Terry Foster: The NFL Got It Right On Sunday
By: Terry Foster
@terryfoster971
The finest weekend of NFL football is behind us as the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons advance to Super Bowl LI in Houston.
For real football fans the NFC and AFC championship games are the zenith. It is a day I anticipate more than the Super Bowl where commercials, celebrity appearances and player drama drowns out the football game.
Sunday was more about Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Tom Brady and the best Hogan performance since Hulk Hogan body slammed 700-pound Andre the Giant in Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome. And do you know what the best part of it is? They jam packed two important football games into a seven hour window or in about the same time it took the NCAA to play its national championship game.
I even got to witness the final plays of Steelers-Patriots, which is a rarity for big events now.
I did not see the final inning of the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians in the World Series because I fell asleep. The same happened in the NCAA championship game.
The annoying part about big events in sports is the big moments often come when we are dozing off. If I want to watch sports at midnight I will turn on a Pac-12 basketball game with Bill Walton. The AFC game wrapped up before the 11 o'clock news.
The Super Bowl will end around midnight and we will wake up Monday morning cranky and trying to remember the big moments and game-turning plays.
How Matt Ryan carved up Green Bay is fresh in my mind along with fantastic performances by Falcons receiver Julio Jones and undrafted lacrosse player Chris Hogan of the Patriots. The city of Detroit craved for former Lion Calvin Johnson to be in that spot.
It was the last day of real NFL football. What we are left with is the Pro Bowl, an event I have not turned on in years, and the Super Bowl which has turned into a huge party that is periodically interrupted by football.
I will watch the Super Bowl though. I will either be falling asleep on the couch at the end of leaving a noisy party thinking more about the commercials than the actual play on the field.