It's time for National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue to declare the National Football Conference title game on Jan. 15 as Super Bowl XXIX, and make the alleged championship game, to be played in Miami two weeks later, the opening of the 1995 exhibition season.
Yes, things have gotten that bad.
With three weeks to go in the regular season, 13 of the 28 teams in the American Football Conference are 7-6 or 6-7. Included are the 7-6 Buffalo Bills, seeking to go back to the game they've lost four straight times.
Moreover, Dallas and San Francisco are clearly so much better than anyone else that everyone expects them to play in that Jan. 15 game.
Yes, Pittsburgh joined the Cowboys and the 49ers in the playoffs with its win last Sunday over Cincinnati, but even the Steelers concede they are a defense without an offense. Sure, it might be fun to have the Steelers against the 49ers, each trying for a record fifth Super Bowl, or Pittsburgh against the Cowboys, who would also be trying for a fifth win, not to mention a record third straight.
Instead, the Cowboys or the 49ers will probably play against the Bills, who just won't die. Buffalo's 42-31 win over Miami left them at 7-6 instead of 6-7 and they would be a wild-card team if the season ended this week.
Meanwhile, three teams have worn their throwback uniforms beyond the two or three games that the league mandated for the 75th anniversary season -- the 49ers, Giants and Lions. They are a combined 17-2 in their throwbacks, 12-0 in games in which they decided on their own to wear them.
It started with George Seifert, the 49ers' ultra-superstitious coach, when his team was 3-2 -- 2-0 in the throwbacks, 1-2 in the regular uniforms.
Seifert asked Carmen Policy, the team's president, to get league permission to continue wearing them. The league said "sure," even though the road version makes them look like they're wearing pajamas.
The Giants started doing it because team officials liked the look of the 1950s road throwback -- white with silver pants and red numerals and socks instead of all white with blue numerals and trim.
The Giants split their regular throwback games. But they wore the throwbacks to break their seven-game losing streak and now have three wins in a row, all in throwbacks.
The Lions first wore the 1935 throwbacks during their biggest win of the year, the overtime upset over the Cowboys in Texas. Then they lost at home to the 49ers, but coach Wayne Fontes decided in hindsight that they played well.
They wore them again on Thanksgiving, a traditional game that merited them. They beat the Bills, and Fontes decided to wear them again Sunday, when they beat Green Bay.
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