This post is dedicated to all the whiners and naysayers that are continuing to disrespect the Saints after what they've accomplished this season. What is wrong with you people? So your poster boy Brett Favre was robbed, get over it. You all need to stop for one second and think about the basic unwritten rules of football. When you're a quarterback, you're taught from day one to "NEVER EVER EVER EVER THROW ACROSS YOUR BODY BACK TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD IF YOU'RE ON THE SIDELINE ". The dude made a mistake that isn't worthy of a rookie quarterback. That's right, a rookie quarterback shouldn't be making that mistake. A freshman in college shouldn't be making that mistake. That mistake is of the pop warner variety, and Favre made it with the game on the line on the biggest of stages. How about some responsibility for his ineptitude?
I am pissed.
Oh ESPN and the NFL. What a bunch of sorry losers. Check out this article, where the NFL basically says "we should have handed the game to the Vikings and we blew our chance to do so", and ESPN marks it as a LEAD STORY, basically saying "see?? We told you! The Vikings were robbed by bad officiating!". The undertones reek of whining. You know what? How about the fact that, even if the Vikings got in the red zone, they made a habit of turning the ball over once they got there? How about the fact that when the Saints played the Vikings last year, a phantom "Adrian Peterson is down by contact despite that the ball was loose in his hand" saved the Vikings from a turnover? Nevermind that Ed Hochuli deemed it appropriate to call Jay Cutler's backwards flip an incomplete pass with a game on the line. Bad officiating is hardly unheard of, and the Saints have had more of their share of being on the losing end of that coin. Everyone has. I don't feel sorry for the officials, I don't feel sorry for the Vikings, and I sure as hell don't feel sorry for the media. Questionable calls are part of the game. Side note, I know the NFL is more cautious than ever with quarterbacks and wants them to start wearing skirts, but God forbid they missed Favre getting roughed up. It's not like the Vikings didn't benefit from questionable "roughing" calls the officials made at other points in the same game.
Seriously, ESPN and the NFL, specifically, are pissing in my wheaties. Some Vikings fan, some anti Saints fans, and some other national media outlets are jumping on that bandwagon. The SuperBowl is becoming less about my happiness as a huge Saints fan and more about me giving a collective finger to all those people. And that's frankly too bad. Is that my fault for being angry? Maybe. But I think it's more about the whiners that are sad they didn't get their poster boy in the big dance. How about blaming him? People keep whining that the Saints played "dirty" to get into the SuperBowl. I didn't even know you could play dirty in a football game. Football is "dirty". Did the Vikings play a "clean" game? "Dirty" is just a word that's equal to aggressive, and it's used by whiners to give it a negative connotation. I guess whiners would prefer the 2008 "finesse" version of the Saints. With all due respect, that team went 8-8 and I have no interest in trading them for the 2009 version of my favorite team.
So fast forward now to the SuperBowl matchup: Saints vs. Colts. Now the Saints have no chance, according to the whiners. I hear them saying: "They're going to get blown out, they don't even really belong in the game, and they're going to get exposed". Why is everyone so surprised the Saints are in this game anyway? Weren't they the top seed in the NFC based on the 16 game season? Didn't they earn homefield advantage? I know everyone fell in love with the "the Saints are backing into the playoffs with a 3 game losing streak" buzz line, but look how that worked out. What do the Saints have left to prove to get the recognition that they belong in this game? I'll tell you what they have left to prove: NOTHING. The Saints are a top two team in the NFL, and they're arguably the best. Period, end of story. I can't wait for the excuses that are going to come up if the Saints pummel the Colts... I'm sure these pathetic "football fans" will come up with something.
There, now I feel better. I can go back to ignoring the whiners and enjoying my team's well deserved success. I hate to break it to you, but they're winning the SuperBowl whether some of you can accept it or not.