Great article.

Anyone who follows football at all should read this Bill Simmons article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/081219

A few excerpts:

Gift No. 2: A Blu-Ray player ($200-250). Better than DVD in every conceivable way. I won't recommend a brand because I don't want to offend a potential sponsor. (By the way, I didn't write that last sentence.) Make sure you also buy an HDMI cable as part of the gift; women always forget that part. Would we buy you a vacuum without a great extension cord? Of course not.

I thought reader Ian in Portage, Mich., summed up the season nicely: "Hey, check out what I did for the last six hours trying to make this work all the way through. OK, Kansas City beat Oakland, which beat Denver, which beat Cleveland, which beat Cincinnati, which beat Jacksonville, which beat Green Bay, which beat Seattle, which beat San Francisco, which beat Buffalo, which beat San Diego, which beat New England, which beat the N.Y. Jets, who beat Arizona, which beat Miami, which beat St. Louis, which beat Dallas, which beat Washington, which beat New Orleans, which beat Tampa Bay, which beat Minnesota, which beat Carolina, which beat Atlanta, which beat Chicago, which beat Indianapolis, which beat Baltimore, which beat Philadelphia, which beat the N.Y. Giants, who beat Pittsburgh, which beat Houston, which beat Tennessee, which beat Detroit, which beat NOBODY."

and:

"Surely, you grew up with Bob Barker and 'The Price is Right.' Hell, who didn't? Well, I hope you saw this call by Drew Carey from the Showcase Showdown. It makes Buck's call of the Helmet Catch sound like Gus Johnson. This is the new high point of announcing low points. As anyone who has watched this show knows, you rarely see anyone sniff $500, let alone $100 of their showcase showdown total. So what do you have here? The first contestant comes within $500 of the Showcase Showdown, then her opponent beats her by hitting the number right on the head!!!! He got it exactly!!!! This could have been -- in the arms of a decent game-show host -- the greatest game show moment of all-time. For God's sake, Drew couldn't have even faked some excitement as he paused and read off the guy's final dollar total? Would that have killed him? Instead, he looked like he just found out that tapioca had been taken off the menu in the CBS cafeteria. There has never been a worse announcer EVER! Seriously, Bob Barker needs to re-enter this show one day, WWE-style, and take Carey out. Oh My God!!!! It's the Undertaker!!!!!!!!"