NFL Rant

Diane,
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that jazz. There's more important things to discuss right now. Namely the lack of respect being given to my New York Jets and how they "Backed into" the playoffs.
Yes, the Jets beat two teams with nothing to play for in order to get into the playoffs. So what? For years the NFL has scheduled team's opponents years in advance on a system where a team plays every team from it's division twice, games against all the teams in another division of the team's conference and games against all the teams in one division of the opposing conference, and two games against teams that they haven't faced in a while, or are rivals from another division based on proximity or history. I don't hear anyone screaming about Cincinnati being in the playoffs after beating Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland(twice), Kansas City for 5 of their 10 wins. Those teams had a combined record of 17-47. How about Dallas, who beat Tampa Bay, Seattle, Washington(twice), Oakland, and Kansas City? Record: 21-59. Dallas also lost TWICE to a New York Giants team that gave up 40+ points five times in the last 11 games.
My point in this is simple: IT'S FOOTBALL! The season is long, you have plenty of opportunities to play your way in(or out) of the playoffs. The Jets caught a break by playing 2 teams with nothing much to play for, but it happens. Both teams were talented. I doubt we'd be hearing a peep if their schedule had them playing teams that weren't any good(Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit) or were imploding (Denver, NY Giants). Give the unfair advantage talk a break and enjoy the playoff football. I know we're not going to see the Jets, or any team, roll over and die for an opponent.
EDIT: Just to continue on another rant, why is everyone all of a sudden so high on the Cowboys? Yes they did win the NFC East this year by beating an Eagles team that had just won 6 straight. Looking closer though, the Eagles best win all season was a win at Atlanta(9-7) 3 weeks ago. Of their other 9 wins they beat the New York Giants(8-8) twice, Carolina(8-8), Denver(8-8), San Francisco(8-8), Chicago(6-10), Washington(4-12) twice, Kansas City(4-12) and Tampa Bay(3-13). Combined record for ALL their wins: 50-80. Up until 3 weeks ago, Dallas was considered to be a major flop, the Division they're in to be overrated, and their QB to be garbage. An impressive win over New Orleans changed all that. But the Saints have fallen apart in the past 2 weeks, losing to at home to Tampa and at Carolina, so there's more questions about the Saints today than at the time of that win. After that, they beat up on 2 division opponents who were (say it with me now) OVERRATED on the whole. Will the Cowboys beat the Eagles on Saturday? Probably. Can they go to Minnesota and win in an ear-crushing Metrodome? About as likely as a gametime temp of 70 in the land of 10,000 lakes.
Whew, that felt good.