The playoffs begin tonight. 16 teams will vie for the greatest trophy in professional sports, and all of them start with no wins and no losses. It’s a level playing field on which anything can happen. This morning as I was heading out to work, I realized that a tight, nervous little knot had settled in my stomach thinking about the uncertainty of the playoffs. It reminded me of a scene for a frankly lousy Western directed by Sam Raimi (worry Mr. Raimi, but stick to films about evil books and superheroes) titled The Quick and the Dead.