I Just Don't Understand | lylethebuccaneer's Blog

I do not understand Jon Gruden's reasoning. Here was a team with a legitimate shot for 12 wins until the hiccup in Houston. Then, an 11 win season was about a gimmee, until Gruden decided to give away the last two games of the season by resting the starters and playing two glorified pre-season games. I know the health of players is important, but as an NFL team you have basically made a contract with the fans to play 16 games. What does this say about the integrity of the league when I pay my money to see Earnest Graham & Jeff Garcia play and I end up watching Micahel Bennet & Luke McCown? This has got to stop. Gruden said there was nothing to play for. Well, turns out he was wrong. Of course he had no way of knowing that Atlanta would beat Seattle and had the Bucs actually tried to win the past two games they'd now be the #3 seed and have a much nicer 11-5 record as opposed to the bare above .500 9-7 record.

Now, the Bucs have zero momentum heading into the playoffs. The Giants have all the momentum in the world. All I can hope for now is that Gruden was right and somehow his players come back after this layoff and play like champions.

But what about the Titans who basically made a playoff spot and denied Cleveland that spot by playing Colts backups players. It makes no sense. The NFL needs to do something to get the teams to actually play for 16 games. Players get injured. That's part of the game. Some players get hurt in week 3, others in week 15. You can't plan for it or control it. You just have to deal with it. That's what good teams do. That's what championship teams do.

Also, what is the deal with Redskins fans? They were going nuts on Sunday beating the second & third string Cowboys players. Does anyone really think the Redskins would have had any chance at all had Dallas been playing all their starters for the whole game? Redskins fans were so exited about winning an oddly placed pre-season game. I'll have to say that the rudest visiting fans year in and year out I have had to deal with are Redskins fans and Bills fans. I can't explain it, butu that is just the way it is.

Namaste.