they make an awfully big deal out of story lines in sports these days. or maybe every day. i don't know. i guess sports journalists are out to tell a compelling story like the rest of journalists. the monday night football game between tampa & indy was a good example of storylines running away with the game. even before the kickoff there was the homecoming story, the 4-0 colts vs. the defending champs story, the high-powered offense vs. game-breaking defense story, the new Dungy defense against the old Dungy defense story, and even the "it's Tony Dungy's birthday story." but there was one important plot thread that fell through the cracks, a remarkable case of parallelism, a notable instance of life imitating art imitating life. what happened to the Pirates of the Carribean subplot to the matchup? both stories involved pirates, revenge, an underhanded change in leadership, had the good guys pulling off a stunning upset victory over insurmountable odds and took between three and four hours. here's my preliminary casting:

evil undead pirate captain: Jon Gruden
captain jack sparrow: Tony Dungy
Orlando Bloom: Peyton Manning & Marvin Harrison (Harrison sits on Manning's shoulders and they wear a cloak)
Annoying stick-up-the-buttocks military guy who manages to piss off the pirates, both good & evil: the officials

think about it, folks. the case is so compelling on its own obvious merit, i don't even have to bother making it. that and i'm lazy. especially that i'm lazy.