Are You Ready For Some Football?

[SoupOrMan]

Dammit, Colts.

[Lokidude]

I thought the Pats had Miami dead to rights, so I flipped to the Atlanta game. No regrets.

[Netpackrat]

Is it that $#&*(#$&*() time again already?

[HTRN]

Browns are in midseason form, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Nice rally though.

It's no shame to lose to the greatest team in the NFL.

What is a Brown? And why are they in Cleveland?
Why are we in this hand basket and where are we going?...

You're going to Heinz stadium, to lose to the men of the Steel city.

[Aesop]

The best news is it means I can hit the mall or the home stores, or any other "go do stuff" plan on a weekend with 40% less jacktards on the road or in the parking lots, at least until a week or so before Thanksgiving when any idea other than hiding in your house goes to crap.

[MarkD]

Jets won the first game of the season. Patriots lost (sorry Chris). Survivor league pick (Broncos) managed to win. All told a good day.

For a while it looked like the Eagles would lose, and almost half of the people in our survivor league picked them to win, which would have made a bunch of people one loss from elimination. I think they're gonna have a great season, so I didn't want to waste them on week 1. A lot of people DID get their one loss from the Bears, so....

[Vonz90]

I grew up a Cardinals fan back when they were winning in style under Don Coryell (except for the playoffs of course). Still, when you are young and form an attachment to something like that, and then they leave (to Arizona), nothing else is the same. I've never been much of an NFL fan since then. The Ram's have always seemed like someone else's team playing here.

But Navy won this week, and that is way more important.

[Greg]

I heard that John Elway is going to be in the new OJ Simpson movie. He has a part as the Slow White Bronco…


Oh, Wocka Wocka Wocka!

In his prime he was one of the more mobile quarterbacks in the league. By white guy NFL quarterback standards he was fast. Also that ridiculous arm, made him dangerous on the move.

And no, I just find myself having a hard time caring about football. When I was in HS I was obsessive about my local sports teams. In college I did all kinds of rotisserie leagues, I did a full strat-o-matic baseball league season... I knew all the players, their strengths and weaknesses, etc.

I have cared less and less every year. As the leagues become bigger and bigger businesses, everything the teams, the owners, the players and the league bureaucracy does seems to inspire me to lose interest. Strikes, scandals, bad management, expansion, re-alignment, ever-expanding-and-more-inclusive 'playoffs', etc. It's just hard to give a fuck.

And over time I've found my identity is not enhanced by vicarious association with a particular band of physically overdeveloped and everything else stunted thuggish man-children. (Anyone who talks about a sports team and uses the word "we" is a fucktard. You weren't on the field.)

[MarkD]

My issue with both football and baseball (especially baseball now, but a few years ago it was football) is they've become so safety conscious they don't want to let them play the game.

Example from baseball: the catcher can't block the plate anymore. You want to say the catcher can't block the plate if he doesn't have the ball, or call him for interfering with a base-runner in the base-path? Fine, I can understand that. But if he has the ball he's entitled to position himself to make the tag (just like any other base). Let the catcher decide if he wants to block the plate, and let the runner decide if he wants to try to knock the ball loose (just like a runner can do with his feet at second base). In other words, treat the players like adults.

A few years ago in football it was quarterback injuries, to the point where the QB might as well have been playing touch football, if you got both hands on him he was called down. Thankfully they've backed down on THAT one.

[Langenator]

The biggest problem I have with pro sports is that I'm a fan of the teams I grew up with (in my case, the Niners, (baseball) Giants, and Sharks [screw basketball]), and since I don't do fantasy sports, I don't really care about the rest of the league, except wanting other teams to beat the Seahawks, Dodgers, et al to effect to playoff race.

And, since I'm in the Army and no longer live in the Bay Area, to be able to watch my teams regularly, means I'd have to buy the whole league package from the cable company, which I don't want to do.

When the heck can I get sports a la carte? (Actually, can I just get all of TV that way? I don't want Lifetime, MTV, the Oprah network, etc. I just want ESPN, the Military channel, and a couple others.)