Christmas Overtakes Thanksgiving as a Sports Holiday Part 1: Xmas Eve
Part 1: Xmas Eve
As far as I was concerned heading into this year, Thanksgiving was always the best holiday we had. Laziness, copious amounts of food and beer, and of course football on the tube to entertain us from noon to night. This past Turkey day provided us three compelling NFL Matchups that produced one competitive game out of the trio (Dallas knocking off the Sparano-lead Miami Shade-Wearers 20-19). The Green Bay vs Detroit game was over-hyped and under-competitive and the Harbaugh Bowl didn’t deliver its promised excitement as our third course.
Most years on Thanksgiving we’ll have the traditional college football rivalries supplemented by some semi-unimportant NBA games and a few college hoops tilts. This year was no different (minus the whole NBA thing) and left little that grabs the memory. Not to take anything away from Michigan snapping their seven-game losing streak to the Buckeyes or the Longhorns hooking A&M for the last time as Big 12 opponents, but there were no truly compelling matchups going into the weekend and no rivalry ended with a notable upset.
It was still a solid sports weekend filled with un-productivity and much to watch, but little to talk about…fast forward to Christmas Eve. Here we are, flying into Week 16 of the NFL season with plenty still to be determined. Heading into the season’s second to last weekend we have seven of the 12 playoff spots reserved and 15 teams vying to fill the remaining five openings. The NFC East is a complete crap shoot, as is the AFC West race and the stumble to the finish line for the 6th spot in the AFC bracket.
Here’s where Christmas starts to make a move on Thanksgiving (for this year at least). A few things fell in JC’s favor this year; one is the schedule. Having the Tebow’s Uncle’s Birthday on a Sunday gives fans the chance to drink in a full glass of the NFL on Saturday highlighted by the fact that there are only two games that features teams that are both mathematically eliminated from playoff contention (Minnesota vs Washington and Carolina vs Tampa Bay). EVERY OTHER GAME ON THE SCHEDULE HAS AT LEAST SOME BEARING ON THE PLAYOFF PICTURE IN SOME WAY SHAPE OR FORM. Sprinkle in the thought that Kellen Clemens, Charlie Batch and Dan Orlovsky will have(or have had) an impact on the AFC Playoff standings is both horrifying and wonderful…and this is only Christmas Eve.