At the outset of the season, the powers that be in the National Football League were patting themselves on the back for brining parody to a sport that had been riddled with powerhouses during the happy-go-lucky days before the salary cap.<\/p>\n
Fourteen weeks into the schedule, things have taken a bit of a turn in the AFC, as three distinct classes have formed. The New England Patriots (11-0), Pittsburgh Steelers (11-1), Indianapolis Colts (9-3), San Diego Chargers (9-3) and the N.Y. Jets (9-3) have emerged from the pack as the top contenders, while the Baltimore Ravens (7-5), Denver Broncos (7-5), Buffalo Bills (6-6), and Cincinnati Bengals (6-6) make up a middle class that is almost there.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the Houston Texans (5-7) Tennessee Titans (4-8), Kansas City Chiefs (4-8), Oakland Raiders (4-8), Cleveland Browns (3-9), and Miami Dolphins (2-10) make up the \u201cbetter luck next year\u201d class.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t the ideal picture that the organizers had in mind, but it really isn\u2019t that bad. In the NFC, only the Philadelphia Eagles (11-1) and the Atlanta Falcons (9-3), to a lesser extent, have created some distance from the pack. <\/p>\n
Ah yes, parody reigns supreme in the NFC\u2014albeit with a side effect of mediocrity becoming conference chic. As ugly as it sounds, there is a very real possibility that a sub.500 team could make it into the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Aside from the Eagles and Falcons, only the Green Bay Packers (7-5) and the Minnesota Vikings (7-5) have a winning record. After them, only the St. Louis Rams and the Seattle Seahawks are even at 6-6. <\/p>\n
That means that 10 out of the 16 teams in the NFC just plain stink.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t pretty\u2014consider that the N.Y. Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers still have a legitimate shot at the post-season at 5-7.<\/p>\n
The Shell Chiefs of the Commonwealth Football League could probably knock off the 1-11 San Francisco 49ers, but the Niners would have to come and play at the CPA Airport field for them to pull it off.<\/p>\n
It may be a long shot, but so was Rich Brooks. At 92-68, he\u2019s just five games behind John and Big Tuna (97-63), and six games behind Jennifer at 98-62. As the season winds down, there may only be a game here and there for Rich to catch up to Will, but at 101-57 it\u2019s not likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the outset of the season, the powers that be in the National Football League were patting themselves on the back for brining parody to a sport that had been riddled with powerhouses during the happy-go-lucky days before the salary cap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}