The NFL 2010 thread

Rimbo · 2010-11-30T15:11:20.000Z

Tim James:

I am casually following the NFL this year for the first time. It’s only in a general sense because I don’t care about any of the teams.

Honestly, this is the most fun way to follow the NFL for me.

A long time ago, I was a hardcore Dallas Cowboy fan; Jerry Jones put a quick end to that.

Shortly afterwards, I would simply root for the teams that have Longhorns on ‘em. But lately, there are so many, that it’s impossible to really pick one or the other. And a lot of times, there are players I like who aren’t Longhorns, who even went to our bitter rivals’ schools (e.g. Sam Bradford, Tommie Harris, Martellus Bennett, lots of KSU guys) who I enjoy seeing perform well.

There are certainly teams I like better than others, but it’s fun to watch a game and not really care who wins, and just enjoy some top-quality head-smashing.

Erik_J · 2010-11-30T15:11:32.000Z

Rimbo:

It wouldn’t even occur to me to judge it.

If I override this “judge a player’s football performance by how they play football” circuit and try to judge, a few thoughts occur to me:

I don’t know what they’re laughing about, so I lack the knowledge to make a judgment, and

For some people, laughter is an effective way to deal with adversity that does not in any way reflect how seriously they take a given situation.

There are no known instances of a player’s performance improving because they were frowning and sulking.

So I’m still left with: It’s a stupid thing to get worked up about. It’s not even really bright to consider it, but it’s entering “sack o’ hammers” and “unable to pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel” levels of stupidity to actually make any kind of a deal out of it.

No wonder you still support VY so vehemently! I keed, I keed!

Rimbo · 2010-11-30T15:29:03.000Z

Erik J.:

No wonder you still support VY so vehemently! I keed, I keed!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH1!!!

hehehehehe… hehehe… hahahah…

Oh man, that’s some funny shit right there. :)

Matt_Perkins · 2010-11-30T15:50:40.000Z

Tim James:

I am casually following the NFL this year for the first time. It’s only in a general sense because I don’t care about any of the teams.

The biggest surprise was how well the sport generates talk show noise to blather about each week. I can see how addicting that would be. I’d better bail out before I pick up a team and it’s too late for me.

After Marino was forced out, er retired, I quit watching the NFL for a couple of years. Then I got drawn back and gave it another chance, but didn’t get so attached to a team or player anymore. The Colts are my team, if I really have one, but really because of Manning. Then it’s the Bucs and Seahawks, because I was local to the Bucs and am now local to the Seahawks.

Beyond that, I like to watch good teams. Love watching the Falcons for instance, because they have an effecient QB, who could end being spetacular (already shown signs of it), good running game and good defense. That’s pretty much how I pick which games to watch, what’s a good match up. I like watching stellar players doing their thing. So I like watching the Steelers for the likes of Troy P, even with Big Ben on the team (good QB, but his off the field bullshit has really soured me a bit).

I’d suggest watching whatever team is your local team, along with whatever good teams you get on TV, because that’s what all of the local sports radio will be about. Then tune into the local sports radio and see if they are any good. Here’s in the Seattle area, I’m not too impressed, except with John Clayton. I miss Ron and Ian back in the Tampa area, because they knew football and had a very entertaining show.

Orangist · 2010-11-30T16:32:54.000Z

Mark Asher:

Here’s a question: If Carolina continues to suck and gets the #1 overall pick, do they draft Luck even though they have Clausen? I think they do because Clausen hasn’t shown much.

Erik J.:

Oh, geez. That’s not even a question. Luck is The Man. You draft him if you’re the Panthers. The problem is you need to get someone to work with him. Steve Smith ain’t what he used to be. You got the RBs, but you need an air-threat to pair with him. If they got Luck and then a decent+ WR, they’d be salvageable.

Everybody that I’ve heard talk football in North Carolina agrees that Luck is the right choice. The question is whether Jerry Richardson and Marty Hurney (plus whoever replaces John Fox, assuming he’s gone next year) are smart enough to make that choice, in addition to recognizing that we have three, no, four quarterbacks (St. Pierre, Pike, Clausen, Moore)* and none of them are any good. I hope, hope, hope that the Panthers don’t trade away the 1st overall pick, but I would not be surprised if they did that.

If they trade the pick away or don’t pick Luck, I may stop being a fan.

sluggo:

Panthers are playing competitive football

The Panthers aren’t playing competitive football. Worst offense in the league. If they get behind anybody (except the 49ers, and I’m not sure they’d win that game again), they lose.

*And Armanti Edwards who was drafted at WR, but lots of people want to at least see if he can play QB at the NFL level; what else do we have to lose this season, except the first draft pick?

Sarkus · 2010-11-30T16:39:32.000Z

Orangist:

Everybody that I’ve heard talk football in North Carolina agrees that Luck is the right choice. The question is whether Jerry Richardson and Marty Hurney (plus whoever replaces John Fox, assuming he’s gone next year) are smart enough to make that choice, in addition to recognizing that we have three, no, four quarterbacks (St. Pierre, Pike, Clausen, Moore)* and none of them are any good. I hope, hope, hope that the Panthers don’t trade away the 1st overall pick, but I would not be surprised if they did that.

ESPN’s John Clayton said in an interview I heard today that the Panthers are pretty sold on Clausen. That said, he believes they would draft Luck (barring a ridiculous trade out offer) and move Clausen if that happened.

sluggo · 2010-11-30T16:49:55.000Z

Rimbo:

It wouldn’t even occur to me to judge it.

I’m not sure how much you should read into someone’s motives when you catch them laughing on the sidelines during a blowout. I don’t even think DA was laughing that hard at the time – he was more smiling than anything, and said his teammate was just trying to keep things positive. Maybe the cameras just caught DA at the wrong moment, that this was all blown out of proportion, and that this probably shouldn’t be that big a deal.

But the reality is, when a team of professional athletes is getting their ass kicked, they better not look happy or the fans will not react well. It doesn’t matter if you think that’s a fair response or not; that’s how it is. If you’re playing shitty and you’re caught laughing on the sidelines, the fans will react poorly. Derek Anderson, as poorly as he handled the press conference, at least grasps this basic concept. When a reporter asked why he was laughing, he got defensive because he understands that it looks really bad, and perception can be just as damaging as reality.

So it begs the question: how can anyone who’s watched football for more than 10 minutes not understand that laughing on the sidelines while getting your ass kicked is a bad thing, if for no other reason that it’ll piss your fans off?

Rimbo · 2010-11-30T17:02:07.000Z

To me, the solution to that is not to worry about laughing when you are sucking, but rather not to suck. If DA could hit a wide-open receiver, nobody’d give a fuck about him laughing.

Erik_J · 2010-11-30T17:11:27.000Z

Yes…you’re right… but he can’t… so they do give a fuck. That is kind of the point.

sluggo · 2010-11-30T17:12:09.000Z

Orangist:

The Panthers aren’t playing competitive football. Worst offense in the league. If they get behind anybody (except the 49ers, and I’m not sure they’d win that game again), they lose.

Let’s look at some of Carolina’s losses this year:

Trailed Giants 24-16 in the 4th
Trailed Bengals 13-7 in the 4th
Led Saints 14-13 late in the 4th, lost 16-14
Trailed Ravens 20-13 late in the 4th
Trailed Bucs 24-16 late in the 4th
Led Browns late in the 4th, missed winning FG at the gun

For all their woes, they’ve consistently been in games in the 4th quarter – they just keep giving up late scores.

I think they’re the worst team in the league, but it’s not like they’re rolling over every week. They’re competitive.

Orangist · 2010-11-30T17:14:34.000Z

Sarkus:

ESPN’s John Clayton said in an interview I heard today that the Panthers are pretty sold on Clausen. That said, he believes they would draft Luck (barring a ridiculous trade out offer) and move Clausen if that happened.

That’s good news/rumors. On Sunday Clausen looked better than his previous performances, and certainly looked better than Delhomme, but a) he was playing the Browns, and b) Delhomme threw a touchdown pass to the Panthers, but not the Browns, so Jake didn’t set a high bar. I would not mind Clausen as the back-up, assuming he continues to improve.

sluggo:

Let’s look at some of Carolina’s losses this year:

Trailed Giants 24-16 in the 4th

Trailed Bengals 13-7 in the 4th

Led Saints 14-13 late in the 4th, lost 16-14

Trailed Ravens 20-13 late in the 4th

Trailed Bucs 24-16 late in the 4th

Led Browns late in the 4th, missed winning FG at the gun

For all their woes, they’ve consistently been in games in the 4th quarter – they just keep giving up late scores.

I think they’re the worst team in the league, but it’s not like they’re rolling over every week. They’re competitive.

Fair enough, you have the evidence there. They just look so awful on offense it’s hard to be positive. :|

Having said that, I’m very pleased with the defense this year. Consistently quite solid. :)

Rimbo · 2010-11-30T17:30:39.000Z

Erik J.:

Yes…you’re right… but he can’t… so they do give a fuck. That is kind of the point.

And my point is that his shit play is more than enough of a reason to be mad at him. Again, no reason to even consider his laughing.

Sarkus · 2010-11-30T18:09:17.000Z

In fairness to Anderson, most audio for this blowup picks up with what turns out to have been the reporter’s second attempt at the same question. So from that point of view, Anderson may have felt he already had answered the question (albeit vaguely) and may have interpreted the follow-ups as much more of a direct attack.

pcbonn · 2010-11-30T18:34:39.000Z

And, in fairness, the local reporter (Kent Somers, AZ Republic) who asked the question, multiple times, rarely writes anything too negative about the Cardinals. In that light, he was clearly trying to get a good spin to put on that for his article, since the fan base saw the incident live and listened to Gruden call him out.

Sarkus · 2010-12-01T13:28:07.000Z

After the fight between Finnegan and Johnson on Sunday, a lot of people expected big fines and even suspensions. Instead, they both got off light with relatively minor fines. And now a lot of people think the NFL decided they weren’t willing to suspend Johnson because the Texans play on the NFL Network’s game. And since they weren’t willing to suspend Johnson, they weren’t going to suspend Finnegan. Instead the NFL seems to be saying that throwing your helmet off and taking swings is equivalent to the Seymour/Roethlisberger thing a few weeks ago, even though in that case Seymour was at least kicked out of the rest of that game.

Tortilla · 2010-12-01T13:31:28.000Z

Finnegan and Johnson were ejected as well.

Matt_Bowyer · 2010-12-01T13:37:20.000Z

Johnson wouldn’t have been suspended for Thursday’s game anyway. There’s an appeals process, and the suspension doesn’t happen until the player has finished the appeal and it’s been reviewed.

DT1 · 2010-12-01T13:44:37.000Z

That was completely out of character for Johnson, who has been a model citizen. He shouldn’t let Finnegan get under his skin and I’m sure he knows that.

I can see the argument for suspension but I’m glad they didn’t. I doubt you ever see Johnson do anything like that again.

triggercut · 2010-12-01T13:45:31.000Z

Tortilla:

Finnegan and Johnson were ejected as well.

But “a lot of people think”!

Sarkus · 2010-12-01T13:45:36.000Z

Tortilla:

Finnegan and Johnson were ejected as well.

True, but Seymour/Roethlisberger happened late in the first half and both players had their helmets on. Finnegan/Johnson happened in the fourth quarter without helmets. Seymour arguably paid a heavier price (missing more of a game) for a much less dangerous act. They all got the same fine.