Apologies to my many non-sporting readers, but I have to explore something just a bit here. 

My friend Joe took this pic. (Photo by Joe Imel/Bowling Green Daily News)

As of this writing, the NFL Playoffs have seen every single home team lose to their lesser-ranked visitor… the barely-in Eagles (No. 6 seed out of possible 6) just trounced the Super Bowl champion and No. 1 seed Giants, and yesterday my beloved No. 1 Titans dominated nearly every portion of their game against No. 6 Baltimore, but made a crucial mistake every time they got close to scoring, losing 13-10 — the exact score of their regular-season win over Baltimore, who themselves dominated that game only to lose at the last moment.

This is the housing crisis! This is broken-home syndrome. After this season — and especially if the No. 2 Steelers lose tonight’s game to the No. 5 Chargers and their 5-foot-6, 180-pound running back Darren Sproules — we may have to retire the notion of “homefield advantage.” Fans will give up their season tickets, instead buying maybe two games’ worth of tickets and travel fare to out-of-town games. Stadiums will become war zones, with home-team fans simply surrounding the grounds but not going in, taunting and throwing beer at those out-of-town fans making their way into the gates to see their visiting team knock the socks off the homers.

It’s entirely anti-logical… why, this postseason, is every team blowing the advantage of positive fans, amped up that their team is one of 12 (out of 32) in the playoffs?

UPDATE: So I was wrong about the Steelers… maybe homefield advantage works a bit better when the visitor is from sunny San Diego and your locale has blistering cold and constant snowfall.

Thank God for fall Sundays.

My team, the Tennessee Titans, are now 4-0, their best start ever (even when they were called the Oilers and located in Houston). Only the Buffalo Bills have as good a record. The Titans grind out wins — their longest run on Sunday was just nine yards, and their quarterback is Kerry Collins, a graying veteran taking the place of an emotionally unstable Vince Young.

It seems like every day, for me, consists of a bunch of reading about politics. It’s interesting, but on Sunday I realize that it’s overkill. Instead, I can relax and watch a totally unneccesary game, played at the highest level, and let a lot of my other worries fall by the wayside.

Don’t get me wrong… there are far too many men whose lives this time of year are singularly focused on football. They watch games all day, checking their fantasy football leagues during commercial breaks; during the week, they watch SportsCenter and read FanNation.com and do more of the fantasy league stuff. I’m not one of those guys, and don’t intend to become one. It’s often said that Americans are too distracted, and I’m inclined to agree. How many people I know, who have some supposedly solid opinion on our parties or the candidates or the economic plan or the courts — people who, ultimately, know very little if anything about the real issues or the real motivations of “conservatives” or “liberals.”

But Sunday’s hours of distraction, for me, are a blessing right now. I can play with Lewis and Owen and still keep an eye on the game; I can talk to Shelley about all kinds of things during a day mostly spent at home, and we can both enjoy the long bomb into double coverage, the defensive breakdown that allows a 5-yard run to turn into a 50-yarder, the QB sack that comes with such ferocity that we can FEEL the hit, cringing when it happens.

It’s fun! It’s football, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Now back to the real world. Until later tonight, of course, for the Monday Night Football game that really caps the weekend.