The Waiting Game

A friend of mine, whose wife was pregnant, headed to the hospital last week and hunkered down for the impending labor, promptly updating his Facebook status by noting that he was playing "the waiting game."

Someone followed by quickly posting this witty reply: "Waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungy Hungry Hippos."

Unfortunately I don't have access to the latter. But I can speak from experience that he's right about the former.

Such was the case Saturday night, when we were all waiting to find out if the Ravens would slip up and the door would open for the Patriots. Such was the case at 1 p.m. Sunday, when I was left to watch the Dolphins-Chiefs game on my computer as if I were actually a fan of either team. Such was the case later that evening, when - at long last - the waiting paid off and someone helped out as the Seahawks toppled the stumbling Jets.

It'll get worse before it gets better. The NFL announced that Week 17 matchups between Baltimore and Jacksonville and Miami and the Jets have been moved from their scheduled 1 p.m. timeslot to 4:15 p.m., which means that everyone in New England will be forced to watch the Patriots tangle with Buffalo at 1 p.m. and then bite their nails for three more hours before either realizing postseason dreams or arriving at an agonizing end to a memorable season.

Sadly, it's come to this: For at least three hours, Patriot nation must root with all its might for the Jets. As in the hated New York football Jets. Who happen to be coached by Eric Mangini. On a regular weekend, there are numerous things I'd rather do than support Mangini - removing my fingernails one at a time with a cheese grater or scraping my windshield with my teeth among them - but this week it is simply my duty.

These are indeed unusual circumstances. When Tom Brady went down with a devastating knee injury during the opening game, most New Englanders admitted that the season could end short of the playoffs. That it could include an 11-5 record, the survival of a half-dozen significant injuries and the emergence of a young quarterback and still end the same way wasn't part of that equation.

That's the sad truth. Had the Patriots struggled to a 6-10 record this year, the New England faithful would have been able to understandably file it under the "season lost to injury" category and move on merrily. But going 11-5 and falling short of the postseason? That's hard to swallow.

By almost any standard, it's been a remarkable year. Matt Cassell has emerged as a viable NFL quarterback, and he'll make some franchise very happy this offseason. Bill Belichick has survived key injuries to the best player in the league, his best defensive player, his heart-and-soul leader of an already beleagured secondary and all of his running backs at some point this year and guided a winning journey. The Patriots have gotten better throughout the season and appear to be peaking at just the right time, only the right time might end a few weeks earlier than expected.

Think about it: The Steelers just got roughed up by the Titans, who themselves have proven more than a little vulnerable over the past few weeks. And the Jets - once considered the class of the AFC by many talking heads after wins over the Pats and Titans - are no longer a factor. Meanwhile, New England is steamrolling its way to the finish line. If there's a team I wouldn't want to face in the playoffs, it's the Patriots.

Which might be simple, because they might not be there. And then we're left with the difficult question of how to rank the season in history. Is it a failure because they came up just short in games against Indy and New York and therefore missed out on the tournament, or is it a success because they shook off the adversity and managed what would amount to the best record ever held by a non-playoff team.

Let's hope that isn't the debate we're having. Let's hope a few weeks from now we're talking about one of the great stretch drives in football history, against perhaps the most difficult of circumstances. Indeed, let's hope.

But until then, we wait.