After the San Francisco 49ers were pummeled by the San Diego Chargers last night, they still only trail the leaders of their division by a single game. It just so happens that the Niners are still in the playoff hunt with a 9-5 FIVE AND NINE record, and this has a lot of people’s panties in a bunch.

People shouldn’t be so amazed that the NFC West could likely send a 7-9 team into the playoffs. What is amazing (to me) is how all of these people are crying foul over it. These are the rules that the league set up: Each NFC West team will have played each other twice, they’ll have played one game against every team in the NFC South (who have all been awesome, save Carolina, who will finally be getting rid of John Fox), and one game each against the teams of a competitive AFC West. That’s 14 common games, and if the NFL decides that they want to give a home game to the best team out of that format, they should do so.

If the NFL wanted to seed its postseason based on overall record, it needs to do one of two things: either balance the intraconference schedule so that every team plays each other once, or just get rid of divisions altogether, because they would mean nothing if the best team from that format wasn’t rewarded. The league set up a good system for postseason qualification and they should stick to it. The cries of “deserving” teams should only validate the strength of that system. This isn’t the BCS, ya know.

Major League Baseball, perhaps saddened by the loss of their marquee teams from this year’s World Series (which starts on Wednesday night, for some reason), might be open to expanding their postseason format, according to the new head of the players’ union. Baseball, which expanded its playoff tournament to 8 teams in 1994, still admits fewer teams into its postseason than any other major professional sport. Including NASCAR.

“Certainly some of the players have said either we should shorten the regular season because the regular season’s too long, or we should shorten the regular season to accommodate expanded postseason,” [MLB Union head Michael] Weiner said, adding that would have “revenue implications for the industry.”

“That is one of the ideas that they are kicking around. But having said that, we understand that a proposal to reduce the length of the regular season will be viewed one way by the owners as opposed to a proposal to expand or modify the structure of the postseason.” –Y! Sports.

Just admit everyone. How else are the Pirates gonna have another chance to win a playoff series? This will just be the first step toward a 11-month regular season. Hey, it’s gonna happen. Just wake me up when they get to the metal bats; I can’t wait for every sport to have its own concussion issue.

Everybody’s had those Rip Van Winkle days when we fade off to sleep forgetting to recharge our phone batteries and wake up to the realization that the Turkish immigrants you hired to dust your house for two bucks an hour have been banging on the screen door for almost half the day. This is what happened to third-ranked Jim Furyk this morning as he went to bed with visions of Barclays grandeur and woke up with the crushing realization that he’s never going to bang as many women as Tiger Woods…and he’s also late for his playoff golf tournament.

On the bright side, at least he’ll always have that awesome trophy on his mantle of a colonial man deftly wielding a golf club that hasn’t even been invented yet that I’d make PUNTE hump Elvis’ rotting carcass to own.

The No. 3-ranked player in the FedEx Cup points standings was disqualified from The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club this morning after missing his 7:30 a.m. pro-am tee time. As per PGA Tour rules, players who are in the pro-am field must be on their tee at the designated time or are disqualified from the week’s event.

“I don’t know if something happened with the charger or what, but I never got it,” Furyk said outside of the Ridgewood locker room this morning. “I just tore out of there, threw a pair of pants on and a shirt — still have no belt, no socks and my shoes are untied — and actually got in the locker room at 7:35, but I guess I had to be on the tee.” -NJ.com

He paused to put on pants and a shirt!? Come on! There’s no better way to show other golfers you’re in it to demolish them than to show up half naked with a full mast of morning wood brandishing from your boxer shorts. Incidently, this is how most of my first dates begin (and end).

Somebody sent me this Gay piece from the Wall Street Journal a couple days back and I didn’t really give it much thought at the time (I blame the meth), but the more I thought about it, the more I got irritated by this little passage on the front end of it:

May I root against the New Orleans Saints?

No, you may not. Rooting against the Saints is like rooting against Elin Nordegren. They’re the Sentimental Team of the Century; if Dick Enberg were calling the NFC championship game, he’d need a trailer truck of Kleenex. Even if you forget everything that New Orleans endured during Hurricane Katrina—and how could you?—they’re the Saints, the former Aints, one of the most hard-luck franchises in the history of hard luck. Not long ago, newborns came into the world in New Orleans hospitals with tiny grocery bags on their heads.

Root for us because we’ve been both perenially terrible and meteorologically challenged! And that’s not considering that Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma has most of his immediate family in Haiti. Whatever. It’s laundry against laundry, so I say hate away. You don’t like that skid mark on Drew Brees’ face? Hate away? Reggie Bush’s attention-whore girlfriend? Hate away. Jeremy Shockey? You get the idea. Just remember that a cheer against the Saints this weekend is a cheer for Brett Favre. You’ve been warned.

Cardinals 51, Packers 45 (OT). Aaron Rodgers rallied the Packers out of 17-point deficit to force overtime–and then surrendered the ball on what was technically ruled a fumble that Karlos Dansby ran back for the game winner. Despite such a Garrett Gilbert-esque finish to a terrific game, Rodgers has won praise for his poise in regulation, and his critics finally seem content to stop comparing him to that other guy.

Ravens 33, Patriots 14. The Patriots missed Wes Welker immensely, but the wide receiver’s absence doesn’t explain the 14 points that Baltimore hung on New England before fans could even find the ass grooves in their couches. The Ravens led 24-0 after the first quarter and, despite fits of occasional productivity from Tom Brady, never looked back. Brady finished the game with four turnovers and a serious case of helmet hair.

The New York Giants needed a win to stay in the NFC playoff race, and they got it. The Giants imposed their will on the Redskins last night, winning yet another ugly and unimpressive prime time football game, 45-12.

“We felt we can play at that caliber that we were playing at the beginning of the year,” said Ahmad Bradshaw, who ran for two first-half touchdowns. “We came out fired up. This was a must-win. I told everybody before we went out: `I need the whole team to come with us.’ And that’s how we played—together.”

The Giants (8-6) don’t control their destiny, but they moved one game behind Dallas and Green Bay in the race for wild-card spots with two weeks remaining in the regular season. –Y! Sports.

I maintain that, top to bottom, the Giants are one of the most talented teams in the league and really have potential to do some damage in the playoffs. Even as a 6-seed. And really, are there two teams more primed for failure in December than Dallas and Green Bay?