The Pecan Park Eagle

The sports gods and their mythology are active today.

1) Since today, Sunday, February 2, 2014, is both Groundhog Day and Super Bowl Sunday, the two big events are now intertwined for this year: If Peyton Manning awakens to the sight of his own shadow in New Jersey today, there will be six more weeks of footbal, just for the hell of it.

2) By special arrangement with the NFL, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has announced that MLB will use pro football’s 2014 Super Bowl Sunday to determine home field advantage in pro baseball’s 2014 World Series. Seattle will play for the MLB American League and Denver will play for the MLB National League.

3) Rumors from the Pantheon of Sports Gods has it that the rules governing karmic reversal may kick in during 2014 to offset the dire 2013 finishes of Houston in both professional baseball and football. As we all know, the Houston Astros finished the 2013 baseball season with a record of 51-111, .315 for the worst mark in the big leagues. And not to be outdone, football’s Houston Texans then crashed to the bottom of  their heap in 2013 with an NFL-worst record of 2-14, .125. – If karmic reversal takes over to help compensate in one season for Houston’s dual disappointment in two major sports, the Houston Astros will finish 2014 with a record of 111-51, .685 and the Houston Texans will follow that act with an NFL tab of 14-2, .875. With those kinds of records, both of Houston’s clubs should enjoy fairly decent shots at the next World Series and Super Bowl.

4) To help sports teams get away from the political correctness cloud that keeps raining on revered and honorable team nicknames like the Indians and Redskins, the sports gods are also considering a drastic move that will no doubt move the argument to a far more urgent and relevant level. The gods are thinking about converting all players and coaches into transformational recreations of the mascot figures that define their team. For example, you could not manage, coach, or play for the New York Yankees unless you really were a Yankee, but it gets even stickier. – You couldn’t coach or play for the Chicago Bears without becoming a real bear. – In their favor for this idea, the sports gods feel that it will give team sports at all levels a lot more to be concerned about than hurting someone’s feelings. – Can you have a successful team named the Bears if it means that half the fans in the best seats stand a good chance of being carried off and eaten by the third quarter? – Can you really have a team named after any of the most popular birds now used without buying umbrellas for every fan that enters the stadium? – And what about tailgating at a Seahawks game? You better not leave any mayo or white colored dressing out for use if it isn’t covered. – Use your own imagination with any team mascot that comes to mind. If the personnel playing the game were actually all examples of that mascot, what problems would you face playing a game?

5) This one isn’t a myth; it’s wish. – Football experts keep complaining about the absence of touchdowns being scored once a team gets a first down inside the precious 20-yards of turf in front of the goal line. They call it “the problem of scoring touchdowns in the red zone.” Teams get there. Then they fail to get a first down in three tries. Then they kick a chip shot 3-point field goal on fourth down and very often then give the other team the chance to do the same on their next possession.

They could change the problem instantly by taking away the trap. Make field goals illegal, unless the ball is kicked from 40 yards or more. Then coaches wouldn’t have to fear going for it on 4th and 1 from the two yard line. They might get better results if going for TD’s was the only choice they had in the red zone.

Have a safe and happy Super Bowl Sunday, Everybody.

My Super Bowl Prediction is: DENVER 35 – SEATTLE 24.

Please feel free to go out on a limb with me by placing your own SB prediction below as a comment on today’s column. 🙂