Published: January 26, 2008 05:02 pm            

Edwards, NFL on the right track

Kudos to presidential candidate John Edwards.

During this past week's Democratic presidential debate Edwards interrupted the dogfight between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama by noting their bickering and backstabbing is really doing nothing for the country.

“...how many children is this gonna get health care? How many people are gonna get an education from this? This is not about us personally. It is about what we are trying to do for this country,” Edwards emphatically stated.

While Clinton and Obama campaign on a platform of change, their mudslinging tells me it's politics as usual and the nation as a whole is tired of “politics as usual.”

I'm not endorsing Edwards - not yet, anyway.

America is on the brink of making history. Conceivably, we could possibly elect the first female or African American to the highest office in our country.

However, voting for a candidate because of their gender or race isn't any reason to elect them to office just so we can call it momentous.

I would rather trade history for a candidate that's level headed and bypasses smear tactics and venomous rhetoric for what's best for America, no matter what their race or gender.

At least on the Democratic side of the ballot, John Edwards just may be that candidate.

—72—

If the BCS were running the NFL then the two teams playing next Sunday in the Super Bowl would be Dallas and New England.

Dallas was the leading NFC team going into the playoffs; therefore the BCS would have given them the nod for a match-up against the Patriots.

Thank the football gods the BCS isn't running the NFL playoffs.

Because the NFL has a playoff system, football fans everywhere were treated to some of the best gridiron action in several years.

And because of that playoff system, we probably have one of the most anticipated Super Bowl games since they named the championship trophy after Vince Lombardi.

All of this begs the question: When is the NCAA going to get it?

Any type of playoff for a college football national championship would make more cash registers ring at university ticket booths and give us some great football match-ups.

Who wouldn't want to watch a semi-final game against Ohio State and West Virginia (sorry Sooner fans) or LSU and USC?

CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN and FOX would be foaming at the mouth to get a piece of that action and they would pay the NCAA dearly for it.

I haven't crunched the numbers on it (mostly because I wouldn't know where to begin crunching) but I would bet any national championship playoff scenario would bring in twice or three times more money than the bowl games would ever dream of.

Heck, you could even include some of the bowl games in the playoff system. All they would have to do is move their games up a couple of weeks.

Can you imagine the attention the Alamo Bowl or Cotton Bowl would get if they were the sites of quarterfinal match-ups of national championship contenders, not to mention the money they would be making over such match-ups?

Use the BCS to pick the top eight or 10 teams in the nation who will be vying for a national championship. Then let that playoff play out in the bowl games.

Those teams not making the playoffs could still go to their bowl games.

Oh well, it's nice to dream sometimes, isn't it?

        

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