Why am I not surprised?

Disgusted? Absolutely. Pissed off? You betcha. But surprised? Not in the slightest. Of course, I'm talking about football, my two favorite teams in particular. The Jets and the Cardinals. My own personal house of horrors, my very own torture chamber.

Let's review. Only one month ago, the Jets, led by future Hall of Famer Brett Favre, had beaten the Patriots and then-unbeaten Tennessee in back-to-back games on the road. At 8-3, the Jets looked like the team to beat in the AFC and a possible Super Bowl contender. They led their division by a game over Miami and two games over New England.

The Cardinals stood at 7-4, needing one more win to clinch their hapless division. Kurt Warner was the "comeback kid" of the league, and the front-runner for the MVP. It was a time of giddiness and excitement.

The next weekend, the Jets lost a surprise game at home to Denver, a team that was struggling. No one took it to mean very much, even Favre was entitled to an off game. With Miami also losing, and New England winning, the Jets still owned an 8-4 record and a one game lead on both teams. The Cardinals played host to the Giants that weekend, and gave the best team in the league everything they had, and came oh so close to knocking them off. Instead, they lost, and clinching would have to wait another weekend.

The next weekend saw the Jets fly out to San Francisco to play the woeful 49'ers, one of the stinko teams in the Cards' division. If the Jets could win out, the division was theirs. Ah, but this is the Jets we're talking about, the team that has made its fans suffer for 40 years waiting for another Super Bowl. Sure enough, San Francisco inexplicably knocked them off, and the Jets found themselves now tied with both Miami and New England. Still, at 8-5, they owned the tie-breakers over both teams. All they had to do was win out over their last three games.

And the Cardinals? They played host to the pathetic St. Louis Rams, the team that quarterback Kurt Warner had taken to the Super Bowl, who had won only four games all season. The Cardinals continued to defend their home field, as they had done in every previous game, except the Giants' game. When the smoke cleared, they had beaten the Rams, and clinched their first division crown in decades. The city of Phoenix went nuts. Next up, the goal was strengthening their seed and gearing up for the playoffs.

Last Sunday was just plain ugly. The Jets hosted the Buffalo Bills, and did a great job of playing down to their opponent and making stupid mistakes and keeping the Bills in the game. Buffalo controlled the line of scrimmage, and spent the afternoon running the ball right through the Jets. With a little more than two minutes left, the Bills had the ball and the lead. All they had to do was keep pounding the run, gain a first down, and the Jets were toast. Inexplicably, Bills coach Dick Jauron called a pass play, the quarterback was sacked, fumbled the ball, and the Jets defender ran the fumble in for a game-winning touchdown. The fans went wild, and the Jets, now at 9-5, once more had their destiny in their own hands. Win the last two games, against pathetic Seattle, and then Miami, and the Jets win the AFC east.

The Cardinals played host to Minnesota, which was still fighting for a playoff spot. The game was in Phoenix, where the Cardinals were 5-1. A chance to improve their seed, and show the rest of the league that they were for real, and a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs. So, what happened? Adrian Peterson of the Vikings ran at will against the beleaguered Cardinal defense, and the Vikings led 28-0 before halftime. The stunned fans, who had celebrated a division championship only the weekend before, booed the team off the field at the half. It was beyond ugly.

And then came today. The Cardinals started the day playing at New England. The Cardinals had gotten their butts kicked every time they had come east this season (against the Jets, Eagles, and Redskins) and the other time they played in the eastern time zone, they blew a big halftime lead at Carolina, and ended up losing to the Panthers. Now was the time for some redemption, and not only that, by beating New England, they could help out the Jets. Yeah, right. Just to make things more ridiculous for the Cardinals, it was snowing like hell for the entire first half of the game today. It was, without doubt, one of the most embarrassing performances I've ever seen by an NFL team. The Patriots moved the ball at will, while the Cards couldn't even make a first down. It was 31-0 at halftime. To quote Brando in "Apocalypse Now," the horror, the horror.

But if that was bad, what came next was even worse. With the Patriots winning easily over the playoff joke from Phoenix, and Miami pulling out a tough one against Kansas City, the Jets had to win to stay even with them in the AFC east. It was snowing heavily in Seattle, where the Jets were playing the pathetic Seahawks, almost as heavily as it was coming down in New England. Rest easy, the Jets are now led by the great Brett Favre, the legend of all those blizzard-condition games all those years in Green Bay. The Jets moved the ball down the field on their first possession. They were about 18 inches shy of a first down at the Seattle 2, and opted for a field goal. They took the three points, and never got anywhere near the goal line again. To put it bluntly, Favre sucked. He threw interceptions, uncatchable balls, and got sacked. The running game was stymied. And the defense allowed Seattle to run the ball, and put up thirteen points. Not a whole helluva lot, but on this day, it was more than enough. Pathetic Seattle knocked off the Jets 13-3, won for only the third time all season, made Brett Favre look bad in the process, and just about knocked the Jets out of the playoffs. Oh, there's still a mathematical chance for the Jets. If they beat Miami next weekend (fat freaking chance, I predict Chad Pennington will destroy his old team and lay to rest many personal ghosts) and New England loses to Buffalo (sure, like that's going to happen!), the Jets can still win the division. Right, and if you believe all that will occur, there's some beachfront property here in Arizona I'd like to sell you.

No, it looks like the Jets are done. Just another spectacular collapse/choke on their resume. Welcome to the New York Jets, Mr. Favre, looks like you fit in perfectly. The Cardinals? They still get to play a home playoff game. They might even win next weekend against the pathetic Seahawks, it's hard to imagine that Seattle would actually win two in a row. It will be nice to see the Cards charge into the playoffs with an intimidating 9-7 record (he says, sarcastically). Despite being at home in the first round of the playoffs, they will probably be one and done.

In reality, both teams came a long way from last year, especially the Jets. The Jets will win no less than 9 games this year, and maybe 10. They only won four all last year, so it's quite an improvement. But there was so much more that they could have accomplished and had right in their sights. The division was theirs for the taking, and they blew it big time. The improvement over last season will be forgotten, the collapse will not.

The playoffs are a whole new season, and the Cardinals will definitely be there. If they get their act together, and win a game or two, the late-season fade will be forgotten. Realistically, it's hard to imagine that happening. They haven't just lost the last two games, they have thoroughly gotten their asses kicked. They were down 28-0 in the second quarter of BOTH games!! They have looked absolutely hopeless and pathetic.

How many days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training?