While you watch America's favorite sport, you will have plenty of time to ponder a few of the more puzzling aspects of America's favorite sport.

Forget a QB rating system based on math Stephen Hawking wouldn't understand. Forget ESPN's new "Total Quarterback Rating." How many quarterbacks strike such fear into a coach's heart that he would choose Bill Belichick's desperate fourth-and-two play over a punt?

Football is so popular that the league's annual player draft, which involves no actual athletic participation whatsoever, is now a three-day event. This is a beautiful thing for those of us who think way too much about football.

This is the Big One. Maybe the Last Big One. Never before have so many loose strands of an unraveling empire come together in a single event accessible to those who mourn or cheer America.

Yesterday, the once snake-bit Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City in what was effectively a playoff game to secure fourth place in the Premier League and as a result, a lucrative European Champions League spot next season.

The Saints are no longer the golden boys of the league. A perfect record would've been nice but the Saints' mission should have always been singular: win a Super Bowl.

"In this league anything is possible. We can't slack against Dallas, Tampa, or Carolina. We have to finish this season out one game at a time."