My Super Bowl XLV Prediction

I've really been going back and forth about which team I think will win the Super Bowl. Cases can be made for both the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers. And considering that I was 2-6 in the playoffs before somehow correctly calling both conference final results, it's not like I'm confident whichever way I go. I don't even have much of a rooting interest one way or the other. I sort of lean towards wanting Green Bay to win because the Steelers have won it all more recently and because of Ben Roethlisberger's douchebag behavior towards women that got him suspended for the beginning of the season. But it's not like I have any real hate for Pittsburgh. They're not the Dallas Cowboys or anything.

Speaking of the team from Texas that sucks, it is sooooooooooo freakin' great that SB45 is being played at that monstrosity of a stadium in Arlington where the Cowboys now call home, and they didn't even sniff the playoffs this year. Put a stroke on the tally sheet under the "Yes, there is a God" column.

Anyway, who to pick? The Steelers can run the ball, the Packers can air it out (and Aaron Rodgers is on something of a roll), both teams are strong defensively, injuries have taken more of a toll on the Steelers...but the one thing that seems to stand out in my mind is that the Steelers have a lot more playoff and Super Bowl experience than the Packers. So...Steelers 23, Packers 21.

My NFL Picks, For What They're Worth

Since I've been wrong 75 percent of the time in the playoffs I'm not sure the following predictions are worth anything. I got only 2 out of 8 correct, although I got to wondering today how I did against the point spread. If anyone wants to do the research, I will reward you, but not in any valuable manner. But they'll at least give us a chuckle as we wait for the Eagles to finish scraping the bottom of the barrel for a new defensive coordinator. And I got some help in writing this from a couple of fairies, so...

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

(6) Green Bay Packers at (2) Chicago Bears: The Cliche Fairy tells us that "to be the best, you've got to beat the best." The Packers beat the best, at least in the NFC, when they buried top-seeded Atlanta last week. (They also beat the Eagles. The Disclaimer Fairy would like to announce that this in no way is to imply that the Eagles were among, or even close to, the "best.") They each won a game against the other and have strong defenses, so I'll go with the better -- and, by most accounts, the better-looking -- quarterback, Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers. (Although the hairstyle in this picture is not good at all.). I still don't believe in Jay Cutler, and if he and the Bears do get to the Super Bowl it'll be more because of the Bears defense than anything Cutler does. Packers 20, Bears 16.

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

(6) New York Jets at (2) Pittsburgh Steelers: The Cliche Fairy wishes to reiterate the previous statement regarding being/beating the best. The Jets stunned New England last week, the same New England team that dropped a 45-3 bomb on the Jets a little more than a month earlier. (The Disclaimer Fairy is glad to have a break, as neither of these teams played the Eagles in 2010.) The Jets beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh in December, two weeks after that 45-3 mess and one week after a pitiful 10-6 loss to Miami at home. Once again, I'm going with the better quarterback: the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger over the Jets' Mark Sanchez -- although considering Big Ben's douchebag behavior towards women, I wouldn't mind seeing him lose. Then again, the Jets are a New York team. Sure, they're the other New York team, but they're still a New York team. Can I root for a tie? Steelers 17, Jets 16.

NFL: No More Eagles, Divisional Picks

Well, it was interesting in its way, yet it's also like a broken record. An Eagles team raises expectations and then drops out of the playoffs. At least this time, there's no Donovan McNabb for people to blame. But the loss to Green Bay didn't expose anything that wasn't already exposed. They have a defense that wasn't all that good during the 10-4 start and didn't get any better during the last two meaningful games (the season-ender against Dallas was just a glorified exhibition), both of which they lost. The offensive line, particularly on the right side, is a mess. Michael Vick, while showing a lot of improvement, still needs work. Of course, the Eagles have to sign him first. He's now a free agent.

Assuming they're still Vick fans, the Eagles have to decide what to do with Kevin Kolb, who still wants to start and has just one year left on his contract. Keep him as a backup again? He won't be happy with that. If they trade him, they need a backup for Vick or they're really in trouble. We saw Vick get hurt and miss some time this year. Imagine if that happens again and Kolb is gone.

Right now the Eagles' biggest problem is a two-pronged issue. They need a lot of upgrades to truly contend for the Super Bowl, but they won't be able to do anything until the NFL and its players' union have a new contract.

God de Sade?

I occasionally like to remark that God is a black, Jewish, pro-choice lesbian. It's a joke that is designed to irk...well, white, non-Jewish, anti-choice heterosexual men, or at least the right-wing nutjob portion of that particular demographic. Today I got a reminder of another remark I like to make about God, and while this one is also a joke, I think there may be a grain of truth to it: God has to be either incompetent or extremely sadistic to allow so many innocent people to suffer so greatly.

Natural disasters are one thing, but what about child-molesting clergy? Greedy politicians whose positions favor the wealthy? And so many others? They cause so much pain to so many -- especially the politicians, whose actions affect so many more people -- yet God doesn't smite nearly enough of them. Hardly any, really. Don't you think a bolt of lightning striking down one or two of these creeps live on national television would send a message to the rest that they'd better clean up their act?

What reminded me of this thought today was, as you might expect, Twitter. And the National Football League.