This was, as Brent Musberger is prone to say, for all the Tostitos. Figuratively of course. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady launched his Hail Mary attempt at the end of Super Bowl XLVI not to win an exorbitant amount of delicious little tortilla triangles, but to be named the champion of the National Football League.

Alas, the pass was batted down in the endzone and his quest for a fourth title was foiled, ironically enough, by the little brother of his biggest nemesis. With that, the New York Football Giants claimed the belt, the glory and the coveted Lombardi trophy.

After the game I got to thinking a bit at the nature of the playoff system. It felt wrong that five months of NFL games had come down to one pass in order to determine who was best.

Sixty-five preseason games, 256 regular season games, 11 playoff games and it all came down to one Catholic prayer. Is that even fair?

Apparently I wasn’t the only person to have these thoughts as the Giants organization celebrated at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“That was an entertaining game, but it sure reinforces the notion that the regular season is meaningless,” Drew Olson of ESPN Milwaukee tweeted.

How many times have we seen the “better” team bested by the “hotter” team? How about every year in every sport?

“First the Cardinals, now the Giants. Advice to any team that wants to win a championship: be utterly mediocre in the regular season,” Joan Niesen of Fox Sports Wisconsin tweeted.

Really think about that, though. Is there any doubt that the Packers were the best team this season? Keep in mind this is coming from a die-hard Bears fan. Green Bay had the best offense, the best record and the best commercials. Yet one bad game at the wrong time nullified all that work and sent Green Bay ice fishing.

One more tweet.

“Congratulations to the Super Bowl Cup victors Giants, but real champion are NFL Supporters Shield winning Packers,” San Jose Earthquakes beat reporter Robert Jonas tweeted, continuing the trend.

For those not in the know, the Supporters Shield is the trophy given to the MLS team with the best record in the regular season. It’s a secondary trophy, but reinforces the point that what happens during the season has no bearing on the playoffs.

Does anyone really think that Connecticut, which finished ninth in the Big East, was the nation’s best college basketball team last season? Not at all. It was simply the hottest team, or to be more precise, had the game’s hottest hand in Kemba Walker.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Believe it or not there are leagues in the world where the best team is guaranteed to win the title – a league where the regular season has true value. Unlike the BCS’ claim too, every game does matter.

In fact, that league was on display on Super Bowl Sunday, seven hours before Papa Johns gave away all those free pizzas.

Yes, I’m talking about soccer — the Premier League to be more specific. The champion in England — and all other European countries — is crowned not after an arbitrary playoff period, but by who has the best regular season record. It rewards the teams that were the most consistent and not simply the luckiest.

When Chicharito headed home a Ryan Giggs cross to even the score with Chelsea after being down 3-0, Manchester United and its fans celebrated not just because it meant they wouldn’t lose a game, but because it kept them within two points of the league leaders.

I’m not saying the playoff system sucks, it’s incredibly exciting and draws in all the ad revenue, but it simply isn’t the fairest system. No one can convince me that a team with seven losses in 16 games was the best the NFL could offer.

Life isn’t always fair, I guess. Just ask Peyton Manning.