Awww shit.

Sunshine... morning... how long have I been asleep?

The Steelers are in the Super Bowl?!

Uggh, somebody fucked up.

I guess it was me.

You know, I write a nice piece about how overrated a franchise the Pittsburgh Steelers are, then they go and prove me wrong by embarrassing the Browns and just about everyone else on their way to an AFC title. Just who do they think they are?

In truth, that wasn't the only reason my blog enthusiasm dried up. Just the one I'm gonna use.

So yeah, whoop-di-fuckin-do, go Steelers. I don't know how they do it, but that defense is unreal and Ben Roethlisburger gets it done. There's an interesting trend in the NFL where the AFC has become vastly better than the NFC. If you remember, things used to be opposite, with the NFC winning like 13 straight Super Bowls before John Elway and the Broncos broke the spell in '98. Since then, it's been all AFC, with the Patriots being their poster child and all that.

So what happened?

Pittsburgh was the #6 seed in their conference this year, while Seattle was #1 in theirs. Guess who's the favorite? The ball-bustin, blitz-bringin, straight out of the AFC WildCard Pittsburgh Steelers. People just have so much new respect for AFC football, while the NFC has become like a junior league only used for its interesting storylines.

So what point am I trying to make in all this? Well I have an interesting theory, that attemps (poorly) to categorize success in the modern NFL. !!Here comes a controversial statement!!

I think it's a racial thing. White vs. Black. You know, that dichotomy everyone likes to pretend doesn't exist. Specifically on the quarterback level.

Look at it like this; since Denver got the AFC off its Super Schnide in 1998, the marquee teams of each league have gone in different directions quarterbackially.

The AFC has been run by dapper young stars like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisburger, and Carson Palmer. Each one white as the room he was born in... but man can they win football games!

Meanwhile, in the crypts of the NFC, teams are relying on darker field hands like Culpeppa, D-Nabbs, and Vick the Quick to get them to the promised land.

It hasn't worked.

In fact, before yesterday's pasty Hawks-Panthers final, a black quarterback had lost the last five NFC championship games. Three by McNabb (plus one Super Bowl), one by Culpepper, and one by Michael Vick.

I'm not trying to offend anybody here, or knock on black athletes in any way. It's just that if there is one last stigma against the black footballer, it's that he can't quarterback a Super Bowl winner. The Falcons, Eagles, and Vikings of the last few years have had some supremely talented teams, yet they've been sent home early every time only to watch Tom Fuckin Brady comb his hair with the MVP award.

In conclusion: football season is almost over and I'm sad.

So I got to thinking, "How could the NFC dominate for so many years, then suck?" This was the most interesting conclusion I could come to.

Enough of this now though, how about that Troy Polamalu? Sickness. I always claim to be so proud and happy to be myself, and live my own life. But if I could play football like he does... I'd trade just about anything for it.

What can I rant about now? How about Clay.

You know my cat Clay is so cute. Seriously, she's like a biological mistake or something. I get embarrassed just looking at her wondering if God isn't playing some kind of cruel joke with that bundle of adorability.

Then I got to thinking, what is this phenomenon of cuteness? What about Clay's black and white fur makes me double over with delight. Why do her feet become profoundly more fun to look at when she curls or flexes her toes? Why can't I walk past her in the hallway without dropping everything to serenade her with gibberish compliments and scratch her little neck until she runs around and starts purring?

It's more than just the emotional bond I share with this animal, and I want to get to the bottom of it. Why do we (human beings) find cats (or other various creatures in no way related to human beings) so damn pleasing to look at? Does this phenomenon occur between other species of animals? What sort of evolutionary process would bring about such a symbiotic relationship?

Maybe it's because they are small, or because we are projecting human thoughts and emotions onto their behaviors. Does anyone else not find it strange that baby ducks can bring a grown man to tears? I'd love some opinions on this (assuming anyone cares to read my blog).

This blog is over.