Fond memories

All memories don't have to be amazingly memorable. As an Arizona Cardinals fan, I consider the Arians-Palmer era as a decent and fun one though they didn't win a championship or even make it to the Super Bowl. Cards are not quite the New England Patriots and given their checkered past, living through this era felt a lot better to me than it actually was. Cards have been to just 5 playoffs in 20 years and 6 in around 35 years. Arians-Palmer took us to 2 of those playoffs in the last 5 and had a losing season only once. So, we might as well call this era a dynasty of epic proportions and compare them to Hoodie and Brady. Life is all about context and perspective and this is practically a dynasty for the Cards fans. Both Arians and Palmer retired this week and that puts a nice wrap on this stretch. They also started together in the desert in 2013.

The high point of their combined run was obviously the 2015 season with a 13-3 regular season, a first round playoff bye, and a NFC championship game appearance. The highlight of that season and probably a top-5 moment in the history of the AZ Cardinals was the OT win against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in a classic playoff game. That Cards' season ended in Carolina in an embarrassing fashion for Palmer. You never know which Palmer showed up and the one in Carolina was definitely not the good one. They missed the playoffs the next 2 years. 2014 had a lot of potential too until Palmer got injured. Between his injuries and inconsistency, Palmer left a lot to be desired. Arians was up and down too with his coaching. But I will still miss them both. It was a mostly positive experience with these two at the helm and I thank them for the memories.

As for the here and now, the NFL playoffs are kicking off this weekend. Parity rules in the NFL and there is always a healthy dose of churn and surprises in the list of playoff teams every year. This year's entrants are no different and even more fascinating! Some real long playoff droughts are being terminated this weekend. The Bills are in the playoffs after a staggering 18-year break. I can't believe they have not made it since their loss in the music city miracle back in the day. Their last playoff appearance pre-dates iPhones and HD TVs. Even the QB they lost to in that game, Steve McNair, is unfortunately dead already. The bad news for the Bills is, they didn't really make it to the playoffs this year either. They pulled the ultimate back-door maneuver to sneak in. Of course the Bills' fans don't care and it's not their problem that the Baltimore Ravens collapsed and lost to let Buffalo in.

And here's the even worse news for the Bills. They probably have no shot against the Jaguars, who are ending a 10-year playoff drought. Thats saying something given that they will be playing against a Blake Bortels led Jaguars team. Of course, nobody will be surprised if the Bills do win and thats saying something about Blake himself. This is not going to be a made-for-TV matchup with a lot of excitement and star power. Hope it stays close so people have something to watch in this game. The other not-so-sexy matchup sends Titans to Kansas City. The Titans are ending a 9-year playoff drought. Come Monday, they will be ready to start another drought after the loss to the Chiefs. The NFC match-ups are a lot more interesting. The Saints-Panthers is the headliner. I like the Saints in this one, though Cam and the Panthers are no joke. The Falcons @ Rams will be a good one and probably the closest contest of the weekend.

The Rams are ending a long 13-year playoff drought themselves, but it feels much shorter because they are new to LA. So, LA doesn't care about the drought nor about the Rams in general for that matter, but there will be enough bandwagon fans to join this playoff spectacle anyways. I give the Falcons a slight edge to pull off the upset here due to their playoff experience, but if they can't contain Gurley, they will be done. As always, the Falcons may win the first 2.5 quarters and then mail it in at the most inappropriate moment. We shall see. In the larger picture, all of these teams seem like nothing more than a nice bait for the Patriots. There is an explosive ESPN piece today on the palace intrigue and politics between the Hoodie, Brady, and Kraft. For most teams, this would be a major detraction. Of course for the Patriots this is probably the best thing ever. Hoodie will craft this into motivational fodder and the Pats may have just clinched their Super Bowl, though that seemed like an eventuality this season anyways.

Sheriff of Omaha

The Sheriff is done. Peyton Manning has made it official. He has retired as expected after a brilliant career. His best move today might have been ending the retirement presser with "Omaha." He made that word synonymous with quarterbacking with his crazy audibles and that Nebraska town should thank him for the strange connection he created. They should nominate him as a honorary sheriff if not their mayor for one day. I will miss him. We will all miss him. He was one of the most prolific passers in the history of the game and kept us company on Sundays for 18 years! Between him and Kobe retiring next month, it truly is an end of an era for us sports fans. These 2 guys have been entertaining us for almost 2 decades and they were a huge part of my youth and life as a sports fan. Kobe was more a thorn on my side and I was never a fan, but I always liked Peyton. I loved his play as well as his Colts teams. In his games against the Pats and Brady, I was almost alway rooting for Peyton. Speaking of the Manning-Brady rivalry, we should all be happy we were part of it. It was an historic rivalry between 2 true legends and we will be talking about it for decades. It's the NFL's version of Bird V Magic and we are going to miss it starting 2016.

As a pure QB, Peyton is definitely top 3 in the history of the game anyway you look at it.  I am a huge Dan Marino fan and I still think he is one of the best QBs ever. Marino owned every single passing record in the books for several years before the game changed. Brett Favre then erased Marino from the record books for half of those records and now, Peyton has surpassed both Marino and Favre to own almost all of the passing numbers that matter. Peyton is this generation's Marino with a couple of rings to boot. He was a passing savant much like Marino and it was pure joy to watch their mastery of the position. We can count the rings all we want, but football is a team sport and the best passer doesn't and cannot win the ultimate price every year. Make no mistake about it, Marino was the best passer and Peyton is his successor who may have taken the craft a step further. Marino never won the big one and Peyton's playoff record is also considered shaky. But Peyton does go out on top with a ring, his second, and with a resume that is rich and complete. Two championships are better than one, though this last year might have come with a huge cost for Peyton.

Peyton's play in 2015 finally slipped to the point where he was nothing more than a game manager. There was the HGH allegation from Al Jazeera and last but not the least, somehow his Super Bowl victory brought the "mooning of the personal trainer" incident at University of Tennessee back to the front pages. The fact that our media didn't care about it for 20 years and brought it back in time for his retirement as soon as he won the Super Bowl tells us all we need to know about our corrupt media.  What Peyton allegedly did was reprehensible and I wish he had paid for it 20 years back. I guess better late than never. In any case, his play on the field through those 20 years was mostly amazing. He was a true professional and a perfectionist and we can learn a lot about how we should run our careers by watching and reading about these high achievers. He is a football junkie and the game will definitely miss him. Hope we see him back as a QB coach or may be even a head coach down the road. Most legends can't coach, but I think Peyton can. But he will have a lot of money making opportunities in his retirement and let's see what route he picks. We don't know any of these guys personally and we sure can't tell if he was a good or a bad guy, but he was a truly great QB. I still rank him higher than Tom Brady. As a pure passer, it's either him or Dan Marino at number 1. Thanks for the football memories, Peyton!

Speaking of number ones, the Golden Sate Warriors laid an egg yesterday in LA against the Lakers, one of the worst teams in the league. But they did win at home today to score the all-time home winning streak record with 45 straight. Thats more games than an entire NBA season and it's one more mind-boggling record for these dubs. This was another one of those records held by MJ's Bulls. Losing road games unexpectedly to bad teams seems to be the Warrior's thing, though they are undefeated against the good teams. Curry is still putting up ridiculous numbers and despite the turnover problems of the last two games, they are in a good spot. They are still on track to break the Bulls' 72 win record. They are now 56-6 and amazingly, they are still only 3.5 games above the Spurs. Thats how good the Spurs have been, but nobody cares thanks to all the attention on the Warriors. The Spurs won't win 72 games, but they may win 68 to 70 games. That would be something if two teams win 70 games. We should all watch and enjoy this unique season.