Today has not been easy. The growing unrest caused by the arrest of my mother's other son is creating tension between my parents and me. I wrote about this on a more personal medium and I will leave it there because that does not help me become better and it allows the negativity I am trying to weed out of my life to further seep in. Instead, I am going to focus on the positives of today and I will start by sending a shout out to the Carolina Panthers!
The Carolina Panthers finished the regular season with a 15-1 record following a 38-10 thumping of divisional rivals, Tampa Bay. The win clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs for the Panthers, which is always a nice perk to have during the postseason when all of the games are "win or go home".
Aside from the Panthers, I want to shout out the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills for playing an excellent game in which the Jets lost not only the game but their chance at clinching a playoff berth. The Jets' loss coupled with a win by the Pittsburgh Steelers against the hapless (and now, coachless and GM-less) Cleveland Browns meant the Steelers secured the final spot in the AFC playoffs.
And one more shout out to the New Orleans Saints for beating the Atlanta Falcons. You can call it schadenfreude if you want, but I love seeing the Falcons lose and this loss is, even more, satisfying because it came a week after the Falcons shattered the Panthers' hopes of making history and becoming only the third team in NFL history (and the first in NFC history) to finish the NFL regular season undefeated. Of course, the Falcons loss at the hands of the Saints serves as a stinging reminder of just how poorly the Panthers played last week that they would lose to such a poor team.
In a non-American football note, my beloved Manchester United finally (finally) ended their eight-match winless skid on Saturday when they defeated Swansea City, 2-1, courtesy of a beautiful back heel from captain Wayne Rooney, who also ended a goalless skid as well as put himself into second place for all-time goals scored in Premier League history and for Manchester United. Congratulations Wayne!
