#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!!</editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay
Happy 2012 everyone! Hope all of you had a great New Years celebration and racked up some points for the last week of the fantasy football championship game. Personally, I did not have a very successful fantasy season by my standards. I had a chance to win the title in a pay league I play in and I lost it. Very disappointing season, but my buddies and I have started a basketball league, and baseball is right around the corner. There is always another fantasy league to conquer!
With the new year comes the NFL playoffs. Week 17 and the regular season ended on Sunday and now the 12 teams left standing are playing for Super Bowl rings. I'm going to give you all an overview of the current playoff situation and also give you my picks for the Super Bowl. A lot of teams make it to the playoffs in the NFL, proven by the fact that the 8-8 Denver Tebows won the AFC West this year. The reason so many teams make it to the playoffs is for the excitement factor the fans get from having an opportunity to see their team play in the playoffs. The more happy fans the NFL has, the more money they make.
The NFL is broken up into two large conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Then, each conference consists of 16 teams each. Those teams can then be broken up into 4 divisions in each conference, the NFC/AFC East, West, South and North. Each division has 4 teams each. That is really the entire structure of the NFL, and this structure is what decides who plays in the playoffs at the end of the season.
How teams make it to the playoffs is relatively simple. Six teams make it to the post season from the AFC and six teams from the NFC. Whoever has the best record in each of the 4 divisions (N,S,E,W) automatically punches their ticket to the playoffs. Then there are 2 teams from each conference that make the playoffs through the Wild Card playoff spots. The Wild Card completely ignores the 4 divisions and their winners, and simply looks at the top 2 records in each conference of the teams that did NOT win their divisions. Basically, you take the top 2 losers and they get a second chance to make a good run at the playoffs.
The teams that has the best record in their conference (Packers, Patriots) get what is called a first round bye in the postseason. This means that they do not have to play in the first round and get an extra week of rest and preparation. This gives them a well deserved advantage and makes almost every game of the regular season worth something.
Now that you hopefully have a decent understanding of how we have reached this point prior to the playoffs, let me grace you with my super bowl picks! This year the 4 division winners representing the NFC are the Saints, Packers, 49ers, and the Giants. The 2 NFC Wild Card winners are the Falcons and the Lions. The 4 divisions winners representing the AFC are the Patriots, Ravens, Texans and the Broncos (the Tebows). The final 2 playoff spots and the AFC Wild Card winners are the Steelers and the Bengals.
It's a little hard to take some of these teams seriously as Super Bowl contenders. I don't think the Broncos, Bengals or the Texans have a shot in hell at winning a game. I love the Texans, I don't love their chances.
Now for the moment that we've all been waiting for...my Super Bowl picks. The team that I believe is going to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl is.........the Green Bay Packers! I think that they have a ton of competition this year in the playoffs. The Saints and the 49ers are HUGE threats to their chances of repeating as champions. The Saints and Drew Brees will absolutely shred the Packers defense apart, and they can score points with them. The 49ers defense might just be good enough to stop the Rodgers train, but then again maybe not. All in all I think that the Packers getting an extra week of rest will be the deciding factor in them making it back to the Super Bowl.
Now for my final pick...the team that I believe will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl is........the Baltimore Ravens! They never get any love! They're defense is a brick wall and even though their QB Joe Flacco can be inconsistent, they have Ray Rice! That bowling ball could run the ball every play and nobody would stop him. I know that they have to go through the Patriots to make it, but I really think they can do it. Everything is going to come down to the play of their RB Ray Rice. They're defense can and probably will slow down a Tom Brady, but the question becomes can their offense still score enough points to keep up? I say yes
Tweet me your Super Bowl picks @DerekJ_AllDay, and if anyone is bold enough to choose the Broncos then you can gtfo! Chargers fan for life! DerekJ signing off.