Everything is upside down

Weeks like this make me wonder why I don't just give up trying to figure football out.

Exhibit A: 7-8 Seattle knocks the defending champion Saints out of the playoffs. Kids, this is why you should NEVER gamble on any sporting event EVER.

Exhibit B: Sam Bradford sets about every rookie QB record known to man and loses the Sporting News Rookie of the Year, voted on by the players, to a defensive tackle from a team with a worse record.

Exhibit C: Neither A nor B are the biggest shock of the week. In perhaps the most rapid and most emphatic application ever of the Peter Principle, the Cleveland Browns have in fact hired Rams offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur as their new head coach. He was apparently a shoo-in from the very beginning! Pat Shurmur! Apparently, the upshot ever since Shurmur's offense laid that six-point rancid egg in Seattle a couple of weeks ago is what a brilliant coordinator he is!

Really! Pat Shurmur. I trust Browns fans will be more excited at the idea of slamming Peyton Hillis straight up the middle 25 times a game than we were here with Steven Jackson then? (Except the most important game of the season, against a weak run defense, when it makes the most sense to use him. THEN you pass all day to set up the run, and never run.)

Many would say the Rams need to concentrate next on finding Shurmur's replacement, but they could be missing a golden opportunity. Because if Browns GM Mike Holmgren is really this god damn stupid, the Rams should be floating some deals his way equally as attractive as having Pat Shurmur as his next head coach. I'm thinking we could get Josh Cribbs for Mardy Gilyard, or maybe a couple of first- and second-round picks out of James Butler or Mike Karney.

It would have been interesting to see how the Shurmur offense developed next season, since I'm assuming the Rams are going to make some off-season upgrades. They made a very nice leap from 2009 to 2010. I think Shurmur would have been poised to reap further benefits had he stayed. Can the Rams' progress continue without him? Unless Steve Spagnuolo hires an OC who's amazingly wet behind the ears, I don't see why not.

Then again, I picked the Saints.