A January Without the Pats: Faulty System Leaves Out NFL Giant

Pay attention, because as a supporter of the Indianapolis Colts it's typically my policy to not give the New England Patriots credit where it is due. But this is ridiculous.

As we know, my beloved fifth-seeded Colts (12-4) will be traveling to California this weekend to take on the fourth-seeded San Diego Chargers (8-8). Wait a second. What?

I didn't stutter. The Colts, who along with the Pittsburgh Steelers hold the second-best record in the AFC are the fifth seed. The only reason for this is that the Colts are in the same division as the AFC's premier team, the Tennessee Titans.

So basically, because the Colts couldn't trump the team with the best record in the National Football League, they have to accept a fifth seed in the playoffs and give up home field advantage to a Chargers team that shouldn't be remotely close to being a playoff team.

Instead of the Chargers being at home where they should be, our other bitter rivals, the Pats, are the ones that find themselves at home eating bon-bons and watching re-runs of The Days of Our Lives.

The NFL sets up the playoffs so that the champions of each division snag the top four seeds in the playoffs according to their records and the two wild card teams settle for the the five and six seeds respectively according to their records.

The object of the setup is two-fold. It is designed to give every region at least one representative in each conference and to make each division more competitive.

That sure doesn't make sense to me. The Patriots have accomplished so much this season. They played the entire year without four-time pro bowler and 2007 League MVP Tom Brady. They played with a young kid in Matt Cassel who hadn't started a game prior to this season since high school. They played in a division that I would describe as easily the second-best division in the NFL and managed a solid 11-5 season.

So let me get this straight. The NFL wants to make divisions more competitive and then punishes a team in the second-best division for being 11-5 instead of 12-4, while allowing and 8-8 team that comes from arguably the worst division waltz into the playoffs and snag home field advantage against a 12-4 team that has already beaten them this year. Yeah. That's smart.

Give me a break.

The Titans are the only team that are where they should be. They deserve that bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The other bye belongs to the Colts, who have earned a 12-4 mark while beating the Steelers on the road.

The Steelers should then be hosting the Miami Dolphins in the first round while the Patriots battle the Baltimore Ravens.

If you want to make the NFL more competitive, make every game count and don't let an 8-8 team out an 11-5 team and if you want to make it more fair, put the best six teams from each conference in the playoffs.