NFL's Watershed Year Thrills Fans with Unexpected Drama

Another season is nearing its end, and I must admit I am pleased with the way things have turned out.

Whether your team is rolling towards a playoff berth or suffering from soggy bread syndrome like mine, you can’t deny that the league has provided us with a fair share of fresh headlines and new drama.

The usual suspects are still in the newswires, but for different reasons.

Rather than contributing to the prosaic discourse of age-old players pushing the limits of their capabilities, Brett Favre is having the best year of his epic career.

Rather than leading his team down the road to another Super Bowl, Ben Roethlisberger finds himself at the helm of a team that has lost five straight, a first for a team that still holds the title as NFL champion.

The New England Patriots and their ethereal offense are no longer enough to bear the weight of a team suffering from the locker room blues. Discord has replaced the amity that has allowed those in Foxboro to serve as the cornerstone by which to measure the success of a championship-caliber team. Even their coach’s competence is being questioned with his ambiguous fourth down decisions.

While Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons and Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens seem to be suffering from a mild case of the sophomore slump, Tennessee’s Chris Johnson and Baltimore’s Ray Rice are feeling just fine and blossoming into legitimate backfield threats.

Two years ago, the Patriots shocked the football world by finishing the regular season without a loss, something that hadn’t been done since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. This year, there are two teams who are endeavoring to do the same. The Colts and the Saints have relatively easy schedules for the remainder of their year, and I don’t foresee either team falling to an opponent.

For teams like the Denver Broncos and the Cincinnati Bengals, the future is promising. A solid draft and fortuitous trading have left both teams with a talented roster.

For teams like the Panthers and the Cowboys, the talent is there, but the leadership is lacking.

This year has also been fraught with comeback players working to prove themselves in a league where second chances are few and far between. Last year, Vince Young sat patiently while veteran Kerry Collins led his team to a 13-3 record and an eventual playoff loss.

With as much humility and determination as a man could muster up, he waited his turn, and when the Titans lost their first six games, he was given his redemption notice and has since won six of his seven games.

Cedric Benson was one of three RBs drafted in the top five positions in the 2005 draft, but a disenchanting career with the Chicago Bears had him pegged as nothing more than an overpaid bust.

The Bengals entered the 2009 season with minimal expectations by the rest of the league, and the media world chuckled when WR Chad Ochocinco spouted his prediction for a lofty 12-4 record.

It was a match made in heaven. Cincinnati took a chance on Benson, and he has rewarded them with a large contribution to their 9-4 record. While they may not be meeting Chad’s previous conjecture, they are certainly doing better than expected.

Even two of the worst teams in the NFL are generating excitement. The Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns played, arguably, the best game of the year. Both Matthew Stafford and Brady Quinn put up extraordinary numbers in a match that featured eight lead changes and an unbelievable fourth quarter drive by Stafford and company to put his team on top for good.

In a world where sports can quickly become hackneyed and dull, it’s refreshing to see a league where records are constantly broken and reset to a standard that stands beyond former generations.

Even the sometimes inadequate Chad Henne of the Miami Dolphins just broke the record for most consecutive completed passes in a single game (17), a franchise record previously owned by the great Dan Marino.

Sure, some things remain a constant like the tides. The Colts are still faced with the prospect of resting their starters for the remainder of the season, the Lions are still a calamity, and the Cowboys are yet again winless in December.

It’s hard to imagine a season without its ups and downs, but without a fair amount of disequilibrium, we lose those thrilling endings. That hasn’t been a problem either. When the Browns can beat the Steelers and Oakland can beat Philadelphia and the Redskins push the Saints to overtime, all is well in the world.