End of NFL Playoffs Week 2 2012

As usual, I love the latest “Mailbag” from GrantLand, read it here. It’s always full of nuggets of wisdom and great commentary. I’ve been a fan of Bill Simmons ever since I read his The Book of Basketball.

My favorite tidbit from this mailbag was this:

SG: After Tom Brady blew out his knee eight minutes into the 2008 season, I created a new Level of Losing called “The Left at the Altar Loss”, which I described at the time as “When you’re waiting for months and months for the season to start (like planning a wedding), then you have your fantasy drafts (the bachelor party), then you have the rehearsal dinner the night before (making your starting fantasy lineups, making your bets, figuring out which games you’ll watch Sunday), then you go to the church for the actual wedding (getting in front of the TV for the 1 p.m. ET games) … and as you’re standing on the altar, you find out your bride either changed her mind or got run over by the limo driver. That was me and every other Patriots fan that Sunday — we had our tuxedos on, we were ready to go, and suddenly we were sitting in a waiting room in a hot tuxedo waiting for medical updates on our comatose fiancée and halfheartedly trying to talk ourselves into one of the bridesmaids.” Griffin’s knee injury was a combination “Left at the Altar Loss” and a “Guillotine” (because you were fearing that it might happen for three and a half quarters), so as far as I can tell, it’s the first-ever “Guillotined at the Altar” loss.

I’ll probably start using some of his Levels of Losing to describe games or playoff series from now on. What are some “The Left at the Altar Loss” for basketball?

 

Thoughts on RG3 Benching

I know some Redskins fans are pissed at the RG3 benching in his first ever playoff game. But, as usual, I agree with Jonathan Tjarks:

This RG3 story reminds me of when Don Nelson refused to play Dirk with a knee injury in the 2003 WCF. That decision looks wiser every year.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I don’t think you should risk long-term damage for a bright rookie for one playoff game.