NFL Week 17 - What We Learned

Written by John Edward Betancourt

The NFL Regular Season has come to its end and man...what a ride.  We saw many an incredible game this season and we were also witness to some incredible drama and some incredible stories as the season unfolded. Now we look to new stories as the Playoffs prepare to arrive, but before they begin it's time to take a look at the top stories from Week 17.  

1. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the worst team in the NFL.  Sure they won a game or two, but they have been given the bittersweet present that serves as the "Participant" prize in the NFL...the first overall draft pick now belongs to them.  Considering how awful Tampa Bay was on offense this year, expect them to snag a QB first thing in the draft since Mike Glennon has not developed as they had hoped and Josh McCown ended up being a free agent bust.

2. At least some of the coaches who were unemployed on Monday, went out on top.  Yes, Rex Ryan and Jim Harbaugh, gone from their teams come Monday morning won their final games with their respective former franchises.  It may not mean much, but it's always nice to know that the last game was a win and those two men left it all on the field, showing everyone why they were chosen in the first place, despite the fact that things went horribly wrong. 

3. Kyle Orton says goodbye to the NFL...again.  Yes, shortly after helping guide the Buffalo Bills to a 9-7 season, Orton has announced his retirement once again, and much like Rex and Jim, went out on top.  Orton's career has always been a storied one, where he was never quite trusted to be the starting quarterback until the final year in his career.  In fact Orton always seemed to be a band-aid quarterback wise, having been started and benched several times in Chicago, then traded to Denver where he remained the starter until Tim Tebow arrived. Then it was off to Kansas City where he was replaced in the offseason by Alex Smith, then off to Dallas where he was the second stringer until his first retirement.  Whether or not he was ever a quality starting QB doesn't matter, what matters is he was finally the guy in Buffalo and he led them to their first winning season in ages. Clearly this was vindication enough to walk away. 

4. Aaron Rodgers is one tough QB. Rodgers has always been known as a quality quarterback, heck the man has a Super Bowl ring. But he's had his share of injuries that have kept him from playing and while there's nothing wrong with that...there comes a moment when the league learns that you will do anything to win and Sunday brought that moment.  In fact Green Bay fans had quite the scare when he was carted to the locker room with a calf injury...only to come back and play some amazing football, leading the team to its fourth NFC North title.  Now some folks are undoubtedly rolling their eyes, thinking that a calf injury is no big deal, but a quarterback depends on both his legs and well, just about every part of his body to throw the ball right, so this kind of injury is a big deal and undoubtedly painful to play through. Kudos to Rodgers for showing some grit, hopefully he heals up in time for the playoffs. 

5. Detroit has a serious problem with some of its players.  So, first Center Dominic Raiola gets suspended for stomping on a player, and then Ndamukong Suh gets fined $70,000 for doing the same thing to Aaron Rodgers on Sunday.  This is a disturbing trend and quite frankly, some dirty and unsportsmanlike play that needs to end. I won't go on a rant about how the players need to class it up, because they already know they are supposed to.  What needs to happen, beyond these suspensions, is a little more care, or yelling if necessary, from the coaches to put an end to this. Seeing it happen twice in two weeks falls on the coaches to keep their players in line, so hopefully that's exactly what happens because seriously, this is about as classless as it gets. The Detroit Lions and its players are better than this, hopefully these two idiots figure that out.  

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