One Last Kick

King Kaufman has a good column at Salon (subscribe already, they're good people) putting forth a good change for football that will never, ever, happen. But I'm possibly more sympathetic to it after this year's adventures in kicking than the year prior.

My entire bowl experience for this season has been a couple of glances at passed by televisions and the second overtime of last night's AARP Bowl. (And boy, it's a good thing we don't have a playoff, or fans might lose interest in these periphial bowl games, isn't it?) I'll probably catch the second half of tonight's game in Pasedena, which will either be the aftermath of a slaughter or one big helping of crow for the national sports media. Or, you know, neither, since the game could be close and when has a sports journalist ever acknowledged overhyping something?

I'd like to be able to say that Southern Cal will buy into their own hype and be crushed. I'd like to see Texas humiliated as well, not for any Mack Brown animosity but a general dislike of the state and thier propensity to play "I've Been Working on the Railroad." But Brown's teams, despite having systematic troubles getting past certain teams don't get blown out, and the Trojans are incredibly good. The game should close and the offenses firing on all cylinders, but in the end the groundhog will see his shadow and we'll get six more months of Trojan hype.

And then we can get back to sports that know how to determine their champions.