NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.
It seems that seedings don't much matter in Fake Fight Club. Neither do measurables like size, speed and weight. The biggest factor on whether a coach advances to the next round? How well his team is currently playing.
Readers voted for Josh McDaniels (7) over Jeff Fisher (2), John Harbaugh (6) over Jim Scwhartz (3), and Gary Kubiak (6) over Lovie Smith (3). (I can only assume that Jim Mora Jr. (6) got past Marvin Lewis (3) solely on the assumption that the Bengals would suck.)
And for one half of this bout it's more of the same. First-year Colts head coach Jim Caldwell (7) outlasted Tony Sparano (2). And for his troubles, he gets to exchange pretend punches with Andy Reid, a 3-seed who made his way to the second round after quickly disposing of John Fox.
So what should we expect in this make-believe matchup? No idea. It's Captain Tons-o-Fun vs. Stone-Faced Killa. Each man has his strengths (for Reid: girth, for Caldwell: steely resolve) and weaknesses (Twinkies and a reliance on Peyton Manning for everything, respectively). Reid coached under another tub, Mike Holmgren, and Caldwell seems to be from the Art Shell School of Facial Expressions.
Of course, Reid isn't particularly expressive, but much of that can be blamed on the indigestion. Reid clearly has the size advantage and at 51 he's three years younger than Caldwell. But if the voters had the Colts head coach taking out Sparano there's no reason to think he won't have a good shot at doing the same against Reid.
I suppose that's one of the ancillary benefits of Fake Fight Club: unlike Philly fans, who annually want Reid run out of town, Colts supporters will gladly stick up for their own. Because that's how Midwesterners roll.
