No Finish League

If a baseball team decided to run up the white flag on 1/16th of their season, they would give away 10 games.
If a drywall hanger decided to call in sick for 1/16th of his year, he would miss 16 days of work.
If a NASCAR driver chose to coast for 1/16th of the race, he would consistently finish in next-to-last place, right behind Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
But nobody seems to mind that the NFL’s elite teams regularly take a dive for at least one of their measly 16 regular-season games.
This weekend was an abomination and a slap in the face to football fans, as team after team showed up with only half their starting lineups on the field.
The most egregious offender was the Indianapolis Colts, who phoned it in for two and a half games after their “perfect season” was ruined by the San Diego Chargers.
While Tony Dungy is usually a class act, it was a classless display by a team that was destined for greatness and is now destined for infamy as they will soon become another example of teams who chose to write off the end of their season to keep their athletes healthy, then bungle their shot in the playoffs.
On Sunday, my own beloved Patriots followed the example, pulling Tom Brady after the first half and handing the game over to the Miami Dope Dealers.
Had Brady remained in the game, New England could have finished a mediocre season (for them) with a big win.
The NFC West saw a similarly pitiful display by a professional team when the Seahawks rolled over for the hapless Green Bay Packers.
The Chicago Bears, the crappy, lucky, untalented and embarrassing kings of the NFL’s most inept division, the NFC North, followed suit by giving their starters a breather, giving up an easy win to the Vikings.
In fact, the only class act of the weekend came from Denver, who showed up to play in their 23-7 whipping of the Chargers, in spite of the fact that the Broncos had long since clinched the AFC West title.
Jake Plummer played the entire first half, in spite of being roughed up early.
John Lynch, the outstanding safety for Denver, espoused the spirit that more NFL owners and coaches should embrace.
"In my mind, every time you get an opportunity to play in the NFL, you owe it to yourself, to your team and to the people who pay to watch the game, to play hard," said Lynch, whose high school coach was in the stands.
Unfortunately, too many of the “winners” in the NFL want to act like losers, phoning it in during the last weekend of the season.
So this season, for the first time in years, I won’t be rooting for the Patriots.
And while I buried the hatchet on my hatred of the Indianapolis Colts this season while they were pursuing the “perfect season,” the hatred is back.
They were a cowardly organization when they snuck out of Baltimore back in 1984, and they’re a cowardly organization now.
The Panic Ponies choked against a mundane Chargers team three weeks ago, and they’ll cave in the playoffs again this year, just like they did last year.
And while they don’t have the talent of some of this year’s other contenders, I will cheer for the Broncos every step of the way simply because they are the only team in the 2006 post season, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, with the heart, honor, and respect for their fans to play every game of the 2005 schedule.
Go Broncos!