The Jets were pretty easily the hottest team in football, having beaten the Bengals and then the Chargers, who had themselves won 11 in a row. Indy, meanwhile, had rested its starters over the last two weeks of the regular season and, as they had the #1 seed locked up for the playoffs, earned themselves a first round bye. But as it turns out, everyone crying that the Colts shouldn’t have rested Peyton and the rest of the starters and should have gone for 16-0 now has to sit and watch the Colts in the Super Bowl.

Because let’s face it – the whining was never really about the Colts being rusty for having taken too much time off. It was because certain fans wanted to see a 16-0 season, the Colts brass had placed a Super Bowl appearance as a higher priority, and so said fans fell back on the old, “well, they’re gonna be rusty in the playoffs” argument. Which turned out to be a heap of bullshit. I argued that the Colts did absolutely nothing wrong by resting their starters, citing the Colts’ goal of winning a Super Bowl over a perfect season as support.

Resting starters before the playoffs is like global warming – it’s hip to argue that human beings are the source of climate change, but in the end, there’s quite a bit of evidence for both sides. Same type of situation here – nobody really knows if resting starters is a bad thing for the playoffs, and it’s likely that no one ever will. I’m pretty sure it’s something that should be determined on a team-by-team basis. So when the fans who wanted to see a 16-0 season were denied that opportunity and shouted for weeks that the Colts were dumb…well, they’re the dummies now.

I’m kind of getting tired of being right all the time.