The Amazing Race - NFL Players Lose Out

The Amazing Race teams finally left Chile this evening, but it was one of the most arduous country exits I've ever seen. In fact, I can't recall a time that twenty-five minutes of the episode had passed before the teams even made a flight and arrived at their first task. It was ... interesting, I guess. However, the drama of the airline reservations was not the stuff of an exciting Race episode. And, this was the second time this season that contestants were severely knocked off their game by a reservation mix-up by third parties. This time, however, it proved to be the undoing of one team - the former NFL players Chester and Ephraim. And that was a real shame.

Having come in first the previous week, Chester and Ephraim had a great lead going to the airport and were supposedly on the first flight to Portugal, a flight that no one else could get on and would arrive five hours earlier than other teams. However, when the ER doctors managed to book the same seats, the fiasco began to unfold. The travel agent had apparently booked the NFLers on a different day, and now they faced the later flights. Which they accepted. However, bad went to worse and worse became a disaster as the travel agent literally called them at the airport and booked them on another flight with two connections through London. Chet and Eph could have declined, but as they walked off they acknowledged the risk - a risk that eliminated them from the race.

It was truly sad to see Phil meet the men at the airport as they raced off ready - finally - to begin racing. Alas, it was all over, and those of us waiting to hear the words "non-elimation round" were sorely disappointed. That may be the first time I have seen such a travel disaster, and I can't recall Phil meeting a team at the airport and eliminating them before they ever got the chance to play.  It was a sad exit - a truly shocking first to worst - and a poignant goodbye for a really good team who got dealt a really bad hand.

Oh, that it could have been "The Exes."