Hat-tip to Brian Tuohy and his NFL season page, and he got this from "Dennis", a Minnesota Viking fan, on Twitter. (The link below is a one-minute clip posted to Soundcloud.)
Mike Florio asserts (as a purported joke) that the league is going to ensure the Vikings lose this weekend.
The initial thought process is that a Vikings win will damage a number of teams in the NFC.
Minnesota is playing Chicago. The Vikings are 8-5. One game behind Green Bay, tied with Seattle for the two wild-card spots. Next non-division winner in the NFC? 6-7.
A Vikings win basically seals them into the playoffs. (Same goes for Seattle.)
So Florio's assertion that the Vikings winning would damage a number of teams is quite correct. That and a Seattle win eliminates St. Louis, who basically eliminated Tampa Bay last night.
The Vikings going to 9-7 basically takes out that entire 6-7 mess of the NFC East and Atlanta. It probably takes quite a number of Week 17 games off the table, even though it might well add Minnesota at Green Bay, especially because Green Bay has to play at Oakland and Arizona the next two weeks.
Then, the discussion turns to this little ditty that a lot of people might want to take a look at in light of this season's far-too-convenient number of close games and Cliffhangers:
Roger Goodell has ADMITTED that he roots for the team which is behind, and this comment is almost two years old now -- leading Pro Football Talk to raise the probability that the blackout at the Ravens-49ers Super Bowl was intentional!
So extrapolate that to Pete Rozelle's vision that every team would have a shot at the playoffs in the last week.
Not going to happen this year, but here's a little look at something:
Week 15, Thursday nighter in.
Every team in the NFC East is in it (yes, even Dallas -- they've basically figured out a singular scenario that can get Dallas to 7-9 and win the division through tiebreakers).
Detroit is eliminated, not sure about Chicago (but Chicago or Tampa Bay WILL be eliminated next week, if they aren't already).
The other three teams in the NFC South probably need Minnesota, Seattle, or both to lose out, because only Atlanta can do better than 8-8. I do not believe, at this point, until Minnesota and Seattle win, that the other three teams are out, save tiebreakers.
49ers out, St. Louis hanging on.
By my count, barring mega-tiebreaker looks, only two NFC teams enter Sunday of Week 15 out of the playoffs.
AFC: San Diego, Tennessee, Baltimore, and Cleveland out.
AFC South winner has to get to at least 7, but Jacksonville still in it.
Buffalo dangling, Miami dangling even more.
Oakland dangling as well.
So, Week 15, Sunday, only six teams out of the 32 are out of it. More may follow, but it does raise the concept of how many of the last games might be relevant.
For the record, here's the Week 17 schedule:
Jets-Bills (Buffalo will probably be out, but the Jets are 8-5 and in the mix, so this one probably is important for the Jets.)
Patriots-Dolphins (Probably home field for the Patriots.)
Tampa-Carolina (16-0 for Carolina? Outside flier at the Wildcard for Tampa??)
Saints-Falcons (Last gasp at a wildcard for either, if Minnesota and/or Seattle slump?)
Baltimore-Cincinnati (Bengals #2 seed entering this week, so bye week implications.)
Pittsburgh-Cleveland (See the Jets for Pittsburgh. Same scenario.)
Jacksonville-Houston and Tennessee-Indianapolis in that mess of an AFC South. Pretty much about the only way these games lose importance is if the Tennessee-Houston winner this week wins next week and the loser loses again next week.
Oakland-Kansas City (KC is the third team 8-5, and Oakland is still on the outside door of it.)
Washington-Dallas and Philly-Giants in that mess of an NFC East.
Detroit-Chicago -- might be the first game on this list I can slam the door on.
Minnesota-Green Bay is probably for the division and most playoff scenarios have the winner hosting the loser in the wildcard round.
San Diego-Denver (Denver's positioning, see Cleveland.)
Seattle-Arizona (only might not mean anything if Seattle clinches in and Arizona can go no further)
Rams-49ers (outside shot for the Rams)
So I've got ONE Week 17 game (two weeks in advance) meaning nothing, and a couple or three which might take a convoluted bunch of scenarios.
This is what Florio is "joking" about. Maximize the number of relevant games, and the fans will glue to their seats.
One interesting thing Florio tries to use as cover (in speaking facetiously) is "someone would've leaked it by now" if this were the case.
Oh really? Care to ask the family of Dan Moldea how that might work out, especially after he found FBI evidence as to the rigging of a significant number of MNF games in a 1970's season?
But Florio does say the final bullet point right: A Vikings win takes most of the wildcard picture in the NFC and clears it.
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