What a miserable year to be a Ravens fan. It's bad enough that the team finished 6-10, spiraling out of control starting in Week 1 and only getting worse as the season progressed. Once the playoffs arrived, I tried rooting for teams with former Ravens coaches, but Jacksonville and Cincinatti both lost in the first round. I tried rooting for the defending champs to no avail. I even tried rooting for the Colts -- a big no-no among the older generation in Baltimore.
I really wanted the Colts to finally go all the way. Manning deserves a ring, and I would feel bad for him if he does in fact turn out to be this generation's Dan Marino. And then there's Dungy, who's never been more deserving of a Super Bowl win than this year, for reasons both on and off the field.
But the Colts' loss to the Steelers may have been the last straw for my NFL 2005 experience. If I continue to watch next week, I'll be faced with the prospect of rooting for either a hated division rival (Pittsburgh) or the team with the most overrated coach and quarterback in the league today. Although I wouldn't normally dream of rooting for the Steelers in anything except a parachuteless skydiving contest, I am finding myself a little more sympathetic to the Steelers this year than most. Perhaps it's because I've been away from Pittsburgh long enough by now to feel a little more more removed from the rabid subsection of Steelers fans that usually agitates me. Or maybe it's because the Ravens were so pathetic this year that to consider the Steelers a rival would give too much credit to the Ravens. Whatever the reason, I sometimes catch myself thinking, "If this is Pittsburgh's year, I wouldn't mind too much."
But then something holds me back. I realize that Pittsburgh going all the way will mean more rabid fans next year. It will mean hearing more Steelers hill-billy music that could have only been written by Terry Bradshaw. It will mean more times where Joey Porter starts fights, pushes cripples to the ground, and talks about how football shouldn't be a "thinking" game.
Denver, on the other hand, is not a hated division rival. They have that much going for them, but that is about it. A victory for them means hearing more illustrious praise for the "genius" of a head coach who won 2 super bowls with one of the 10 greatest QBs of all time and 4-5 other Hall of Fame caliber players as a suporting cast. You won't hear anything about how Scamahan evidently coaches his defensive backs at a high school level. Or about how their vaunted running games relies heavily on illegal cut blocks that for which they are routinely fined. A victory for them also means hearing more illustrious praise about a quarterback with a career passer rating of 75 and as many seasons with more INTs than TD as the reverse (read: Mediocrity defined).
So, NFL, if you're out there listening to anyone in Baltimore (an unlikely scenario I know), here's my ONE wish for next week's AFC Championship game. On the first play of the game, Jake Plummer drops back to throw. Everyone is covered, so "Jake the Snake" scrambles out of the pocket with Joey Porter bearing down on him. As Plummer runs out of bounds directly in front of head coach Mike Scamahan, Porter delivers a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit, knocking Plummer into Scamahan. Plummer receives a concussion and does not return. Scamahan is knocked unconcious for the remainder of the game. Porter is ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. Steelers win 21-17.