Further exploring the NFL-NASCAR similarities

NASCAR fans tend to hate it when you compare their favorite sport to stick-and-ball sports. So let’s switch that around.

All along, most everyone thought the New England Patriots were going to wind up being more like Jimmie Johnson’s Sprint Cup team. Come to find out, however, they’re Jeff Gordon’s team.

Following a tremendous season in Cup competition in 2007, a year in which he broke records with 30 top-10 finishes, Gordon came up short in NASCAR’s playoffs and did not win the championship.

You will notice I did not say that Gordon “lost” the championship to Jimmie Johnson, because Gordon raced like a champion throughout the 10-race playoff. He had an average finish of 5.1 in those pivotal races, which in a typical year would have been more than enough to carry him across the threshold of a championship.

Johnson, however, did an even better job in the playoff. Whereas Gordon won two Chase races, Johnson won four. Johnson and his team averaged a 5.0 finish in the Chase and that was enough to earn him and his team the title.

When it was over, the one thing Gordon kept saying over and over again was that he and his team accomplished everything they set out to do in 2007 except for one thing – winning the championship.

Surely that’s the only way to sum up what happened to the New England Patriots in the NFL season that concluded with Sunday’s Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants.

The Patriots set regular-season records for the most points scored. Quarterback Tom Brady and receiver Randy Moss set touchdown records. And, speaking of records, the Patriots’ record was unblemished at 16-0, an historic accomplishment that should never be regarded as anything other than remarkable.

But, with the championship on the line, another team outperformed them.

Let’s be clear. Even though the “news” is that New England’s quest for perfection was denied, the story was the New York Giants played a tremendous game when it mattered most. Give credit to the Patriots for all they accomplished, but the Giants won this one. They played tremendously and they are deserving champions.

They’re deserving because they won under the sport’s playoff system. Years ago, the NFL decided that excitement generated by postseason play was worthwhile and wanted more of that. They broadened the playoffs by adding wild-card teams, teams that qualified for the postseason without winning their division championships.

That brought more teams into the championship picture, and it was done to bring more attention, more revenue, more excitement and more television viewership to the league and the game it has stewardship over.

Which, of course, are precisely and exactly the same reasons NASCAR started the Chase for the Cup format for the 2004 season.

If the Patriots had completed a perfect 19-0 season by winning the Super Bowl, the comparisons to Johnson’s NASCAR team could have been extended.

One team is led by a “coach” or “crew chief" who is supremely confident – to the point that if you don’t like his team you might consider him smug. That confidence is so complete, in fact, there are times when that leader tends to substitute his opinions about what’s fair and just for what the rulebook actually says is fair and just.

The other team, of course, is led by Bill Belichick.