Road trips are cool.
You and your people piled into the car and headed somewhere. It never really mattered where you were headed, at least not in retrospect.
Looking back, what we remember is the journey we took to get there. Those are the stories we tell now, years after the fact. And when outsiders hear the stories and ask where you were going, you never seem to be able that question. That's OK. It's the journey that mattered.
That's what NFL Conference Championship Sunday is.
After four-plus months of football, we're finally at the most important and decisive weekend. Four teams, two games. The winners earn a trip to the most glorified sporting event in America, the Super Bowl. But it's the journey that we all enjoy.
It's the 20th Sunday of the season and the sixth best sports day of the year.
The Super Bowl has its place on this list (which should be pretty easy to figure out by now) but it's not as good as Conference Championship Weekend. Roughly seven hours of intense football is much better than seven hours of lame pre-game hype, don't you think? Why watch people talking when you can watch people playing?
In "National Lampoon's Vacation," Chevy Chase drives his family across the country to visit Wally World amusement park. When they arrive in the parking lot, Chase's character Clark Griswold races his son, Rusty (played by Anthony Michael Hall), across the lot. That's Conference Championship Weekend. When they arrive at the entrance, the park is closed. Very often, that's the Super Bowl.
It never matters who's actually playing in these games, although this season we have some intriguing storylines. Peyton vs. Brady. The Bears vs. America. Doesn't matter. Football fans will watch both games. Most Sundays, we find the time to watch our favorite team on television and then maybe parts of the other games.
Not this Sunday.
This is the day -- really, the final football weekend of the season for the hardcore fan -- where you make sure to run all your errands on Saturday and put off that memo to the boss until Monday morning. Being among the first to know who will play in the Super Bowl is just as important as paying your bills on time and making sure the car has enough anti-freeze in it for the impending winter weather.
There's a comfort level we have in watching these games. Having a base knowledge of the teams leading up to the Super Bowl helps us decide how to watch the big game, who to root for and how to strategically pick boxes in the office pool with randomly assigned numbers.
It's like buying stock. Wise investors don't throw darts at a board. They study. They learn. They get inside information.
Missing the Super Bowl is not the worst thing in the world for a sports fan. Missing Conference Championship Weekend is.
The Best Sports Days of the Year
1. Opening Day for baseball
2. The start of March Madness
3. Pitchers and catchers report
4. NFL Sunday Week 1
5. Selection Sunday
6. NFL Conference Championship Sunday
7. NFL Draft
8. Super Bowl Sunday
9. Sunday at The Masters
10. Kentucky Derby*
Honorable Mention
• FIrst televised baseball game for your team
• Bowl games on New Year's Day
Comments (4)
This column is historic. It lays bare what everyone serious sports fan knows but won't admit: today is ten times better than Super Bowl XXXXXXXVVVVVVVVIIIIIIII, or whatever. The Super Bowl is to football fans what New Year's Eve is to drinkers: an opportunity for amateurs to strut their stuff only to be sorely disappointed the next morning. But then Mr. La Monica gets it all wrong with the six best sports days of the year. Here they are:
1. NCAA basketball championship game;
2. NFC/AFC Championship game day;
3. Kentucky Derby;
4. Sunday Masters;
5. Sunday US Open;
6. Baseball Opening Day.
And the most overrated days:
1. The Super Bowl;
2. Opening Day, NFL (most serious football fans get sick on this day: every team is horrible and it is 90+ degress in almost every city in America);
3. Baseball All Star Game. What used to be a very competitive game is now a televised picnic and comedy show. Horrible.
4. Any football game with Notre Dame in it.
5. BCS Championship game. Going the way of the Super Bowl.
6. Ryder Cup. But, for those capitalists, this is a great showcase event for why socialism will never work in America!
I agree with most of the inclusions in LaMonica's list except pitchers and catchers reporting day. I am one of the biggest baseball fans out there but I just don't see what makes that day so great...nothing is on TV and half the players don't even report that day. NFL draft is exciting for 1st 5 picks then who cares other then what ur teams 1st round pick is.
I would ranks as follows:
1. Opening Round 1 games March Madness
2. AFC/NFC Championship game day
3. Opening day MLB
4. Selection Sunday
5. NFL Week 1 Sunday
6. Super Bowl
7. Sunday Masters
8. NCAA Basketball championship
Are you guys serious? NCAA? March Madness pales in comparison to even a regular football Sunday. Just look at the ratings. No NCAA game comes close to an NFL game. Keep dreaming...
Well I'm a whole different type of sports fan. I agree with the football picks except for the SB, always boring, but tops for me is also race days.
1. NFL Week 1
2. Daytona 500
3. Opening Race, NHRA Pomona
4. Conference Champ NFL
5. Masters Finals
6. SB moves to 1st if Cowboys in it.
7. Draft Day NFL
8,9,10. Who cares...