That's all there is

That's all, folks.

In all of professional sports, there's 1 winner. That's it. No co-championships, or shared accolades. About 7pm last night, the 28th losing team was whacked from the slate.

And, oddly enough, it was my New England Patriots.

Well, like I've always said, I like the Pats - even love 'em - but I don't bleed their colors. When they're lousy, and they were for most of my life, they were loveably bad. When good, they were great.

There are no bonus points in Atlanta and Boston this morning for having great regular season records. No one cares. The Jets, Steelers, Packers, and Bears have survived the Hobbesian nightmare that is the NFL postseason. Life there is nasty, brutish, and short...."one and done" as the saying goes.

Y'all saw the game, right? The Jets pummeled the Patriot offensive line and made Pretty Brady dance a little in the pocket. The Tom Terrific of 2002-5 is, perhaps, as gone as the 49ers Joe Cool. Brady doesn't seem to want to risk hurting that 6 ft 2 in frame of his, doesn't seem as fearless. And, hence, not as committed to his team. Why would he? He's got a hell of a life going for him. But I'll remind you that once upon a time he was a scrapper.

Not all of it was his fault, the Jets exposed his o-line and in doing so exposed the short-passing game these Pats relied upon to score all of those points. The young Pats D was exposed, a little, in crucial moments the young bucks made critical mistakes. The Jets get all the credit for whipping the Patriots. Simple as that.

These Pats remind me, a bit, of the old 49er teams. Cool Joe (an undervalued draft pick in '80 or '81, I think) won 2 quick titles in 1981 and 1984. But after the '84 title they lost in subsequent years to NFC East beasts like the NY Giants, Washington Redskins, and the NFC Central Bears. Those teams were built on physical play and intimidation. The 49ers adjusted their personnel to this new reality, and by 1990 they were a similarly-situated team. Perhaps these Patriots need to adjust. (Here's an idea for an East Coast team.....a reliable running game).

As you might guess, I'm a Red Sox guy. This serves me well on morning like this, where disappointment is the watchword. It's cool, my teams lose sometimes. There's always next year. The breathless "sports news" coverage - if you get sucked into it- can make it feel like "this win" or "this loss" is the most important thing going on in the world. Yet by August of 2011 most of us will have trouble recalling who won the Super Bowl. It's all very transitory, almost disposable, consumer-based madness.

I was also a little shocked to see the Ravens sh*t the bed in Pittsburgh, but they're a good organization so I bet they're back in the playoffs next year. The Bears get the boobie prize and have to play the Packers again. I'm pulling for a Packers-Steelers showdown in three weeks, hope I'm right.