The NFL is a staged play. This is the only way to explain what went down during the regular season. The script was well written and included all the main characters of past and present. There were heroes and villains and plenty of drama for fans to believe what they were seeing was real.
We had the Brett saga move to New York and saw the Packers do significantly worse without him. Of course they couldn't put it all on Aaron Rodgers so the ridiculously good defense from a year ago had to pretend to be bad and leave them with a 6-10 record.
Of course they couldn't let everyone to believe that Brett could ACTUALLY walk on water, so they had him start out his team 8-3 and then finish the season 1-4 and miss the playoffs.
Then the Jets had to be bumped out of the playoffs by their ex-quarterback who was released for Brett and signed with the Dolphins coming off a 1-15 season. Chad Pennington, the rubber armed no good QB who underachieved for the Jets for so long, led this new Dolphin team to an 11-5 record to keep out the Jets and...
...the New England Patriots. The Patriots went 18-1 last year with their only loss in the Super Bowl which was fixed perfectly. Essentially on the first series of the 2008 season, MVP/Jesus (son of Brett) Tom Brady, hurts his knee and is out for the season. Enter Matt Cassel, a guy who went to USC and sat the bench behind Carson Palmer and then Matt Leinart, gets drafted by the Patriots, and is the back up to Jesus Brady. He struggles his first couple starts but then realizes that he has a great supporting cast and finishes the season with eleven wins but still missing the playoffs. This ultimately may be good for Cassel though because he is a free agent this year and guess who is behind schedule on their recovery from knee surgery.
With this being the main plot, the rest of the league was in the background making its own waves. We had Plexico, Pacman, and Al Davis in their regular bad guy role. The Falcons and Dolphins battling for the "We sucked worse last year and are better this year" crown. T.O. ruining another locker room. Clinton Portis. The Lions making history, but not the kind they were looking for. The NFC West just not caring. The Seahawks getting in on the Brett saga by beating them in week 16 during coach Mike Holmgren's, who was tight with Brett in his earlier Packer days, final home game. The joke of the Ohio teams. Smash and dash in Tennessee/Carolina. And Denver shisting down their leg and losing their last 5 games to miss the playoffs and essentially let San Diego in after being 4-8.
The final scenes, otherwise known as the playoffs, should cap off a great story. I mean season.
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