By Eric Emery
For the next 22 weeks, Over/Under will be your constant reminder that it is Football Season. Like the fat man on ESPN says, you cannot stop the hype. You can only hope to contain it. Along with the national highlights, we will comment on the hype close to home in a feature we call The Blue and Orange Kool-Aid Report.
Not to start a religious war, but have you noticed that, very much like Christmas, the football season is creeping into the national conscience earlier every year? I guess we can’t help it. We’re Americans. If Pat Robertson said, “Let’s start Christmas shopping on Labor Day,” we’d shrug and go along with the program. Because that’s who we are. Let’s face it, we Americans need help when it comes to how we allocate our time – whether it be fantasy football, Christmas shopping, Sunday afternoons, or that BSing we do with Frank in Accounting every Monday morning.
But who are we to ignore the trends of the day? We’re jumping right in. It’s never too early to gauge the hype. So here are the most Over/Under hyped teams so far.
Overhyped: Any Team in the AFC
I may or may not mention this ad nauseam, but I’m a Steelers fan. And to answer the follow up questions: Yes, I have been almost my whole 33 years; No, the Super Bowl was not fixed.
With that out of the way, picking any AFC team is like picking a number between one and ten – you will be right on average 10% of the time. Let’s face it: The Steelers season last year played out like that of any team in a crappy sports movie – early success, trouble in the middle, beat up on a seemingly invincible team (Bears), pull some opposing ACLs, and poof – champions of football. Only if they had Gary Busey as the “Grizzled Veteran” would the circumstances would have been more unbelievable.
And so, the Steelers are not a shoo-in to win the AFC. You know which teams in the AFC played best at the end of last year? Miami and Pittsburgh. Crap, you could sound really, really smart and say “Miami has my magic formula: a proven QB (Culpepper), his original Offensive Coordinator, two solid RBs, a Top Ten Defense, and a coach who specializes in discipline and defense. I pick Miami.”
Notice the word “could.” New England is shaping up to fit the formula. The Steelers have most of the formula. Denver is relatively close. San Diego only needs one RB because they have Tomlinson. That’s not even mentioning the more offensive minded teams – Indianapolis or Cincinnati. But overall, the AFC is weak.
So here is my official recommendation: When Frank in Accounting picks somebody from the AFC, make fun of him and say “I will bet you $10 you are wrong.” If he picks the Jets, bet him $20.
Underhyped: Carolina Panthers
When your previous NFC representative rolls into the Super Bowl with one of the best offenses and then fails to convert many opportunities to score; moves the ball fairly well but scores only 10 points; and severely mismanages the last two minutes of each half, you come to realize that Seattle was 7-3 against teams not named Arizona, San Francisco, or St. Louis. Sure, a championship team needs those games to mail in. Pittsburgh has Cleveland. New England has the Jets. But championship teams cannot almost lose to San Francisco. That’s not a good sign. Sure, even at my height, I can beat my wife in basketball, but that does not mean I’m good.
You will hear plenty of people hype Carolina to win the NFC, but lose to whoever fights their way through the AFC. Unlike many other teams, Carolina is the ONLY, ONLY, DO YOU HEAR ME? ONLY! team that fits my formula. I believe there needs to be more hype around Carolina to win it all this year.
Posted on August 21, 2006