ESPN anchor Chris "Boomer" Berman has a phrase he regularly employs. "That's why they play the game," Berman often says. He uses this phrase to describe upsets and last-minute heroics, as well as unusual circumstances. Boomer has had to use that phrase a lot this year.It has been a wild, wacky and incredibly unusual season in the National Football League thus far. Coming into this season, I really thought we were going to see a New York Giants-Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFC Championship and a Tennessee Titans-Oakland Raiders AFC final.
I really thought my hometown team, the G-Men, had a chance to win the Super Bowl with their high-powered offense complimenting their always tenacious defense.

I thought the Bucs were going to continue on the same path as last year blasting opposing teams with hard-nosed defense and pounding the ball on the ground.

I thought the Oakland Raiders were finally going to continue their progression - losing in the AFC Championship game then losing in the Super Bowl - to finally winning that elusive title.

And I thought Steve McNair and the Titans' defense were going to roll all over their AFC competitors. The only guess I was right on was the last one. At least the Titans give me some faith in the NFL.

The worst part about it is that I'm in a pick league. Parity is now the name of the game in the NFL, and it would seem logical not to bet on point spreads with that factor in mind. But no. There's something about the Raiders being 12-point favorites against the Bengals in Week Two and being 11-point underdogs in Week 12 against the Chiefs.

The irony is that the Bengals have actually beaten the Chiefs, while the Raiders beat the Bengals, so shouldn't the Raiders actually be favored against the Chiefs by the communitive property? Or is that the associative?

See, it's all too weird and confusing. The Chiefs were the best team in the NFL, seemingly destined to go undefeated after starting 9-0. Then the ultimate sports curse occurred: they got put on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Poof, they lost to the Bengals. The Bengals that were 2-14 last season, good for not only dead last in their division, but dead last in the entire NFL. The turnaround has been so dramatic, that with Week 12 approaching, they were tied for first in their division.

And they weren't the only worst-to-first story. Dallas (5-11 to 7-3 as of Week 11), Carolina (7-9 to 8-2 as of Week 11) and Kansas City (8-8 to 9-1 as of Week 11) all went from last in their division to - at least a tie for first. And two other teams, Seattle and Minnesota, were leading their divisions in Week 11 after finishing with losing records last season. Only one division leader, Indianapolis, even made the playoffs last season.
Injuries and age have played a big part in this mess. The Jets and Falcons both looked to have big seasons, but they lost their starting quarterbacks before the season even started.

The Raiders, Giants, Browns, Bucs and Dolphins have all had extremely significant players miss time. The Raiders, Redskins and Bucs have definitely been slowed down by players who are passed their prime.
But injuries and age really don't account for the oddities of this NFL season.

Neither does strength of schedule anymore. You can never bet against Houston because every time you do, they beat you. Ditto for Cincinnati. And betting Buffalo or the Steelers or the 49ers has been horrible. It's not so bad how what their records are, but they are just so inconsistent and unpredictable.

And although people may use this complaint in baseball or hockey (though the fact that two small market teams - the Wild and the Marlins - have made it to the finals in their respective sports sort of squashes the debate), market has nothing to do with how a team plays. The two New York teams (really New Jersey, but New York for the sake of the example) are in dead last, Chicago dead last, the three Florida teams not much better and there aren't even any teams in Los Angeles.
Maybe it's about having a dynamic duo of players. Kansas City has the explosive Dante Hall and Priest Holmes. Indi has Payton Manning and Marvin Harrison. The Titans have Steve McNair and Eddie George. The Vikings have Daunte Culpepper and Randy Moss. And Dallas has...um...Quincy Carter and Troy Hambrick?

Ok, maybe it's about the coach then. Bill Parcells has turned around a Dallas team, and, barring a complete disaster, has led them to the playoffs. Marvin Lewis has instilled a new mindset in the Bengals, changing them from the hapless "Bungles" into a really hard working, hard-nosed team. And Bill Belichick has taken a team decimated by injuries and free agency and built them into a real contender. But if that theory runs true, how could a Dan Reeves team be so bad? Or a team coached by Marty Shottenheimer? Or one of the greatest motivators in the game, Jim Fassel? Or someone regarded as one of the best coaches out there, John Gruden?

So maybe it's just luck. It's how the ball bounces. Or whether your long snapper can snap and your kicker can kick and your receiver just shuts up and catches the ball. Maybe the Bucs are better off deactivating Keshawn Johnson the rest of the season. Or maybe they aren't. No one really knows.

Maybe Carolina will face Cinci in the Super Bowl. Or maybe it will be Indi and Phili. Right before the homestretch of the regular season, I'm going to go with Tennessee versus St. Louis in a rematch of a Super Bowl a couple of years ago. And I'm going to go with the Titans to win.
But then again, I may be wrong. How this wacky, weird season has gone, it's possible neither the Titans nor the Rams could make the playoffs. No one really knows.

But, as Boomer says, "that's why they play the game.