There but for the grace of a bad call.... ..

As a family we generally don't do blogposts about sports, but as a sometime fan of NFL football I feel compelled to report on something I noticed that the national sports media seems to have overlooked. 

The sports media is all super excited by last year's Superbowl runner up the Seattle Seahawks who have finished their season on a strong note after a slow start.  Yet I'd like to point out that but for the grace of a few bad calls they would not even be in the playoffs.  The team no one is talking about - the Detroit Lions - and not the Seahawks should be in the playoffs.   And to set the record straight as a Washington 'Pigskin' fan (rather not use the official name) I could really could care less about whether Detroit or Seattle made the playoffs - I am unbiased between the two.

My insight and the reason for this post is how capricious is the difference between the 'team of the moment' and the 'team that went home'.

Seattle ended the season with 10 wins and 6 defeats.  Detroit ended up with 7 wins and 9 defeats.  And yet but for a bad call Detroit should have beaten Seattle (click here for story).  Detroit also later lost a game due to a Hail Mary (click here for story), and possible bad call to the Green Bay Packers.  With those victories Detroit would be 9-7 and Seattle (on the other side of the bad call) would be 9-7 too (as would Green Bay too).  And in that scenario Detroit with the head-to-head wins over both would own the tie breakers and be in the playoffs.

Just food for thought - and go Pigskins!

Patrick