NFL - The Thread, '08.

[UniversalWolf]

Holly shit... Did anyone watch Monday Nights game? There were more penalties than I could count. Literally on one drive in the 4th quarter there were four back to back penalties!

The annoying thing was how the refs kept throwing flags and stopping the game, only to announce that no penalty had taken place. It seemed like that happened about three times. The game had no flow.

I liked Adrian Wilson intercepting the shovel-pass, though.

 

[Maphusio]

Holly shit... Did anyone watch Monday Nights game? There were more penalties than I could count. Literally on one drive in the 4th quarter there were four back to back penalties!

The annoying thing was how the refs kept throwing flags and stopping the game, only to announce that no penalty had taken place. It seemed like that happened about three times. The game had no flow.

Doah! That was the best part. Added drama in a game is always a plus.

I liked Adrian Wilson intercepting the shovel-pass, though.

That made me cry inside... I being a Seattle fan want the Cardinals to lose and the Hawks get healthy (for once) and win.

 

[[PCE]el_Prez]

That game was a fucking shit show. Those officials were ridiculous. There were penalties on plays that were clean (like that first San Fran TD pass) and no penalties thrown on obvious violations. How did Isaac Bruce get called for pass interference for being knocked on his ass? Pick my ass, that was a crossing route and the defender knocked him down.

The couple plays of the game were just icing on the horrible called cake. Mike Martz is upset (as well he should be):
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3696990

These officials need to get their shit together and the league needs to go back and look at every single play where a flag was thrown (even if it was picked up). This kind of stuff shouldn't happen in the NFL

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

Yeah, it's fucked that they pursue things like fining people who criticize the refs with more vehemence than actually scrutinizing the fucked up calls or checking them. Awful lot of fines this year it seems like, there's the obvious stuff like the Anquan Boldin hit, but a lot of real headscratcher fines for shit that's not really out of line IMHO.
Roger Goodell is certainly a law and order kind of guy, I mean we don't want to see the NFL turn into the NBA where there inmates run the asylum, but it's the No Fun League indeed.
Jack Lambert was right, QBs should wear skirts so they know how to distinguish them from real football players.

Meanwhile the NFLPA had to pay out $28M today to the old-timers they've been screwing over. Wasn't ESPN and all the other jocksniffers stroking off Gene Upshaw in his grave a few months ago, how do they reconcile the saintly treatment they gave him with the greedy way he's squeezed the old-timers out? Oh right, they don't.

edit:
I actually missed the last 5 minutes of that game and left the 49ers for dead, but if he's blaming the loss on a spot difference of 2 yards, then his team wasn't really in that great of a poistion to win anyway. They had plenty of chances and squandered them in the last 40 seconds of that game. It's not even so much that the Cards beat them, it's more like the 49ers lost it themselves.
You want to like Mike Martz, but he's such a putz sometimes.

 

[UniversalWolf]

Roger Goodell is certainly a law and order kind of guy, I mean we don't want to see the NFL turn into the NBA where there inmates run the asylum, but it's the No Fun League indeed.

I'm really starting to despise Goodell, actually. I disagree with almost every decision he's made so far, and he seems to be getting more and more drunk with power as time goes on.

He was floating the idea of moving the ProBowl to the week before the SuperBowl; that's about the only thing I've thought made sense, and he didn't do it.

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

He was floating the idea of moving the ProBowl to the week before the SuperBowl

And he'd actually expect the guys playing in the SB the next week to show up? I've always been completely ambivalent about the NFL pro-bowl, it always sounds like it'd be so great on paper to see the assemblage of talent on the same field, and it's at a time when NFL withdrawl is kicking in, but it's just so meaningless, superfluous - nobody wants to get hurt, they just go through the motions, nice free vacation to Hawaii. I want to like the pro-bowl but it's actually below pre-season games and the first-round of the draft in terms of watchability for me.


Man, I was getting sick of all the Tennessee undefeated talk, because I really don't think they're all that (neither does Vegas laying even odds on the game with 4-5 Jax this week ). Then I saw the rest of their schedule, this is a flawed team for sure, but they have a shot.

 

[UniversalWolf]

And he'd actually expect the guys playing in the SB the next week to show up?

No. The players in the SB wouldn't play in the PB if it were the week before the SB. They'd still be ProBowlers (for contract and HOF consideration reasons) if they got voted in though, presumably.

Man, I was getting sick of all the Tennessee undefeated talk, because I really don't think they're all that (neither does Vegas laying even odds on the game with 4-5 Jax this week ). Then I saw the rest of their schedule, this is a flawed team for sure, but they have a shot.

Check out Detroit's schedule, too. They have a good shot at going 0-16. A very good shot...

You'd think they'd steal a win somewhere, but it's hard to see looking at the rest of their season.

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

No. The players in the SB wouldn't play in the PB if it were the week before the SB. They'd still be ProBowlers (for contract and HOF consideration reasons) if they got voted in though, presumably.

That kind of hurts it's credibility even more. Can you imagine last year's PB without any Giants or Pats? Who would play O-Line? It would look like the consolation round.
I don't know what the solution is for the Pro-Bowl, can't do it mid-season.

You'd think they'd steal a win somewhere, but it's hard to see looking at the rest of their season.

They've been a pitiful franchise for so long. It's really a shame to see some of the really talented guys they've had who've never been able to play up to the next level or in the playoffs. Imagine if Barry Sanders ever had a line and instead of having to break 3 tackles before he even got out of the backfield could negotiate his way through secondaries.

 

[Brother None]

Why does the Pro Bowl need a solution? It's a fun insignificant event where the best players go on an expensive vacation and toss the ball around a bit. What's the problem?

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

Compared to the other leagues it's a passionless, useless, masturbatory exercise.

Look at the NHL and NBA with their skill competitions (can't really be done in football - who wants to watch Ray Lewis hit a tackling sled?). Slam Dunk competitions, home run derbies, hardest slap shot...those league make a whole weekend out of it.
The NHL with it's different nationalist matchups - Canada & America Vs. Europe & Russia and it's different variations.

Baseball is probably the best because there's no risk of injury, so guys can play all out. Add to that the that winning league gets the homefield advantage in the world series and suddenly there's actually a modicum of feined motivation behind winning it. Which adds some much depth and makes the game actually compelling.

Pete Rose/Ray Fosse anyone (70s video not yet migrated to youtube I guess)? Charlie Hustle put his friend in the hospital with one of the most viscious hits of all time in a All-Star game. If you're not going to show up to play, what's the point of showing up at all?
What NFL pro-bowl "moment" has there ever been? The NFL players are more interested in golfing in Waikiki than the PB game itself.

The NFL pro-bowl is meaningless wankery compared to the other pro-sports leagues. But that's all it can ever be.
A 16 week season is pretty grueling, they can never do it like other sports. I don't think the PB can ever be more than what it is.
The pro-bowl game itself could dissappear and I wouldn't shed a tear. Like I said, I want to like it, I even try to watch it, but it's so painfully...banal.

 

[Maphusio]

Frack yes! I'm glad to see the Jets win in overtime!

 

[UniversalWolf]

Can you imagine last year's PB without any Giants or Pats?.

Yep. The NFC team would be exactly the same except it wouldn't have Osi Umenyiora.

The AFC team would be missing a ton of Pats, but that would make room for all those players who are good enough to go but don't get voted in. You already see guys who have been there several times before dropping out to give a chance to other people. If I remember correctly Favre didn't go last year, even though he made the team.

Why does the Pro Bowl need a solution?

You're right, it doesn't need a solution. Personally I think it would be a nice fit to stick it in that empty week before the SB, but that's the full extent of my enthusiasm.

Which is why I say, that's the only thing Goodell has proposed that I agree with. It's not even that impressive, and he never went through with it.

Frack yes! I'm glad to see the Jets win in overtime!

They should change the name to the New York Bretts.

 

[Maphusio]

And NE to the New England Filming your team at practice illegally otherwise known as NEFYTPI

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

The AFC team would be missing a ton of Pats, but that would make room for all those players who are good enough to go but don't get voted in. You already see guys who have been there several times before dropping out to give a chance to other people. If I remember correctly Favre didn't go last year, even though he made the team.

Not to belabor the point, because the Pro-bowl really is a non-entity, but I don't see how the exclusion of the two best teams, and guys skipping out for whatever reason anyway to allow the inclusion lesser players is an improvement.
Kind of defeats the purpose of a Pro-Bowl in my eyes.

And NE to the New England Filming your team at practice illegally otherwise known as NEFYTPI

Or not.
Funny how hearsay and rumors have more legs in the media than truth. Turns out that dude didn't have any tape like he claimed, but the story died on the vine at that point because nobody wants to hear that the truth is contrary to their prejudices.


Anyway, hate on the Pats. They already own this decade. With a couple years of productivity left Brady could likely get his 4th ring and cement his legacy and the dynasty for all times.
So beat on their JV team while/if you can.

[/quote]

 

[Brother None]

Anyway, hate on the Pats. They already own this decade. With a couple years of productivity left Brady could likely get his 4th ring and cement his legacy and the dynasty for all times.
So beat on their JV team while/if you can.

Your Massholeness is showing.

I love the Pats m'self. They're still an ugly duck this year, tho', but at least this season really shows Brady is one of the greatest players ever on the field. Ever. Probably the best, in fact, if he has a couple of years of productive left (which I hope, I'd hate to see that knee cut into his career)

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

Your Massholeness is showing.

Worse than a Masshole, I'm a Connecticunt (can't believe you're Dutch, I thought only people in CT said Masshole, I'm impressed). But living somewhere that's both in New England and the tri-state area, I've got to say, Boston fans are the worst, arrogant homers evahhhh, the local announcers are even worse. They're wicked pissahhh homahhhs. New York fans are bad too, but don't have the inferiority complex that Boston fans do. New Jersey/Philly - just ugly, belligerent human beings. It gets very intense here when those cities clash, everybody, even grandmas get their Irish up for NYC/Boston or NYC/Philly.

But hey, Pats fans deserve to gloat after decades of humiliation, their sun will set someday, so might as well soak it up. We're just lucky to get the right QB/coach/owner combination at the right time (have to thank that guy on the Bills for taking Drew Bledsoe out too).
I do wish they're tear down that friggin' 18-0 banner in Foxboro though, who's idea was that? That's like building a monument to the Hindenburg or the Titanic.

Kind of hoping the Titans go 18-0 and lose to the Giants in the Superbowl. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

 

[Brother None]

I love how the Pats perfect regular season doesn't count for shit. It really shows the "there's only one winner and fuck everything else" attitude of the US when it comes to sports. European mindsets tend to be pretty different.

I'm still waiting for Mercury Morris to release "18-1 is no better than 1-18" rap album.

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

I'm sure Jim Kelly would agree with you. It is kind of messed up. Same rationale that plagues guys like Dan Marino - guy was a freakin' robot, nobody ever carried an entire team on his back like Dan Marino, but he never won a Super Bowl so somehow he's inferior to Terry Bradshaw who was swimming in HOFers?
Marino's is a tragic story that he got there as a rookie and never made it back again. I don't feel that bad for him what with the money and the fame and the tanned Miami poon.

 

[UniversalWolf]

New York fans are bad too, but don't have the inferiority complex that Boston fans do. New Jersey/Philly - just ugly, belligerent human beings.

That's exactly why New York fans are worse than Boston fans, though: they're absolutely confident that absolutely everyone should love New York.

I agree with you about the Jersey/Philly fans. I really don't get what makes them tick, and I don't think I want to.

 

[DammitBoy]

I'd like to point out that this is one of the most bizarre and screwed up seasons I can remember in five years of playing fantasy football.