So the second round of the NFL playoffs is upon us, with two games coming up on Saturday at 4:30 and 8:00. For those of you who are veteran football fans, apparently the games used to start at 12:30 and 4:00, but a few years ago they determined that they might get more viewers and interest if they started the Saturday games later (Gee, you think? No one I know likes to go out with friends and watch football on a Saturday night… How could it have taken that long to figure this out? Plus, this lets us ladies get our Sat. morning shopping done…before the social hour(s) begin) Anyway, I digress. Saturday’s matchups are intriguing for a few reasons… if you happen to be out celebrating your 21st birthday on Saturday night you won’t know the difference, but if you’re older you may notice a common thread: none of these teams that are playing on Saturday were in existence 21 years ago.
Baltimore Ravens at Tennessee Titans (4:30 EST, CBS)
- These two teams currently do battle in the AFC North and AFC South, respectively. Did you know that those divisions weren’t even in existence until this century? These teams used to do battle as part of the AFC Central, with Warren Moon and Bernie Kosar leading their teams into battle back in the 1980’s (well, at least thats what my husband told me…I have no idea who these guy are….but their names are much more classic than say “Ocho Cinco”.
Apparently this is Warren Moon...
- The Baltimore Ravens have only been around since 1996… after the 1995 season Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell packed up the franchise and moved to Baltimore, but a series of legal challenges forced him to the leave the “Browns” identity behind, and thus the old Cleveland Browns are now the Baltimore Ravens. Good trivia question to stump your friends… which current Baltimore Raven was on the team when the move took place? Kicker Matt Stover… in fact, he is the only active player remaining in the entire NFL from the original Cleveland Browns. (Love this fact…)
- The Tennessee Titans were “born” in 1997 when the Houston Oilers moved to the Smoky Mountain State. They played their games in Memphis for two years as the “Tennessee Oilers” until their stadium in Nashville was ready, and in 1999 became the “Titans”. Another fun trivia question… there is one remaining active player in the NFL who played for the Houston Oilers, can you name him? Answer to come at the end….ha ha…that’s just to keep you reading…
Arizona Cardinals at Carolina Panthers (8:00 EST, FOX)
- It might seem as if the Cardinals have been around as doormats forever… they have, just not in their current location. After the 1987 season the St. Louis Cardinals packed up and moved to the desert, playing their games in Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium until a couple of years ago. (And yes, St. Louis used to have two teams named the Cardinals, one in baseball and one in football..at least if you were a girl during that time you had a good shot of knowing the name of the pro team).
- The Carolina Panthers are an NFL expansion team that started play in 1995. Based in Charlotte, they have played in one Super Bowl, losing to the Patriots after the 2003 season. Their owner, Jerry Richardson, was a good NFL player in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s… if you’re looking for a team to root for in the playoffs it might be his, a few weeks ago he was placed on the waiting list for a heart transplant, so maybe a winning team will do him some good.
- When the Cardinals beat the Falcons last week it was only their second playoff win in the last 60 years, not a very impressive record if you ask me, and they are a pretty solid underdog heading into this game. Their record coming to the East Coast has been awful, they are 0-5 this year in Eastern time zone games.
Hopefully that is some good info you can use to impress your friends/family/potential dates, etc as you watch the games on a potentially snowy Saturday night in the Northeastern part of the country. I know that a lot of you out there are looking forward to my Eagles-Giants preview tomorrow… patience is a virtue, and good things will come to those who wait. Oh…and for those of you who waited for the answer to the earlier question, the last remaining Houston Oiler is Jon Runyan, currently an offensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Until my preview tomorrow…
-sportsgirl
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