Anatomy of a Playoff Loss

1. Outcoached in the first half.
2. Dropped passes, mostly in the first half.
3. Bad tackling.
4. Hideous, appalling, inept officiating. The "Jordan Rules" of football.*
   

That is how your football team loses the NFC Championship game. I don't usually root against the team that beat mine in the playoffs. It seemed to me that if they did get beat in the next round, that meant that they weren't very good and my team was that much worse. But there is something about this Arizona Cardinals team that I just can't stomach. Having been in Phoenix for a week over New Years, I can tell you that that is not a football town. I got no real football fan vibe there. In fact, the place reminded me of San Francisco in the Eighties: a city full of bandwagon jumpers. May the Cardinals die a painful death in two weeks.

I am angry.

I may vomit.

Why do I love football so much?

Shit.

*ESPN The Magazine had an interesting article on home field advantage in the 1/12/09 issue.