now there is one. Just the Miami Dolphins. Every other team in the NFL has at least one win now that the St. Louis Rams beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

The 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers watch from afar, wondering if they will remain the only winless NFL team since World War II.

Just as the 1972 Dolphins have an annual ritual of celebrating with champagne when the last undefeated team is finally defeated, Steve Spurrier, the quarterback for the Bucs in 1976, joked that he and his former teammates have their own form of celebrating.

They crack open a bottle of warm Tab and toast their infamous place in NFL history.

Sixteen-and-oh? Looks doable from here.

OK, now the big question: Can they do it?

Can the New England Patriots do what has been done only once in NFL history and never since the league moved to 16-game seasons?

Can they run the table?

Give them two home games in the playoffs and it is tough to think they won't reach the Super Bowl, and who thinks they will lose to an NFC team in the Big Game?

Getting there without a loss is the tricky part.

The Pats moved to 9-0 after rallying past the Colts on Sunday in Indianapolis. That was supposed to be their last big hurdle.

After this week’s bye, the Pats return to a schedule that includes three winning teams and two teams with eight losses.

They are in order: at Buffalo (4-4), home vs. Philadelphia (3-5), at Baltimore (4-3), vs. Pittsburgh (5-2), vs. the Jets (1-8), vs. Miami (0-8) and at the Giants (6-2).

That’s seven games against teams who are a combined 23-32.

There are four home games, including three straight in December when the weather turns frightful, but at least they will be warmed by their home field.

Any hurdles?

The Steelers? At Baltimore? Hmm, probably not.

At the Giants, possibly.

The Patriots will have clinched everything by then – the division title and home field throughout the AFC playoffs. Some starters might receive a much-needed day off.

The incentive will only be history, and with the way coach Bill Belichick has been smacked around this year for video taping defensive signals and running up the score, a shot to push the 1972 Miami Dolphins and hall of fame coach Don Shula off the books is incentive enough.

Can they do it?

I can't see anyone who can stop them.

Pats-Colts: Must see unless you're me

Pats-Colts. Sunday.

I’ve been told it is a pro football game, but it has the feel and hype of a big-time college game.

It’s No. 1 vs. No. 2 meeting in November as undefeated teams.
Think Michigan-Ohio State.

Think Florida-Florida State.

Think Notre Dame-USC.

You don’t see games like this in the NFL. In fact, it is the first time two undefeated teams met this late in any NFL season.

In college, of course, the stakes are bigger because the loser is usually out of the title picture, although that wasn’t the case in 1996 when No. 2 Florida State knocked off No. 2 Florida. The Gators were able to bounce back in the SEC Championship game then beat Florida State in the Sugar Bowl for the national title.

Here, the loser will likely travel to face the winner in the AFC title game, which takes some of the edge off Sunday’s game.

Yet it is still Pats-Colts, two teams that dislike each other.

It’s still Pats-Colts, the renewal of the NFL’s best rivalry.

It’s still Pats-Colts, No. 1 vs. No. 2.

It’s Sunday at 4 p.m.

And I’m going to miss it.

Darn.