By Jack Healey
I went 4-0 in the NFL divisional round last week after going 0-4 the week before so my overall record is 160-88.
I think the Patriots will have their hands full at Kansas City on Sunday and I guess that the last second loss to Miami ended up being big after all because it’s the difference between playing the AFC championship game at home or on the road against Kansas City, but win or lose going to the AFC title game eight straight years is remarkable! Don’t get me wrong it’s all about winning the Super Bowl, but you can still reflect on the accomplishment of being in the hunt!
Three cliches you always hear in sports. Two are ridiculous and the other is true!
1. The most ridiculous one is momentum from game to game. It simply isn’t true! Momentum changes several times during a game let alone from game to game. A hockey coach recently told me that momentum in hockey changes from shift to shift.
All four teams in the NFL championship games won last week so tell me who has the momentum? They can’t all win!
2. It’s tough to beat a team three times. Yes that is true because it is tough to beat a team multiple times. The fact is that this cliche is generally mentioned after a team has already beaten another team twice so you really don’t have to beat a team three times you only have to beat them once because you’ve already beaten them twice. This cliche is also mentioned after a team loses game three after winning the first two games because it’s a convenient excuse.
3. This cliche is actually true. It is right on the money. The final score was either “closer than the final score would indicate” or “not as close as the final score would indicate.” Both descriptions are accurate. It is a way to describe a game in just a few words to a person who didn’t see or hear a particular game.
For example Sunday’s Patriots 41-28 victory over the LA Chargers. To look at the score without watching or hearing the game you would think the game was relatively close, a 13 point victory. Anybody who saw or heard the game knows that the game wasn’t that close. In other words “The game wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate.” Exactly! A perfect description!