Monday, January 23, 2012

Bill Plaschke Needs You To Know That He's Been To A Lot Of NFL Championship Games

Saw an interesting piece in Sunday's LAT in which Bill Plaschke was trying to make the argument that yesterday's conference championship day was a better NFL day than the Super Bowl itself. Okay, not such a bad argument; the only reason why anyone watches the Superbowl anyway is the commercials (and that kickass nacho cheese bean dip that Ingrid makes each year!).

But Plaschke decided to detail his thesis not by using facts, or ratings, or even statistics. No, Plaschke just wanted to talk about himself and all the cool games he's attended (bold emphasis mine):

The two conference championship games played Sunday will be more compelling than the one game played two weeks later, and it won't even be close.

Sunday is the Super Bowl minus the capital letters, Roman numerals and incessant glitz. Sunday is real football, played in real weather, in front of real fans, for real stakes.

I've never seen a Super Bowl winner cry. I've seen New Orleans Saints players weeping when they beat the Minnesota Vikings to qualify for their first Super Bowl.

I've never seen a Super Bowl quarterback quiver. I've seen Peyton Manning nearly faint from emotion as he staggered off the field after finally beating Tom Brady and qualifying for his first Super Bowl. [...]

I was in a press box in New Orleans a couple of years ago when grown men started screaming at the sight of the Vikings' Brett Favre throwing that horrible interception at the end of regulation. I was there in Indianapolis a couple of years earlier when all of Middle America seem to rock at the sight of the Colts overcoming an 18-point deficit with Peyton Manning using a last-minute drive to pound the final nail into the omnipotence of Brady. The first truly breathtaking moment of my sportswriting career occurred while I stood on the Cleveland sidelines and watched John Elway's drive to give the Denver Broncos the 1986 AFC championship.

It's all about you, Bill!

4 comments:

Greg Zakwin said...

Holy crap, he wrote paragraphs. Actual paragraphs.

Fernie V said...

Come on, u can't spell bill without an I.

Steve Sax said...

Bill went to a "subject - verb" refresher course Saturday morning

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Plaschke never saw a Super Bowl winner cry, ergo, no Super Bowl winner has ever cried.