Do Teams Lose on Purpose? 

The Chiefs won against San Diego in a pretty solid way on Saturday. Granted, the 2nd half was pretty boring, but it was still a good game. The final game of the season is against the Bengals, and the Chiefs have to win to have a chance of making the playoffs. Before Saturday, here's what the Chiefs needed in order to make the playoffs:

Win Both Their Games: They won the first... so half way there. Bengals won't be a cakewalk, but its definitely winnable.

Two Out of Three of the Following:

• Pittsburgh loses one of its last two games. The won the first, so they would have to lose against Detroit. That's a long shot to be honest.
  
• San Diego has to lose to Denver. That's pretty feasible.
  
• Jacksonville had to lose both its last two games. They beat Houston, so that's not an option any more.

As I was watching the scores come in on Saturday, I kept waiting to see if Jacksonville would lose. For some strange reason, I thought they might. In retrospect, that was pretty stupid of me to hope for.

Not only is Houston at the bottom of the NFL (so they suck), but they also have a chance at the #1 draft pick because of it. However, that's not a lock for them yet. They're actually in "competition" with San Francisco for that pick. In fact, they play each other week 17... so whoever loses that game, wins the top pick. So Houston had every reason to lose to Jacksonville, just so they could keep in contention for the top pick.

But the question is... even if they every reason to do it... Do teams intentionally lose games like that? The NBA thought so, and instituted a lottery for the top pick in their draft many years ago. Because of how the NFL season is structured, I don't think its a big problem in football. If nothing else, it will actually be interesting to watch the 49ers play the Texans... just to see how many missed field goals, and accidentally dropped passes there will be, if any. Maybe I'm out of line here. These are professionals after all, and they do have pride... a lot of it. But you still have to wonder.

With all that said, I don't have to wonder who's not a loser... Savannah, this week's featured cheerleader. I would have to say she's absolutely perfect... if for no other reason than she says her favorite book and author is "Anything by Dean Koontz". You'll have to look at the answer to that question in my profile to see why I point this out. And yes... I answered that question in my profile almost two years ago when I started blogging.