There were two post-game dispatches from Saturday’s Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl epic that succinctly showcased the ecstasy and agony of the modern sports experience. One, a widely circulated video of Alabama and Auburn fans reacting to the game’s final play, a field goal kick returned for a touchdown, an instant classic that’s already bullied its way into the conversation about best finishes. The other, a report of death threats sent on Twitter toward maligned Alabama kicker Cade Foster, who missed three field goals on the day.  You’ll be happy to know not all fans were as vitriolic. In some households, the screaming hasn’t stopped. The rivalry was already charged before both teams found themselves in the top five of the national rankings, before Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide were gunning for their third straight national championship—a hope that seems all but bankrupt barring a collapse of the teams above them. “I hope, in an afterlife somewhere, that O.B. Keeler saw the game and realized that a 12-0 Auburn win over Georgia was not the most dramatic result possible. I hope that the state of Alabama remains standing on Monday,” writes Sports on Earth’s Matt Brown. “I hope that Chris Davis, upon finishing his eligibility, never has to buy a drink ever again in Auburn, Ala. I hope that nobody poisons any trees, that nobody cloaks the ending in any sort of unnecessarily contrarian dreck, that the ending of Auburn 34, Alabama 28 can be accepted for what it really was: an all-time classic, the best possible finish to the most hyped Iron Bowl ever.”  Apart from the rankings ramifications, which had Florida State and Ohio State moving up to occupy the top two spots and Auburn stomping around about deserving a title bid, the loss immediately (and perhaps finally) called Nick Saban’s method into question. It wasn’t that he lost, but the way he lost: grim-faced, tight-lipped, somewhat cagey about who was to blame for the blown coverage. As folly as it seems to question someone who’s won three titles in four years, he reacted like someone incapable of realizing he’d just participated in one of the greatest games of all-time, even if he was on the losing end.  Then again, maybe Saban’s always been the most rational guy on the field regarding what he is here for. “College football has insanity at its heart and, really, throughout its body,” writes the New Yorker’s Reeves Wiedeman. “It involves a game that is becoming increasingly questionable to play, a system of negligibly compensated labor that appears to be crumbling, a means for crowning a champion that makes minimal logical sense, and fans who behave like heathens, even by the already debased standard set by sports fans at large.” All of that may be true. And yet if this is one of the sport’s last gasps before the College Football Playoff is instituted, before the health standards are updated to account for head trauma, before the earning power of the “student-athlete” for his economic contributions to his school is finally acknowledged, there could be worse sendoffs.  Compared to this week’s college results, the NFL must have seemed absolutely pedestrian due to the lack of epochal changes in league hierarchy. What did happen was most of the same. Despite their receiver breaking his own record for most yards caught in a game, the ever inconsistent Chicago Bears whiffed in overtime against the Minnesota Vikings. The Washington Redskins lost because they couldn’t correctly identify a first down, which seems about right. The Buffalo Bills showcased a really virulent disdain for winning, carrying a lead for most of the game before losing in the end to the not exactly world-beating Atlanta Falcons. (But hey, at least Toronto mayor Rob Ford was there to provide some entertainment.) The Indianapolis Colts did just fine without the demoted Trent Richardson, Nick Foles continued looking like a runner-up MVP as the Philadelphia Eagles continued their push for the postseason, and the Cleveland Browns pulled off a last-second tanking upset to keep their chances for a top draft pick blissfully alive. Nothing was that surprising because at 12 games into the season, just about every team is who we think they are.  And no team looks higher in public perception than the Denver Broncos, who improved to 10-2 by going to Arrowhead Stadium, holding down the Kansas City Chiefs, and slapping them with their own hand. What else do you call an uninterrupted run of 28 points, including four touchdowns to a single receiver? The Broncos can play on top or from behind, and they look like an easy Super Bowl favorite… which, to be fair, you could’ve said during any of the last three months. It isn’t exactly rocket science, no. “To be sure, the Broncos appear far from invincible or invulnerable,” writes Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks. “But show me the last Super Bowl champion that wasn’t. They’ve all got fatal flaws of some sort these days, but the contenders that disguise them best wind up going the furthest, and Denver is starting to look like the team that can make up for most of its holes.” At this point in the season, that’s what counts.  Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Jeremy at jeremypaulgordon@gmail.com.  Have We Witnessed the End of the SEC Conference?
The sports world picks up the pieces after a wild Iron Bowl ending sends college football into complete disarray. Also, apparently the NFL played football games this weekend as well.