The Poinsettia Bowl on Wednesday night serves three purposes.One: Cal fans will get to see their Sybil of a squad one more time. Sally Field should be an honorary captain.Two: Utah fans likely will get to see the longest bowl-winning streak in the country extended to nine. That and 4 will get the Utes a double-caff soy latte at the Starbucks in the San Diego airport Thursday morning.Three: Eighty-seven percent of the viewers will discover that they've been misspelling and mispronouncing "Poinsettia" forever. Not sure how often one is required to spell the word, but still. You've been doing it wrong. Wear it.Pretty exciting stuff, huh? Right up there with buying nail-polish remover for your wife's stocking.The sad truth is that unless you're addicted to gridiron gambling, this game carries all the appeal of virtually every Robin Williams movie since "Good Will Hunting," with the possible exception of "Happy Feet." You're kinda-sorta compelled to watch it because there's a local tie and a little bit a star power, but ultimately you walk away thinking, "I knew I should have caulked that garage window today."Imagine how different things would be were it not for a single play.You know what play I'm talking about, right? Of course you do. It's the play that immediately transformed Cal's season from tantalizing to traumatic.Jahvid Best. Oregon State. The worst Cal touchdown ever.If Best were still playing, whole 'nother story. We'd probably be talking about his time in New York for the Heisman presentation, and how cool it was to see Stanford and Cal backs finish in the top three. We'd be talking about Cal's eighth consecutive season with a 1,000-yard rusher. We might be talking about a few Cal records within reach. We'd be talking about national rankings.Without question, we'd at least be talking Cal football. And because a healthy Best very well could have helped the Bears get into a more meaningful, post-Christmas game, we sure as heck wouldn't be talking about the Poinsetta Bowl. Sorry. Poinsettia. Instead, the only Best-related talk going on is nothing short of bummage.Will he ever be able to play at such a high level again? If so, will he have to change his running style and dispense with the crowd-pleasing leaps? Did the injury sufficiently scare him into declaring for the NFL draft so he can take advantage of what appears will be a salary-capless season in the pros next year?All because of one stinking play. It's enough to make you want to rent "Death to Smoochy."
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