So Who Should We Root For Now - Revisited

So that was a horrible football weekend. The Jets beat the fraud squad Chargers. The Colts took care of business by beating the Ravens. Both the Vikings and the Saints embarrassed their opponents, the Cowboys and the Cardinals respectively. Since all of the teams that we sports hate the least have all been eliminated, who should we root for now?

The previously mentioned sports hate rules still apply but some are a little subjective. The rules need to be further elaborated to help clear up some of the muddy waters.

Let's start off by saying that Rule 2 still applies. There is no reason ever to root for the Jets. Ever. Well, unless of course you're cheering for them to advance to the Super Bowl only to get wildly embarrassed on the national level.

So that leaves us with the Colts, the Vikings, and the Saints. There are many reasons to sports hate all 3 of those teams but we need to narrow down the teams even more. Let's introduce a new rule...

Rule 6. Thou must root against the player/team/coach who threatens to match or beat achievements of thine own home team.

This rule helps us out tremendously. The Colts are led by Peyton Manning who people love to get into ridiculous debates about who is a better QB, Manning or Brady. Anyone who is anyone already knows that Brady runs away with this title. Brady has 3 Super Bowl victories and 4 Super Bowl appearances. Manning only has a pitiful total of 1 Super Bowl victories. Manning looks like a goober; Brady does not not; advantage Brady again. So Rule 6 dictates that we root against the Colts to prevent Manning to inching closer to matching Brady's accomplishments.

Continuing with the Super Bowl totals theme, Favre (Vikings) has 2 Super Bowl appearances with 1 victory. Favre is one of the most overrated players ever. His gun-slinging style has probably cost his teams more times than it's helped them. Anyone can hop on a team with a great running game and a pretty good defense and take them all of the way. So it's a realistic possibility that Favre could make it all of the way to the Super Bowl. So again, Rule 6 dictates that we root against the Vikings as well.

That only leaves us with the Saints. As much as their players repeatedly violate Rule 4 (e.g., Jeremy Shockey, Reggie Bush), their QB Brees has never been to a Super Bowl let alone win one. Their franchise also has never reached the Super Bowl.

Oh, as a side note, it's a good thing that the Saints are no longer undefeated. If this team had a chance of actually going 19-0, this accomplishment would seriously trump the Patriots 2007 season. *sheds a tear* Had the Saints been 18-0 heading into the Super Bowl, Rule 6 would dictate strongly rooting against the Saints.

So back to the topic of the Saints franchise, this reminds me...Archie Manning played the majority of his career for the Saints. And we all know that he gave us both of the Manning "goober" brothers, Peyton and Eli. That makes it really tough to root for this team. But sports hate has its hierarchy so we're just going to have to accept that. They can't all lose.