Then came something a little surprising: golf. At first, I thought it was a Nationwide event, maybe the European Tour, even a replay on The Golf Channel. Nope, it was the PGA Tour live on one of the networks.

Now, last I checked, Tiger Woods was hoisting the Fedex Cup trophy, capping off another great season by winning the inaugural PGA Tour playoffs.

Apparently, that wasn't the end.

Maybe I'm just dense, but I thought the playoffs meant the end to the season. Crown a champion, season's over. That's how it's always worked.

But not on the PGA Tour. Once the Tour Championship is over, there are seven more tournaments giving players extra chances to earn their PGA Tour cards for the next season (the top 125 get automatic spots for the next year).

The idea is based in part on NASCAR's Chase for the Cup, the series of races that determine the season champion.

NASCAR's format was designed to pique interest in the final races, though I always thought it was a little odd that NASCAR allowed drivers who are out of the Chase to continue racing. That's kind of like letting the teams that miss the NBA playoffs keep playing games after the finals are over.

The PGA Tour saw the success of NASCAR's formula and decided to create its own playoffs for the 2007 season. It wasn't nearly as big of a hit.

For one thing, the player who won the whole thing (Tiger Woods) didn't even compete in the first event, and several other big names skipped tournaments along the way.

It's one thing to allow for a bye, like in the NFL playoffs, but when a player can skip an event and still win the whole thing, it doesn't make any sense. It'd be like the New England Patriots not showing up for their first playoff game, yet still going on the win the Super Bowl.

But the thing that keeps hanging me up is the idea of continuing to play the season once a champion has been crowned. Isn't the whole idea of the playoffs to cap the season with a champion? The PGA Tour's setup is about like playing games after the World Series or the Stanley Cup Finals to determine draft position for the next season.

The idea of a series of tournaments set up for the players near the bottom of the money list to have a chance to earn their tour cards is a good idea, no doubt. But do it before playoffs, not after.

Is it a better finish to the season to end with a flourish at the Tour Championship or a fizzle at the Walt Disney Classic? That's like deciding whether a fudge brownie tastes better than a liver paste sandwich.

The PGA Tour hasn't given any indication that there'll be any major changes to the playoff format, other than perhaps tweaking the way points are distributed. It should. The whole idea of the playoffs is to put an exclamation point on the season, as if everything had been building toward the climatic crowing of a champion.

The way the PGA Tour season is set up now is like having "Rudy" end with him sitting at the breakfast table reading the paper instead of being carried off the field by his Notre Dame teammates -- it just doesn't have quite the same effect.

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COOL COMMERCIAL

Most commercials hover somewhere between horrible and making you want to throw a full beer at the tube -- like those buffoons sitting in the car during the Sonic ads -- but the new Nike football spot is one worth watching.

In case you haven't seen it, the commercial features San Diego linebacker Shawn Merriman and St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson making plays across several fields in various conditions as the song from "Last of the Mohicans" plays.

The song along with the shake-the-camera effect similar to what was used in "The Bourne Ultimatum" makes for a really cool combination -- a nice change from all the junk that's out there today.

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LOOSE BALLS

Want to see a great coach rant? Check out Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy letting a local reporter have it during his postgame news conference on Saturday: http://youtube.com/watch?vaoMmbUmKN0E . ... Randy Moss has already scored five touchdowns in three games for New England. Where was that in his two seasons with the Raiders? Yet another reason the Patriots are "The Peanut Gallery's" least-favorite team.

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John Marshall is asap's sports reporter, based in Denver.

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