Don't call it a comeback

I know I haven't blogged in a while. It's not like I have nothing to say or report, there are tons of events that I have pictures of, but it's Bloggers fault for making it such a pain. I'm waiting for the right motivation to post about those things, as it is not always enjoyable to write those posts. Instead, I'm going to post about sports, which seems less like work and more like fun.

Today, I was watching the top 10 comebacks of all time on the NFL network. The first one they show, Number 10, was Joe Montana versus the Eagles in 1989. I was prepared to see some awesome game where they were down 20 with 5 minutes left in a crucial season-changing game. After all, it's number 10 of the top 10 comebacks of ALL TIME.

They first showed Montana getting sacked, again and again, and it looked like the Eagles were probably up 93-0 at half time. But they refused to show or even tell me the score! They said, "Seifert should've taken Joe out of the game, but Joe said, 'We're going to win this game' at halftime." Then they proceeded to show Joe throwing touchdown after touchdown to win the game 96-93. Well, that's what it seemed like. They didn't even mention the score, they just went to commercial. So I googled the game and this is what I found:

1. It was the 3rd game of the season. The third. Games in September are next to meaningless in the context of the greatest comebacks of ALL TIME. If you're going to show some borderline meaningless game, it had better be an AWESOME comeback. You don't see Cornell versus Mediocre St highlights on SportsCenter unless Mediocre St scored 28 points in 30 seconds to win the game. Anything less than 28 points in 30 seconds and the general population can't be bothered.

2. The score at halftime was 12-10, Eagles. TWELVE to FREAKING TEN! "Hey, Joe, how do you think your team can overcome this massive 2 point deficit?" "I'm not sure, Jimbob, it seems pretty insurmountable. I'm already thinking about my steak dinner tonight." What gumption did this Joe Montana have! When the odds were against him, when the world was crashing down on him, when the nay-sayers were nay-saying, Joe looked into Coach Seifert's eyes and said, "We're going to win this game, George." Incredible.

3. The Eagles scored a TD to go up by 11 with 8 minutes left in the game. 8 short minutes! Down by 11! Head for the exits, this game's over! This wasn't a comeback, this was a hard-fought game where they got more than 1 possession behind. There needs to be a comeback rule, where you can't say it's a comeback unless you're more than 2 possessions behind with less than 5 minutes left. Or maybe a possession every 3 minutes. So if you're down by 2 possessions with 4 minutes left, it's not a comeback. If you're down by 1 possession with 2 minutes left, it's not a comeback. But if you're down by 3 possessions with 5 minutes left, it's a comeback. And anything greater than 20 points is a comeback. Or, if you're Pete, you give up. (Zing!)

4. The 49ers, down 28-17, scored 3 TD's in the final 8 minutes to win the game 38-28. How anticlimatic. Leave it to the NFL network to take a run of the mill game with lots of 4th quarter scoring to make it into something great.

I watched the rest of the top 10. There were a couple of suspect games, but none as bad as this one. Number 1 was the classic Bills comeback against the Oilers, deservedly so.

So how did this make the top 10? The guy that picked these top 10 was either:
a. drunk
b. in love with Joe Montana
c. a die-hard 49ers fan
d. unwilling to do much research
e. all of the above.

Maybe I'm just biased because they didn't show my personal favorite comeback: Peyton bringing the Colts back from 21-3 against the Pats in the AFC Championship. This was great on a number of levels, but my favorite was going to work the next day with all these Pats fans that know I love the Colts. Nobody mentioned the game. I loved it.