We've all felt, at some stage or another, that our favourite team has been cheated out of a win - almost as though the powers that be, whether they are referees, the sporting body, or the broadcaster, had complete control of the match. And not just when you watch WWE wrestling.

This next clip takes that premise, applies it to the Superbowl, and runs with it.

NFL Writers Room: Super Bowl XLIV

I've been on a bit of a break since last Monday. Why? I've been basking in the glow of a win.
As my last post may have suggested, I've been thinking more and more about history and rivalries. Do they really exist in rugby union any more? The Wellington Lions' loss to Taranaki in the Air NZ Cup barely caused a ripple in the Wellington community last year.

But then along came this game. This glorious game. Which showed, more than ever, the difference between fans and teams in American Football and rugby union.

What're you babbling about now then?

Plano East Senior High School is a High School in Texas. This is a clip of their 1994 game against John Tyler High School. Plano are the team in gold and black. At the beginning of this clip John Tyler is ahead, 41-16, in the fourth quarter of the game. Sit back and watch.

The US is spoiled for sport around Christmas time. Schedules specifically try and make games on the big day huge - it makes sense after all. Thanksgiving and Christmas Day are the times you'll have people sitting down, unable to go shopping or anything.

On Christmas Day itself you've got last year's NBA finalists the Orlando Magic facing 2008 winners and basketball juggernauts, Boston. You've also got the entertaining offensive matchup between the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers, and a possible finals preview with the Cleveland Cavaliers facing the LA Lakers.

In NFL action you've got two of the AFC's most unconventional and energetic scoring teams, the Tennesse Titans and the San Diego Chargers. Both have amazing runningbacks, wide receivers and quarterbacks, but also a defense that'll pound other teams into the ground. The Chargers have qualified for the playoffs, while the Titans need to win to keep their hopes alive.

But you know where it'd suck to be a sport fan over this Christmas? Washington D.C. Their two teams - the Wizards in the NBA and the Redskins in the NFL - suck. There's no other word for it. Not only do they suck, they're just completely crap. Worse than Counties-Manukau. Here's how shit they are: The offensive play-caller [not the coach, apparently he had his play-calling privileges revoked] of the Redskins, when playing the New York Giants yesterday, thought this would work.

Ok, so that play in the context of the game isn't that bad. The 'Skins were down by 24, there was 2 seconds of play left until half time and they needed to do something different. It's been used in other, more crucial situations. The Titans used it in the very first offensive play of their game against the Chargers in the 2007 playoffs. You can see video of it here. The play had a larger chance of working with Young, as he is a quarterback who can also run. Giving the ball to your kicker to throw a pass is such an impossibly stupid idea, which is what the Redskins did. Please remember that all of these players - and the play caller who made the decision to run this - are being paid millions of dollars.

I've been trying to come up with a way to explain this using New Zealand sport and the closest I can come up with is this cricket play: Putting as many players on the boundary as you can, and all the players on the inner ring lining up behind your bowler, when the opposition only needs one run to win. Alternately for rugby buffs, it is like denying a penalty and having your entire backline packing down in a scrum on the opposition 5m line.

I'm a fan of trick plays, my favourite being Antwaan Randle-El's pass in the Steelers win over the Seahawks [who does that in a Superbowl?!], but this one is plain ugly. Good in concept, but man, that 'pass' floats for an age and really should have been picked off if the coverage was better.

If I went to college in the States it'd be highly unlikely I'd have a chance of getting into any sport team. Maybe a rugby team, just because I know how to play, but I'd be too small and not have enough experience to play. Hell, even if I'd been raised in the US I'd probably not have a shot since it's all so competitive over there.

If that were the case, I'd probably have joined a marching band. They get a rough time in movies [except that one movie that was all about marching bands, I forget what it was] but hearing a song like Apache played by a big band is AWESOME. And they get to do stuff like this routine my college football side's band did a month ago:

So my son, you've decided from my exposure of American sports that you want to start following a team. You don't know which one to choose, so you pick the one with the cool pirate logo/player who sets the most records/team which won last year. STOP!

Because I really, really care about you [and Dom too], I've done a team-by-team comparison of the NZ Super Rugby teams and revealed their Baseball, Basketball and American Football equivalents, so you can get that true patriotic feeling rather than just blindly following a side for no real reason.

You've captured my attention, take me to the article!

The hapless JOakland Raiders employed a little bit of help yesterday in their win over the Philidelphia Eagles...

­A good editorial was published over at Scrum.com about the idea of rolling substitutions (i.e. letting players sub in and out whenever the coach would like).  The article is worth a read.  I te­nd to agree with the author.  I love the NFL and American Football and I also love rugby.  One of the advantages of rugby over the gridiron game is the athleticism required in rugby.  I watch the NFL, with the lineman who are overweight and aerobically deficient and the twig-like kickers, and I wonder "Are those guys really professional athletes?"  I understand that they have specialized skills, but I also realize that is an excuse for poor fitness more often than not.  Rugby's requirement of physical fitness and the ability to play offense and defense make it a superior game to American Football.  It is one of the big reasons I watch more ANZC games in an average week than NFL games, even being here in the USA. ­