Is it a bird? A plane? No, it's Blake Griffin!

In a place they call the City of Angeles - a place full of gaudy restaurants, dizzying traffic and wide-open beaches  - there was a marvelous spectacle on Saturday night in an arena. A spectacle that was reminiscent of Rome in its debauchery-infused glorious heyday.

As the spectacle was winding down, it happened.

From the inside of a sleek silver vehicle, a bearded sage casually tosses a round ball in the air. A mystical figure shot through the air, his hands steady and ready, to grab the ball. This bird-like humanoid soared over the hood of the vehicle, levitated a few more feet in the air, and in a moment glistening with raw power, dropped the glowing ball into a netting attached to a board. He latched onto the netting as mere mortals around him erupted, their cheers and shouts laced with awe, fear and reverence.

Watch it for yourself:

UG Sports - 7: Playoffs

An hour before I scramble to my first class of this brand new quarter (Human Genetics - very fascinating, right?), I want to rattle off this post.

Yesterday was the last day of the NFL regular season. Today is bloody [or insert gruesome epithet of your choice] Monday, when coaches and other errant souls will be terminated mercilessly. With the end of regular season, the playoff picture is LED clear in both conferences.

NFC:
1. Atlanta "take that Vick" Falcons
2. Chicago Bears
3. Philadelphia Beagles Eagles (sorry for the horrible pun)
4. Seattle Seahawks (with a proud 7-9 record)
5. New Orleans Saints
6. Green Bay Packers

• Seattle won the yawnfest against St. Louis Rams in such an unspectacular fashion that I think the Saints effectively will have a bye next week.
• The Seahawks are the first team in NFL history to enter the playoffs with a losing record. Strut around, Whitehurst. 
• How absurd is it that the New York Giants, with a 10-6 record, were eliminated but Seattle got in?
• No more stagings of Hamlet: With their loss to Detroit Lions, the Minnesota Vikings ended up at the bottom of NFC north, like tea dredges, effectively ending Brett Favre's career. T.S. Eliot had it right: "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper."

AFC:
1. New England Patriots
2. New England Patriots
3. New England Patriots
4...
5...
6...

Nah just kidding:
1. Patriots
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
3. Indy Colts
4. KC Chiefs
5. B'more Ravens
6. NY Jets (who hop-footed into the playoffs)

• Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? The Carolina Panthers finished with a 2-14 record. Brady Bunch mirrored that with 14-2. The previous three times they did this, they made it to the Super Bowl. The first time they did this, they ended up meeting the Panthers in Super Bowl 38. Weird.
• The chiefs??! Wow. I guess that will teach the Chargers not to slack off.
• After the Jets made it to the playoffs, boisterous Rex Ryan immediately proclaimed that his team will win it all. Somebody should tell him that repeating something a million times doesn't make it true.

Meanwhile in the NBA, the Lakers lost (yet again). Kobe Bryant, who fell asleep in the first half, woke up irritated in the second, but alas that wasn't enough.