Year of the QB? I think not

We heard it all season from the evergrowing pro-football-focused litany of talking heads: "Teams are proving in the National Football League that maybe you don't need a formidable defense to be successful anymore."

"Experts" from ESPN, FOX, NBC, etc. decided around Week 13 that the Packers were going to go undefeated, the Saints couldn't lose, and that defenses weren't that important in today's "National Football League."

(I know that Bill Simmons was one of the first to point out how much pundits overuse "National Football League," but seriously, could you ever imagine someone in a real conversation saying the whole phrase? Acronyms were made for a reason, fellas, and beside abbreves are totes fab these days!)

But, despite New Orleans and Green Bay being crowned in the middle of the season, who is still playing at the end of the year — you know, the portion of the season that actually really matters? Well, we have Peyton's less talented brother (who admittedly had a pretty good year), Alex Smith, Joe Flacco, and Tom Brady — due to a double bye to start the postseason. (Sorry, Bronco fans. The sideshow was cute, but you had no chance of beating a good quarterback who was playing on both legs when you can't throw the ball.)

For those of you keeping score at home, there remains two good quarterbacks and two guys who have hardly instilled confidence among their teams. (See: Notable Quotable for how Ed Reed feels about Flacco, page 10.) Alex Smith has been considered one of the biggest busts as a No. 1 overall pick in recent memory, and despite a virtuoso performance last weekend, I think even 49er fans would agree that he's been pretty terrible for the overwhelming majority of his career. I mean, the guy was benched in favor of J.T. O'Sullivan at one point.

Smith and Flacco's presence in their respective conference championships has simply reminded us of what we already know: Defense wins championships.

This year has shown us that the Adam Morrison philosophy isn't going to win you many games in the playoffs. (A-Mo once said to ESPN's John Gustafson, "I've always been told if you score more points than your guy, that's good D.")

Dubbing this season the Year of the Quarterback and proclaiming that defense is a secondary concern for a winning football team is the result we can come to expect as long as people like Trent Dilfer and Tim Hasselbeck are allowed to talk on air and form public opinion.

Also, the irony of Dilfer giddily talking about how there is nothing more important than quarterback-play in today's "National Football League" is certainly not lost on me. Could someone please remind him that he was, at best, a below-average signal caller who won a Super Bowl because he played with arguably the most dominant defenses of our generation. (Also, someone tell him that the only reason he got to exclaim to America that he was going to Disney World in 2001 is because the real Super Bowl MVP, Ray Lewis, had recently been accused of murdering someone.)

This is the world we live in in the 21st century. People's thoughts and opinions are shaped and mangled by the 24-hour news cycle, and the fact of the matter is, there really isn't THAT much to talk about regarding sports. So, media outlets like ESPN are forced to fill time with non-stories or overblown stories. If you need any proof of how ESPN has forced us to talk about a very small amount of subjects, check below, where our third Tebow-related column of the year is running.

The negative effects of the 24-hour news cycle, obviously, is not only felt in the sports world. Due to the constant need for watchable material, "analysts" are forced to always be coining the next big phrase or overgeneralization. We see these effects during the political process especially. The rhetoric and discussion has become so base, it makes an educated person wonder if we will ever return to thoughtful dialogue, or if we ever practiced it in the first place.

So, we need to decide as a society to believe in the merits of measured thoughts. Not every installment of something is the greatest ever. Frankly, we simply are not that special. We're actually a lot like the people before us. So, lets stop talking about how we'll never see a pair of passers like Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers again. Let's stop calling Tebow the greatest leader in sports. And let's stop crowning everything as the perfect model at every opportunity.

Listen, we are living in a remarkable time. But that's the thing about time — it's always remarkable. Are the watershed events of our generation that much more monumental than those of generations prior? Of course not. Stop speaking in such sweeping generalities and analyze the world for what it really is: The best that we can do for this given moment.

(This rant brought to you by the best sports columnist the Gonzaga community has ever read. A truly one-of-a-kind talent. The kind of gifted writer we will never see again.)