Football and Star Wars

My inglorious larval phase included the late 70's, and lasted well into the 80's. During that time, I had several influences on my life that would forever leave their mark-Precambrian electronic gaming systems, Saturday morning cartoons, Philadelphia winning sports championships, Knight Rider, the Muppets, etc. One of the leading influences in my life back then, and many others in my generation for that matter, revolve around the original Star Wars Trilogy, Episodes 4-6.

The lessons of Star Wars can be applied to everyday life for us geeks. For example; if these aren't the droids you're looking for, move along.

Still, my favorite all-time truism of Star Wars occurs in the Battle of Endor, Episode VI, "Return of the Jedi". The Rebel alliance had all of its forces combined, had the element of surprise, a good plan for a three-prong attack, etc... They come out of hyperspace ready to go, and then this happens:

The trap scenario can be incorporated to many areas; for example, some genius applied it to other movies:

And for his awesome fuckery, Admiral Akbar shall always be the poster child of unwittingly running face-first into someone else's game plan. While I fully understand that it probably wasn't all his fault (others had input to the plan, and the Princess is off pushing guerrilla warfare), Akbar is solely responsible for the fate of the Alliance. "Heavy lies the crown", and such.

*Why wasn't the guy who formulated the battle plan above Yavin consulted?

And let's be honest: Akbar should have lost the Battle of Endor. That Death Star was fully operational. If not for a weird, unforeseen string of events (Ewoks, the Emperor being thrown down a shaft by his second in command, etc.), the Alliance would be terminated. Remeber this for later.

Now onto football. Everyone loves the concept of the "Trap Game", or that game on every team's schedule that said team overlooks, and could end up losing. What better place to apply the metaphors of Star Wars?

So here we go. As with last season, I pick a matchup I feel is worthy of receiving "The Akbar Award", and is given to the higher ranked team that could potentially run into a very precarious situation. That being said, here is the decoration in all of its glory:

EDIT: Zac, you're right. Let's scale the geekness back to acceptable levels.