NFL Week 17: My Three Wishes—Steve Smith, the Pro Bowl, and More

1. I Wish I Were As Tough As Steve Smith

I have had my fair share of sporting injuries over the years—including breaking my arm twice. And, like everyone else who loves playing sports, I have played competitive games when I shouldn’t have—many times, in fact.

What impressed me about Smith’s performance on Sunday wasn’t just that he held onto that ball, it was that he came to ground with it. Anyone who has broken a bone knows that even the slightest jarring can be agonizing. Smith landed on the ground without so much as a grimace, and then walked away smiling.

The word is that the man even wanted to play in the Panthers’ meaningless fixture this coming weekend. Is Hines Ward really the hardest man in the NFL after all?

2. I Wish the Pro Bowl Would Go Back To Being Fun

Has anyone noticed something of a "sea of change" this year? I am not sure if it has anything to do with the new time for the game (it now fills the otherwise vacant weekend before the Super Bowl) or the move to Miami from Hawaii, but suddenly people seem to be very concerned about who did or did not get voted onto one of the two teams.

Which is odd, because the one thing you can always guarantee about the Pro Bowl is that a significant number of those selected will not play anyway. This is, of course, even more certain this year, as no-one who is headed for the Super Bowl is going to risk injury by playing a week earlier (nor will their teams allow them to).

In other words, people are getting very overheated over whether the likes of Randy Moss should be selected for a meaningless game which will not feature half of the people who should be there anyway. Which is almost as silly as the game itself.

3. I Wish TV Companies Would Just Admit It When They Get It Wrong

I am sure that, at one time, the Vikings-Bears matchup looked interesting to ESPN, and I admit that the game did end up being surprisingly entertaining. However, the channel’s attempts to promote the contest beforehand were so bad they were almost funny.

How hard are you scraping the barrel when you are reduced to saying that it will be a good contest because Chicago have won their last 10 games played in sub-freezing temperatures? Or because Brett Favre has lost all of the seven road games he has played in such conditions?

Why not just admit that you picked a dog, that this was a meaningless game between a side which had fortunately secured a playoff berth before hitting a bad run of form, and the most underachieving side in the NFL this year? At least that would be honest.