Author: Daniel Bohm

You can breathe now, football fans. Brett Favre isn’t going to the Super Bowl.

We can all imagine the endless stories about how number four came out of retirement, took the Vikings on his back and led them to the Super Bowl that would have come about had the Vikings won. They would be all over the newspapers and the Internet and we would all undoubtedly be sentenced to endless Rachel Nichols reports about him “Live from Miami.” Since the Vikings aren’t going to the Super Bowl, I promise (really) that this won’t be one of those reports.

How about that NFC Championship Game though? It started as a track meet and ended as an episode of “The Three Stooges” starring He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, Brad “I have less control of my team than the puppets Al Davis employs” Childress and the referees.

Childress opened the show by meekly trying to weenie his team down the field with two minutes left in regulation, only to call a timeout and then send 12 men to the huddle, pushing the Vikings out of field goal range. As far as crushingly moronic coaching moves go, that is right there near the top. (Probably second, behind the fake field goal Jim Zorn called for the Redskins on Monday Night Football against the Giants this year).

Childress’ blunder did have its benefits, as 95 percent of America (including every single Green Bay Packers fan) learned only a play later, as it set up the artist formerly known as Brett Favre (oops) to throw the game away . . . literally.

That guy whose name rhymes with Schmett Schmarve always seems to find a way to make a careless, stupid play, despite the fact that he has been in the NFL seemingly since the Stone Age and holds most every quarterback record. One of those records is for most interceptions and right on queue Big Arm Brett made a bonehead throw across his body and it was picked off, sending the game to overtime while most of the country rejoiced.

The closing act of the circus was the referees, who I won’t harp on too much, but will say that they made a few interesting calls — holding and pass interference, as well as a questionable catch — that set the Saints up for the game-winning field goal. The worst part about it all, though, was the three booth reviews in overtime, which drastically slowed down what had been a smooth, exciting game. Yes, you want the correct calls at crucial times, but Pete Morelli did not seem at all interested in overturning anything he saw and thus the game just continued at glacial speed.

All that said, on to the Super Bowl.

If you like offense — and really, who doesn’t like offense? — this will be a game for you. It pits probably the two best quarterbacks and the two most explosive offenses in the league against one another.

Peyton Manning, who may, when all is said and done, go down as the greatest quarterback to ever lace up the boots, may have had his most impressive season yet this year.

Gone was Marvin Harrison and injured was Anthony Gonzalez. The Colts’ running game was nowhere to be found most of the year. Yet Manning turned two no-names, Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie, into stars en route to winning his fourth MVP award.

Both quarterbacks, Manning and the Saints’ Drew Brees, are likely to throw the 30 or more times in the Super Bowl and I would not be shocked if the last team with the ball wins.

There are a few small factors that may help decide the game.

One is whether the Saints commit to trying to run the ball. The Colts have a very undersized defense and New Orleans can throw three running backs — Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell and Reggie Bush — at Indianapolis. If the Saints try to muscle up, they may be able to control the clock and open up the field for Brees and the play-action pass game.

A second factor is the kicking game. Kickers have only hit 60 percent of kicks in this postseason. Garrett Hartley just sent New Orleans to the Super Bowl, but he is young and his season-long field goal is 40 yards. Conversely, the Colts boast two experienced kickers, Matt Stover and Adam Vinatieri. Stover will likely do the kicking, though he is the oldest player to ever play in a Super Bowl and thus his range is questionable.

With that said, here is my fearless — and maybe careless — prediction: Saints 31, Colts 28.

Daniel Bohm will finally be forced to give up “all football, all the time” come his Feb. 7 column. Tell him you (and his editor) will gag if thus begins 20 consecutive weeks of uninterrupted baseball commentary at bohmd “at” stanford.edu.

First it was Mark Mangino. Then Mike Leach. And finally Jim Leavitt.

What do they all have in common? They are — were — all college football coaches who have been fired in the past month for using various forms of discipline deemed too severe by their respective universities.

That isn’t all they have in common, however. Mangino, Leach and Leavitt were three of the most lauded coaches in the nation the past few seasons having all resurrected previously decrepit football programs at Kansas, Texas Tech and South Florida, respectively.

I have been a sports fan my entire life and can say unequivocally that, after racking my brain, I cannot come up with a similar firing in any sport from the past.

Sure, there was Bob Knight getting fired from Indiana for hitting players — among other transgressions — but those actions were on video tape, and sometimes on national television. As was Ohio State’s coach, Woody Hayes, punching Clemson’s Charlie Bauman in the jaw.

What happened with Mangino, Leach and Leavitt happened behind closed doors (pun intended, Mr. Leach).

What I’m getting at here is that the world has changed. Actions that were formerly O.K. are no longer acceptable today. I know that not everything that is longstanding is necessarily a good thing, but in this case the change signals something deeper permeating through American society. Simply put, people are getting soft.

There are an abundance of factors that likely contribute to banning of good-ol’ fashioned discipline.

Media technology is obviously one factor. Things that previously did not garner national attention can be heard by anyone and everyone on Twitter five minutes after they happen, or communicated via Facebook for the entire world to see. Or, in the Leach case, a cell phone camera was all that was needed to make Mike Leach’s treatment of a concussed Adam James a national story.

Another factor is the growing fear of liability. Universities are strapped for cash, and while football brings in millions of dollars, the fear of getting sued hangs over the head of every university president and athletic director.

That said, Mark Mangino, the 2007 National Coach of the Year, a coach who doubled his school’s bowl wins during his tenure and led them to their first BCS bowl win, was fired for his alleged verbal abuse of players.

He wasn’t accused of hitting anyone (although grabbing was mentioned), so basically he was fired for being a jerk. Somewhere, Bear Bryant is rolling over in his grave.

I think what administrators must be forgetting is that this is football. It is a violent game that teaches players to literally hit their opponent, and it requires massive amounts of adrenaline to be successful.

Coaches spend hundreds of hours molding these young men’s bodies, teaching them to be aggressive, to want to inflict pain on opponents. Somewhere in that tangled web of testosterone and shoulder pads, there is going to be some yelling, and every once in a while, someone is going to get grabbed — or even hit. So be it.

The nature of the game teaches players to be obedient, but in a world where young people are allowed more and more freedom at increasingly younger ages, obedience can be hard to come by.

So, when a player with a concussion shows up to practice with sunglasses on and complains about the light, a coach locking him in a dark place does not seem too illogical. Maybe the illogical part was doing it to the son of an ESPN broadcaster, as ESPN is right at the center of the media boom.

In no way is this column intended to promote or condone coaches’ abusing players — there have to be limits as to what is allowed and what isn’t — but I do believe that when a coach is charged with controlling and molding the lives of 100-plus college athletes, there has to be some leeway provided.

I don’t know where Mangino, Leach and Leavitt will land, but all three are brilliant football minds that deserve to be employed somewhere. Unfortunately, I think it will be a while until any of them has a job again.

Daniel Bohm thinks the abuse he allegedly “doesn’t condone” is part of football. Tell him you’d like to lock him in a small, dark closet at bohmd “at” stanford.edu.

Bowl season really is the gift that keeps on giving.

Just as ESPN’s “most wonderful week of the year” ends, so begins the NFL playoffs and the lead-up to the most important bowl of all – the Super Bowl.

NFL playoff matchups are set, and yes, I, too, am appalled that the Jets – a team whose quarterback has thrown almost twice as many interceptions as touchdowns – made it.

Given my success at predicting the World Series champion back in October, I figured I’d take a crack at the NFL playoffs.

But first, here are some storylines to watch as the NFL goes bowling.

A Repeat Affair?

No, not you. Pittsburgh. There will be no repeat Super Bowl champions this year, as the Pittsburgh Steelers nose-dived their way out of the playoff arena.

That doesn’t mean things won’t be repeating themselves, however. This wild-card weekend, three of the four games will feature rematches of week 17 blowouts as Philadelphia takes on Dallas, Green Bay battles Arizona and the New York Jets travel to Cincinnati.

The Eagles, Cardinals and Bengals were all victims of thorough beat-downs on Sunday (in Arizona’s defense, they rested their starters for most of the game). How they respond when taking on the same opponent just a week later could go a long way in determining which teams advance to the divisional round.

Arizona and Cincinnati will have the luxury of playing at home, while Philadelphia will be in Dallas. It is hard to beat a team two weeks in a row, but it is also hard to beat a team that recently embarrassed you, so all three match ups are intriguing.

My predictions for Wild Card weekend: the schizophrenic Eagles’ good side will show up and Philadelphia will take down Tony Romo and the Cowboys in Dallas; Green Bay will have a repeat pounding in Arizona; Cincinnati will wake up, realize Mark Sanchez is terribly unprepared, and beat the Jets; and New England, a shell of the pre-spygate franchise, will lose at home to the fighting John Harbaughs (aka the Baltimore Ravens).

Will Lightning Strike Again in San Diego?

The Chargers have become perennial powers in the AFC, waltzing their way to playoff appearance after playoff appearance.
But just as reliable as the sun rising in the East is the Chargers laying an egg come playoff time.

San Diego is unquestionably the hottest team in the NFL right now, having won 11 consecutive games, but four out of the last five years they have managed to find ways to lose at the end of otherwise bright seasons. To say that there is something hanging over their heads is an understatement.

My predictions for the Divisional Round: San Diego (temporarily) overcomes its propensity for postseason failure and beats Cincinnati; Indianapolis overwhelms Baltimore; Philadelphia stays hot and takes down the recently-reeling and overly-rested Saints; and in the Brett Favre bowl (you’re welcome for not writing about it), Favre continues to exact his revenge against the Packers by leading the Vikings to victory.

Uh Oh, Donovan is in the NFC Championship Again…

Almost as reliable as a Chargers’ postseason choke is an Eagles’ loss in the NFC Championship.

To be more specific, four out of their last six times in the playoffs Philadelphia has lost in the NFC Championship game.
A matchup with mistake-prone Brett Favre and the Vikings would be an especially entertaining war of attrition given Favre’s penchant for throwing crippling postseason interceptions and Donovan McNabb’s inclination to disappear in big games.

That said, it would be a showdown of some of the best (mostly) young athletes in football: Desean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Michael Vick, Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice, to name a few.

My predictions for Conference Championships: you can exhale, Packers fans – Favre will melt down and the Eagles will win in Minnesota to go to the Super Bowl; and San Diego’s postseason comedy of errors will return as the Chargers drop a sloppy one in Indianapolis.

Rest for the Wicked

One lingering question heading into the postseason is how teams that rested their starters in the waning weeks of the regular season will perform come playoff time. (That’s you, Indianapolis and New Orleans).

History says that resting starters is foolish, although the New England Patriots learned this week why it might make sense when their leading receiver (Wes Welker) tore his ACL and MCL in a week 17 loss to Houston.

If the Colts make it to Super Bowl Sunday, the rest question is moot, however. But if they don’t, Jim Caldwell will be second-guessed more than anyone this side of Grady Little.

Super Bowl prediction: although I am vehemently against resting starters at the end of the season, the Colts will overcome it because they are the best team. Indianapolis 31, Philadelphia 17.

Dan Bohm wants you to give him a piece of your mind. Tell him why he’s wrong at [email protected].