Mr. Byrne,
My response to your article can be summed up simply: That's why they play the game.
In your entire two-page article, I deciphered only one team in the NFL's history who missed out on the playoffs despite having the best record (or being tied for the best record, I guess) in football: the 1967 Colts. I agree that the best teams don't always get to play in the postseason, but entering the last week of the regular season, those Colts knew that if they lost to the Rams, they'd be out of the playoffs. There's a solution to the problem of them not getting in: win. The NFL's current system may not be perfect, and it's true that since the realignment in 2002 there have been an unusually large number of "historic anomalies," but within the system the solution is to win.
Yes, the Eagles and Cardinals are both 9-win teams, but they're both 2-0 in the playoffs, and the teams they've beaten include the 1-seed Giants and the 2-seed Panthers. In many ways you make it sound like we should've crowned last year's Patriots after their 16-0 season. The Giants were a 6-seed! They had no business being there! But guess what. They won. When it mattered. And right now a few of the teams with the best regular-season records (Giants, Titans, Panthers) are in the same position as the 0-16 Lions: Sitting at home and watching the rest of the post-season -- only the Lions have a higher draft pick.
In short, the year's World Champions aren't necessarily the league's best team (no one would argue that last year's best team was the Patriots), but rather the team who wins when it matters. That's why I'm not bothered at all to see two 9-win teams in the NFC Championship. If the Giants have a problem with it, they should have beaten Philadelphia. And if a 9-win team wins the Super Bowl, anybody who has a problem with it should have taken their arguments to the field.
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