Few people with the privileges we have complain about their jobs as much as sportswriters do. But weekends like this are easy reminders of why we're so lucky to be doing this for a living. As much fun as it would have been the last couple of days to sprawl on the couch at home and watch the Navy-Notre Dame game and then the Patriots-Colts game, it was even more fun to be there in person.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm gloating when I talk about things like this, like when I'm asked about the moments I cherish most, and I realize that I saw, for example, the Michael Jordan shot that beat Utah in 1998. These two games, on back-to-back days, are right up there.

Then again, there's the third leg of my weekend trip.

As we waited for the elevators to the RCA Dome locker rooms after tonight's game, a colleague said that, basically, this is the last NFL game worth watching until the AFC championship game. In response, I had no choice to point out where I was going tomorrow: to Pittsburgh for Steelers-Ravens.

"From Tom Brady to Kyle Boller,'' he said.

That was so uncalled-for. Boller might not even play tomorrow. Still, to the outside world, Boller is the instantly-recognized symbol of the Ravens' offensive futility.

But that's the NFL 2007 for you. Honestly, the next 2 1/2 months will be excruciating. But maybe the Steelers and Ravens will fool me tonight.

Meanwhile, it was unfortunate that we couldn't mention in today's paper that Notre Dame's Robert Hughes scored the first touchdown, and how meaningful that was. He's a freshman running back, and before the game there was a moment of silence for his brother, who had been shot to death back in their hometown of Chicago earlier in the week. The team had attended the funeral just days before the Navy game, and when Hughes scored, he was swarmed by the players on the sideline, embracing him. Besides that, the moment of silence also honored Ryan Shay, the marathoner who died during the Olympic trials in New York just hours before the game, and who was a former Notre Dame star.

So Notre Dame had a lot of emotion on their side. And Navy still managed to win.