Seahawks Still Receiving No Respect

I was waiting for this to happen. Waiting for at least one person to slam my Seattle Seahawks and their dismal 7-9 regular season showing and how they didn't belong in the NFL playoffs, let alone host a playoff game. Bear with me here as my judgment may become a tad clouded. I am a huge Seahawks fan...and yes, I am still celebrating this win.

But as I said, here we are. We all know the Seahawks got the last laugh (kind of) against the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. And along comes Business Insider Sports Page stating that the Seahawks win displays why the NFL playoff system needs a re-tooling and offers a solution...

The solution? Give each division an automatic playoff berth, but if a division winner finishes under .500, it should be forced to play its Wild Card game on the road.

That's your solution? If a team doesn't have at least a .500 record, you cannot host a game? Oh, but if you're 8-8, that's okay? News flash here. 8-8 is also a non-winning record. It's not a losing record, bit it's not a winning record either. That's also mediocrity which is, I suppose, the aim of this crack headed idea.

If you're wanting to "rid" those teams from hosting a game, how about they must hold a 9-7 record. That's a winning record, not 8-8.

To some extent, making the playoffs is based on record. I cannot understand (and I am not looking at this through rose-colored glasses) how people are screaming for all this change. As I said a couple days ago, this is the first time this has happened. It's the old "the sky is falling" thing, huh?

Wait. I do understand why all these negative vibes are flowing.

Your team got cheated, or so you think. I can thoroughly understand if fans of the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a bit bitter. They did post better records and are sitting at home. The Giants lost at Green Bay in week 16 and that pretty much sealed their fate.

The Bucs were the real unfortunate ones. They're in the same division as the Saints and #1 seed Atlanta Falcons. While we have seen three teams from one division make the "tournament", it's not a frequent occurrence. The Bucs had to have both the Giants and Green Bay Packers lose and the they had to best the Saints (which they did) to make the postseason parade.

And here's another thing. Are people upset because last season's "feel good story" is no more? That's part of it. The Saints were the darlings of the NFL last year. Every time you turned on your TV after their Super Bowl win, you got nothing but a screenful of Drew Brees. You tuned your radio to any sports talk station and the Saints were one of the first topics that were discussed.

That's almost all gone now. The only thing left is for people, Saints fans or not, to howl of the unfairness of the situation.

I can dispel that all right now.

Qwest Field. Site of NFC Championship?
Image: Yincrash via Wikimedia Commons

Of all the home teams from this past weekend, only one home team won. One. Not Philadelphia. Not Kansas City. Not Indianapolis. Seattle.

And ponder this thought as scary as it may sound. If the Packers beat the Falcons and the Seahawks beat the Bears, guess where the NFC Championship game will be held?

Qwest Field.

Now wouldn't that turn the world upside down.