Nice...that's nice

If SF prevails on Saturday night, I dare you to make a Niners-Seahawks NFC title game thread in SE before the calendar even turns to Sunday. Systolic's posts alone would be worth it.

lol systo.

ill send him the link on facebook once this happens, just to make sure he gets there.

beat: yes, i have systo on my facebook.

score one for the good guys

So, I've argued all season that it's a bit level zero to just say that since the Seahawks got lucky on the final play against the Packers that they automatically would have had every single game go the same way after that and that their record would be exactly one game worse. Obviously when your team's situation is different, the games get approached differently, and the domino effect of changing even one variable makes it impossible to know how the rest of the season really would have ended up. I don't even really know how this point is arguable, but people still want to really find a reason to be mad about that so here we are.

If you adopt the simplistic notion posited by the millions (...and millions) mentioned above, the Seahawks revert from 11-5 to 10-6 and they remain the #5 seed by virtue of a head-to-head sweep of both Chicago and Minnesota. In the end, if you accept the level zero conclusion, the Seahawks did not benefit at all from the gift TD at the end against the Packers. Who did benefit? Wait for it ... the San Francisco 49ers. Their divisional game will be played at Candlestick instead of Lambeau this weekend because of that very call.

As the arbiter of all things relating to fairness in the world, I hereby decree that IRM is hereby banned from making snarky remarks related to that call for the rest of his life. However, if he wants to make a public apology to Packer fans - or better yet, a webcam video of himself crying in his bathtub - for the fact that his team is hosting this game when they rightfully shouldn't be, as he apparently expected Seahawk fans to do throughout the regular season, then he certainly has that right.

denied

No, I'm sorry, but it was settled in that post.

Pretty disappointing LKJ

What is?

Well for starters I dislike having the entire first paragraph describing how stupid it is to ignore changing one variable, then going on in the second paragraph to describe the static result for the Packers/49ers ignoring the entire premise set forth in the first paragraph.

It doesn't ignore it. IRM has been one of the people pushing the level zero line of thought all season. The paragraphs following the first are to say, "Okay, you've thoroughly committed yourself to level zero. This is your result. You are now answerable for it."

I could have left the first paragraph off, but it would have been dishonest to the point of negligence since it would have seemed like I was validating level zero.

incorrect

Rationalize away bro. Disappointing display from the forum orotund elitist

No rationalization necessary, sir.

In any case I'm happy with the ruling that arbiter of fairness set forth above.

The main thing is that we're hopefully just a week or two away from a thread title change.

Since IRM has chosen not to graciously accept the ruling, we'll have to drag it out of him.

What did you mean when you said this?

this thread has delivered.

Indeed, it is disappointing.

The nature of being a sports fan, nay, of being a human is that we find ourselves with the desire not just to view reality and to make ourselves a part of that reality, but also with the desire to influence reality to satisfy our own needs for satisfaction and happiness. These are simple human traits, neither to be admired nor abhorred.

Unfortunately, it is one of man's moral failings that when we are unable to satisfactorily influence reality -- and this applies particularly so for the desk-bound lawyer trapped thousands of miles from that which he so desires to influence -- we often determine that the failing is not within ourselves, but with the reality of the situation itself. Our own needs become greater than those of the universe, and despite our obvious logical insignificance, we persist in our need to not just interpret but to re-create the universe's grand design. Further, when others have a logically more consistent perception of true reality, we determine that our own fundamentally flawed perception must be correct despite the mounting evidence of thought that, albeit also clouded by the personal desires of those other individuals, frequently asymptotically approaches truth. In other words, we make ourselves the individual arbiter of reality -- when in fact it is reality which is the arbiter of us.

The truly enlightened individuals give themselves over to the universe, and can accept its reality at face value, whether that reality be a storm cloud looming on the horizon, a drop of dew glistening on a springtime dawn, or an atrocious call which gifts our favorite sports team a wholly undeserved win. The enlightened wonder not "what might have been", they wonder only what is to come, while fully accepting what has been into their heart.

I practically never post from a couch FWIW.

Oh, my mistake. I've edited my post to accept reality.

As to the rest of that, I'm far too given to existentialism to accept such ramblings as meritorious.

Dostoevsky 4 life.

words

Sorry LKJ, but sports teams aren't level-headed like you. The Seahawks lose that game, the rest of the season is entirely different for them. They have less confidence for sure, and their level of play would be affected because of it. There's no neutrality like that in sports or anything at all involving humans.

...that doesn't run contrary to anything I said.

Well, except the "less confidence for sure" bit, since that doesn't make any sense.

But the whole premise of my post was that it's stupid to think that you could just shift one game around, but that since IRM has committed himself to it at a time when it was convenient, he is now held answerable to it once it has become inconvenient.

I have the simplest solution for LKJ and IRM....

A guy is walking along the Puget Sound and finds a genie lamp. He rubs it and a genie pops out.

Genie: "Thank you for releasing me. For that I'll grant you 1 wish."

After thinking for a few mins.

Guy: "I want to live forever."

Genie: "I'm sorry but I can no longer grant that wish. Too many people have asked for it so please think hard and come up with another wish."

A few more minutes goes by.

Guy: "I want to live long enough to see the Seattle Seahawks win the Super Bowl."

Genie: "Sneaky bastard"