2011 NFL Predictions

AFC East
New England 13-3
New York 11-5 (wild card)
Miami 7-9
Buffalo 4-12

AFC North
Baltimore 12-4
Pittsburgh 11-5 (wild card)
Cleveland 7-9
Cincinnati 3-13

AFC South
Indianapolis 11-5
Houston 9-7
Jacksonville 7-9
Tennessee 5-11

AFC West
San Diego 10-6
Kansas City 8-8
Oakland 7-9
Denver 4-12

NFC East
Philadelphia 11-5
Dallas 10-6 (wild card)
New York 10-6
Washington 5-11

NFC North
Green Bay 11-5
Detroit 8-8
Chicago 7-9
Minnesota 6-10

NFC South
New Orleans 11-5
Atlanta 11-5 (wild card)
Tampa Bay 8-8
Carolina 2-14

NFC West
St. Louis 8-8
Arizona 7-9
San Francisco 6-10
Seattle 6-10

Playoff Results:
Wild-Card Round
(5) Jets over (4) Chargers
(3) Colts over (6) Steelers
(3) Eagles over (6) Cowboys
(5) Falcons over (4) Rams

Divisional Round
(1) Patriots over (5) Jets
(2) Ravens over (3) Colts
(3) Eagles over (2) Saints
(1) Packers over (5) Falcons

Conference Championships
(2) Ravens over (1) Patriots
(1) Packers over (3) Eagles

Super Bowl XLVI
Packers over Ravens

I'm Getting Old

So this week classes start back up at AU. Its a weird time because here at the Seminary the scheduling is a little bit different and we do not start our fall classes until the beginning of October. Since the new school year is beginning I am required to go to intramural sports training for the Rec Center on campus. At training today, the returning officials got to meet the new officials for the year. They were all freshmen of course. Meeting these new officials, I came to the realization that I am six years their senior. This realization gave me conflicting feelings. On what side, I felt good. I am accomplished, mature and wise in my old age. On the other side, I felt sad. I am getting older, slower and less cool. It also made me realize that this is truly my last year of a college type experience. Once June comes around I will have to be an official adult and make real adult decisions while trying to manage a career. I have run out of ideas to delay this from happening. Man, I feel old. Where has my life gone? God, could you please just slow down time a little bit?

Winning

The American society is fascinated with winning. In fact to be the best at anything is probably the goal of most Americans. It is what drives us. We have to be the best at our job. We have to be the best in our class. We have to have the best house, car, family, etc. We even have to root for the best sports teams. Charlie Sheen, our great American idol, has even made the phrase, "Winning" popular lately. I don't know what it is but each of us has to be the best. It is funny really because logic says that if one person or group of people wins, then someone has to lose.

Yet grown men and women throw fits when they see their child lose or they lose in an intramural game. Games that don't even matter. You could even say that at the end of the day a result of a professional or collegiate game doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of life. But yet our competitive nature takes over and causes us to become angry, hostile people. Do not get me wrong, I am a competitive person and will do whatever it takes to win a game, but at the end of the day, when the game is over, there is nothing more I can do to change the outcome. I have learned to be satisfied with whatever the outcome. Sure winning is fun, but losing can be just as fun if you have the right attitude.

But most of us don't. We are blinded by our desire to be the best. We feel that our identities are linked to whether we have won or lost. So in the process of the game we lose ourselves and become solely focused on the outcome. We become people we are not, yelling and screaming foul at anything that does not go our way. In the end these are the people who have lost, even if the scoreboard reads differently. "Why?" you ask. Because they missed out on the journey, the thing which is to be most enjoyed. This is how I have learned to have fun losing. I no longer have to be the best, I just enjoy the chance to become it.

Remember When...Pay Phones

I had a horrible dream the other night...I was 13. Basketball practice had ended but my parents weren't there to pick me up. I had no change and had to do the worst of all sins: call my parents collect. Then the dream flashes to a school dance and it has ended. The same thing happens, my parents fail to show and once again being short some change I had to call them collect.

Then it happened, there was the sound of thunder and the ceiling ripped open and down came an angel. He had something in his hand that was radiating with glory: a cell phone. He handed it to me and I was saved. Not only did I have a device which allowed me to call my parents for free, but I could send text messages to friends and take pictures while downloading my favorite songs to be ringtones. How has mankind survived 7,000 years without such a tool?

Cell phones have caused almost all pay phones to get replaced. I think I saw one in the subway system of NYC a few years ago, but that's it. Pay phones cease to exist. Cell phones have made them obsolete. People younger than me have lost the experience of finding change to put in a phone to call home and the anxiousness of waiting a parent's response or anyone else when you had to call them collect.

The thing I miss most about calling collect or long distance is the weird payment plans. Ninety-nine cents for the first minute and ten cents a minute after. Or it would be some other weird connection fee, followed by a per minute rate. Maybe gas stations should restore this same principle: $3.75 for the first gallon $1 per gallon after....any seconds to this motion?