So who is the Best?
I finally have figured out what I don't like about pro football. Here is a sport in which teams remotely close in talent cannot be predicted who will win with any degree of accuracy. I can accept that as it is still exciting to watch even if the games are full of the unexpected and unpredictable. One can argue, I guess, what percent of the outcome is determined by unpredictable factors, but the percentage is high, and this is proven by the success record of the 'experts' predicting games. It hovers around 60%.
But what I can't tolerate very well is listening to all the bullshit before and after the games where intelligent people use all sorts of totally unmeasurable variables as to why each team won or will win a game. All of a sudden football becomes a game of team chemistry, desire, motivation, likability, and just all sorts of claims which are totally unmeasurable.
I hate this because football is a game of talent, game plans, injuries, and unpredictable bad breaks. If one wants to call each player performing well his assigned tasks team chemistry, so be it. There can be no intelligent discussion of football game outcomes if one team is going to be accused of not being motivated enough, have good enough chemistry, etc. I think character assassination by those not personally involved with someone is nothing more than cheap shots taken by cheap shot artists. It just seems after every game certain individuals get run up the flag pole as the greatest ever and others who lost sometimes pummeled to death with character slander. The same individuals are bums one game and future Hall of Famers the next game. After a while the character assassination gets nonsensical. When the unpredictable factors go one way, the player is the world's greatest; when they go the other way, the player is embalmed in personal faults. If one likes a player he gets to slide under any kind of bar. If one doesn't like the player every miscue is a major exposure of weakness.
During any season, on various games, a whole wide range of wide receivers have been called the best in the game today. Fortunately, every day is a different day so I guess maybe they could claim to be right. There are so many factors which determine which wide receiver is really the best, that no such accurate designation could be made by even the smartest of us. For any receiver the quarterbacks differ, the schedule differs, the importance of the passing game for teams differs, the quality of the other receivers on the team differs, the coaches differ, and the physical status of receivers throughout the season differs. And so it goes, with most other positions facing the same variables. Maybe this is what makes football so popular---just about anyone can find some reasons to defend or attack any player or any team. I seem to be the only logical one amongst this cadre of raucous contentiousness. Smile.
