In my generation’s glory days of “Saturday Night Live,” comedian Cheri Oteri flat-out killed it as a recurring character named Nadeen who, like the majority of SNL skits, relied on a catchphrase. Nadeen told people to “simmer down now.” Sometimes it was “simma dow now.” You get the drift. Oteri played it to the hilt and created mileage of a recurring character on a big time show.
The Baltimore Ravens received a Christmas gift they’d rather return on Sunday. Thanks to a loss by the New York Jets, the Ravens made the playoffs for the fourth straight season under John Harbaugh. Fans got greedy. The lure of a home playoff game took control of the collective fan base.
And then the team stalled for sixty minutes. The San Diego Chargers, in a real must-win mode, beat the Ravens at whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it Stadium 34-14 on Sunday Night Football. (Qualcomm, in its infinite wisdom, changed the name of its stadium for ten days to Snapdragon. This aggravates producers who need to fill in graphics before a live show. Just sayin.)
As of my entry this morning, the Ravens can slide back into the number two seed if the San Francisco 49ers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on the west coast on Monday Night Football. Baltimore’s lost control of its destiny – for a couple of hours. At this point, they just need a Harbaugh to win a primetime game this week.
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