The 2017 regular season of the National Football League appropriately ended on New Year's Eve in shambling, appalling fashion. With the exception of Cincinnati's last minute snuffing out of Baltimore's playoff hopes, there was zero drama to be had for an eager viewer.
As a citizen of the Emerald City and a Pete Carroll Seahawks fan, the New Year's Eve season finale loss to the division rival Cardinals was a heaping plate of crow to consume and digest over the holiday. It is a first in the Russell Wilson era that Seattle will not participate in the playoffs; you have to go back to the 2011 7-9 Seahawks led by Tarvaris Jackson for the last time that it happened. This year the team was a ghost of itself, barely recognizable.
Dave Zirin published his summation of the 2017 regular season yesterday -- "The NFL Chose to Tank Its Season Rather Than Sign Colin Kaepernick." Certainly an oversimplification, but an illuminating one nonetheless. The parallel between the NFL and the overall U.S. political economy is that wealth has become so concentrated a meaningful feedback loop has been rendered inoperable. How politics, management, any functioning system is supposed to work is that messages from constituents, workers, components of the system are registered and adjustments made by incorporating the input. Well, that has ceased to be the case in any meaningful way.
Given what a strange season it has been, maybe some pundits are correct and a super-historic also-ran will win the Super Bowl.
I feel fairly dialed in to the league this year. One pick is easy. The first game of the weekend, Tennessee Titans vs. Kansas City Chiefs, should be no contest. The Titans are false idols, chokers. The Chiefs, after experiencing a mid-season crisis of confidence, could be a real surprise and go far in the post-season.
Atlanta Falcons vs. Los Angeles Rams. Today's second game. I think the Rams are overrated. Stop Todd Gurley and let Jared Goff try to beat you with his arm. That's how I think Dan Quinn is going to play this one. I like the Falcons. I'm a sucker for the wounded. And after blowing the Super Bowl last year, there is no bigger basket case than Atlanta.
Buffalo Bills vs. Jacksonville Jaguars. With LeSean McCoy hobbled with an ankle injury, the Bills would need a miracle on the road. Take the Jaguars.
Carolina Panthers vs. New Orleans Saints. I had an epiphany watching Carolina beat the Vikings this year: the Panthers are the team to beat in the NFC.
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