Let's talk football (the American version)

[Rich-n-Texas]

EA-GL-ES EAGLES!

Training camp starts in three weeks. Will someone please tell me who's hurt, who's been cut, who died, who got arrested... has Andy Reed lost any weight?

[GMichael]

My team has sucked for 16 years. It looks like they will suck again this year.
But at least they aren't the Eagles.

[Troy]

2007 predictions:

The 49ers will miss Norv Turner at OC more than any player. Possible 8-8 season.

The Chargers won't miss Marty.

The Bears will be shown for the Straw dogs they are.

The Raiders will suck. Again.

I will always hate the Cowboys.

Michael Vick will melt down this year.

Some Bengals players will get arrested.

Moss will do well in NE, but the team is too old to win it all.

McNabb will get hurt by game 10.

The mediocre Giants will not be any better than they were last year, but they will still get 80% of the media air time like they did last year.

Saints and Chargers superbowel.

[kexodusc]

GO CHARGERS!
This time, fer sure!

[Rich-n-Texas]

You guys are putting a lot of pressure on LT aren't ya? BTW, he was here in Dallas last week to visit the TCU campus. I was impressed by the fact that he spent so much time with the kids, spoke with an aire of intellect, and showed no sign of the trappings of success... yet.

McNabb will get hurt by game 10.

Well, we can count on at least a 10-6 record for the Eagles this season right? Good enough for a playoff spot.

The Raiders will suck. Again.

That's a given.

Michael Vick will melt down this year.

Not if they put him in jail first!

I will always hate the Cowboys.

Not as much as me! And that's no easy task when you live right smack in the middle of Convict country.

My team has sucked for 16 years. It looks like they will suck again this year.
But at least they aren't the Eagles.

I'm not even going to venture guess as to who your team is.

[Swish]

EA-GL-ES EAGLES!

Training camp starts in three weeks. Will someone please tell me who's hurt, who's been cut, who died, who got arrested... has Andy Reed lost any weight?

Ya' know, if that jag-off TO hadn't been so stoopid he would probably already have been back to the Super Bowl, but there is in in Dallas. It was one of the great pleasures of my life to watch him wilting on the sidelines, watching the Iggles pummel his team...TWICE!

Look, I was never a Cowboys fan, but they used to have some class. Once Jerry Jones got on board, those days were gone. I didn't like Jimmy Johnson, but I like that he gave Jerry the finger and resigned, and I would have too. That horse's arse should keep his fat butt off the field. Nothing worse than watching a game and seeing that Billionaire jerk's mug on the camera every minute of so.

Swish

[Troy]

LT is a-ok with me. Speaks his mind, shuts up and plays when he needs to.

Is making the playoffs good enough for Eagles fans? I don't think so. It's a set up for disappointment. Making the playoffs with Donovan on crutches again and no Garcia on the bench doesn't look good to me.

Speaking of Garcia, he's in Tampa now and he reminds me of Gannon late in his career too. Heady, gutsy and obsessed. Him and Chucky seem like a good match. I think tampa will be much improved this year.

I spent a year in Albuquerque, which is really just a continuation of West Texas. Hardcore Cowgirl country there. They deserve TO and all his retarded douchebaggery. And Swish, Jerry Jone's ass is not fat. He looks like he's been dining at Bergen Belsen.

GM must live in . . . Houston? Minnesota? Buffalo?

[Swish]

LT is a-ok with me. Speaks his mind, shuts up and plays when he needs to.

Is making the playoffs good enough for Eagles fans? I don't think so. It's a set up for disappointment. Making the playoffs with Donovan on crutches again and no Garcia on the bench doesn't look good to me.

Speaking of Garcia, he's in Tampa now and he reminds me of Gannon late in his career too. Heady, gutsy and obsessed. Him and Chucky seem like a good match. I think tampa will be much improved this year.

And who is this LT person you mention? Did you mean to say TO? If so, I don't know what you're smokin', but he's one of the biggest malcontents in the league. A gifted received but a total head-case, even worse than Randy Moss.

As for A. J. Feeley, he was a bust in Miami, but that was a very different kind of offense and he was doomed to fail there. Back in '02 he did an excellent job in the playoffs when McNabb got hurt, ala Garcia, and he's bigger, younger and stronger than Garcia, who sealed his fate by making unreasonable contract demands, so the Eagle's did what they had to do. They wanted him back, but he drew a line in the sand and that was that. Philly was a perfect spot for him, not so in Tampa. Watch and see if I'm right. Feeley has a much better upside than Garcia, assuming in a reserve role.

Swish

[GMichael]

Ya' know, if that jag-off TO hadn't been so stoopid he would probably already have been back to the Super Bowl, but there is in in Dallas. It was one of the great pleasures of my life to watch him wilting on the sidelines, watching the Iggles pummel his team...TWICE!

Look, I was never a Cowboys fan, but they used to have some class. Once Jerry Jones got on board, those days were gone. I didn't like Jimmy Johnson, but I like that he gave Jerry the finger and resigned, and I would have too. That horse's arse should keep his fat butt off the field. Nothing worse than watching a game and seeing that Billionaire jerk's mug on the camera every minute of so.

Swish

Oh no. We agree. Is that aloud? I miss the Tom Landry days. I was a huge Dallas fan back then.

OK Troy and Tex, my team is the Giants. Sure, they've made the playoffs a few times since 90 but they've never really been good again. Even that 90 team was so-so. As long as they keep the current head coach, the most they'll ever be is another contender that falls flat at the end. They do grab up most of the air time on the sports channels. That's great if you don't mind them talking about how much your team doesn't live up to expectations. Again.

Watch for the Pats to have a great year. They made some good trades.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Ya' know, if that jag-off TO hadn't been so stoopid he would probably already have been back to the Super Bowl, but there is in in Dallas. It was one of the great pleasures of my life to watch him wilting on the sidelines, watching the Iggles pummel his team...TWICE!

IMO, TO's stupidity and constant need to be the center of the universe is what's going to keep him out of the Hall, keep him from establishing any type of Wide Receiver records, and I'd even go as far to say lose marketability. The press down here drool all over him and he's constantly putting his foot in his mouth... the exact opposite of how Troy describes LT. Too bad 'cause he's a gifted athelete.

Look, I was never a Cowboys fan, but they used to have some class. Once Jerry Jones got on board, those days were gone. I didn't like Jimmy Johnson, but I like that he gave Jerry the finger and resigned, and I would have too. That horse's arse should keep his fat butt off the field. Nothing worse than watching a game and seeing that Billionaire jerk's mug on the camera every minute of so.

Swish

I don't think that at any time in recorded history was there ever a case of anyone being a Cowboys fan as well as an Eagles fan, so I'd say you're safe. But I agree, Tex Schram and Tom Landry were the epitome of class in the NFL; how Jerry Jones treated them in the end was absolutely classless. But how quickly the fans forget....

Right now, the big deal down here is the new stadium. So much attention. They had news coverage of the fist roof truss being laid in place. I got a little nervous while watching the workers try to line it up. It wasn't going so well.

[Rich-n-Texas]

...OK Troy and Tex, my team is the Giants. Sure, they've made the playoffs a few times since 90 but they've never really been good again. Even that 90 team was so-so. As long as they keep the current head coach, the most they'll ever be is another contender that falls flat at the end. They do grab up most of the air time on the sports channels. That's great if you don't mind them talking about how much your team doesn't live up to expectations. Again.

I knew it had to be a NY team, because he used to live there until the bears(not the team, the furry ones) chased him over the border into the sticks of Pennsy.

The Giants are a team steeped in History, so I'm sure that's got something to do with the amount of attention they get. And with another Manning at the helm...

Watch for the Pats to have a great year. They made some good trades.

I don't remember the last time they had a bad year.

I say the Colts dynasty is beginning to materialize.

[Resident Loser]

...in Rave Recordings?

Come to think of it, why is this at all?

jimHJJ(...go ahead, ask me what I think of professional sports, go ahead, I dare ya'...)

[Rich-n-Texas]

For the same reasons this one is:
Laptop: Which Should I Get??

[Rich-n-Texas]

RL, I've got you pegged as a big golf fanatic!

[GMichael]

I knew it had to be a NY team, because he used to live there until the bears(not the team, the furry ones) chased him over the border into the sticks of Pennsy.

The Giants are a team steeped in History, so I'm sure that's got something to do with the amount of attention they get. And with another Manning at the helm...


I don't remember the last time they had a bad year.

I say the Colts dynasty is beginning to materialize.

I do also like the Colts. It was fun to watch big brother finally get the monkey off his back. But they didn't trade as aggressively as the Pats did. Look for a tough battle between these two powerhouses.

I'm not expecting much out of my Giants this year. I don't like this head coach. The team needs discipline. But real discipline. Not a fine for showing up to team meeting on time instead of 5 minutes early. Bench the guys who keep causing the same penalties over and over. Have one of these so called stars sit out a set if they cause a 15 yarder when they threw the ball at their opponents feet.

See what you've done? You got me started on this team.

[kexodusc]

I agree with GM - The Pats will be good this year, very good. Between great coaching and an already legendary QB, it don't matter how old or crippled the rest of that team is..they're always tough. Living in Bangor, and now Atlantic Canada, I guess that's the local team - tons of coverage and fan support here. I don't mind 'em usually but being a life long Chargers fan, it's tough this year.

I also lived in Atlanta for a few years, and have developed a soft spot for the Falcons...go easy on 'em.

As for the Eagles..ughh...I lose a little money and a lot of pride in the office over them year after year. They seem to always be content with their excuses for losing. Then they address that in the off-season, come back and fail again. Dunno if it's bad luck or just systematic losery, but something's got to give there.

[3-LockBox]

i think the NFC West will come down to Seattle and Arizona, but this will come down to another 9-7 or 8-8 division winning record. Seattle's window of opportunity closed early last year and they ain't got the players or the front office to open it again. Here's hoping I'm wrong though.

I don't think the Saints emotional high will last this season, and the clock's gonna strike midnight for Brees. They'll make a run for the playoffs though. I think the Panther's might sneak into the Superbowl again. I think the Cowpokes will implode cuz Bill Parcells made that team work (who'da thunk that the Parcells/Jones/T.O. thing wouldn't work out? ) I think the Bears will be in the thick of things too, because of their defense, but if they don't fix the QB thing early, they'll fade. I do think that the Eagles can make it to the Superbowl, if they can keep McNabb healthy for an entire season, which to my knowledge, has happened only once or twice in McNabb's career. Brett Favre will wish he had called it quits.

As much as I like what Micheal Vick brings to the game, character sure seems to run short in his family (remember his brother Marcus' stepping on an opponent during a bowl game a couple of seasons ago?). He's already shown himself to be short tempered and thin-skinned regarding boos and heckling, and now aggitators get to add dogfighting to their repitoire...this is gonna get ugly.

I think the AFC will come down to the Colts-Pats-Chargers-Broncos, in that order. The Ravens are getting too old, on defense and offense, to really challenge for the Superbowl, and their coach, alleged offensive guru Brian Billick, has been way over credited for past accomplishments (he stinks). I think Tennessee is another year or two away from challenging for the SB, but they should make the playoffs.

I don't think the Pats are too old because it was a rather old Giants team back in '89 that went 14-2 and won the SB, with Bill Bellichick as coordinator. Now, players want to play for him especially, and Bellichick will never be in the lurch for seasoned vets to fill gaps when older players go down.

[Troy]

And who is this LT person you mention? Did you mean to say TO? If so, I don't know what you're smokin', but he's one of the biggest malcontents in the league. A gifted received but a total head-case, even worse than Randy Moss.

LT= Ladanian Tomlinson. It was in reference to Rich.

[Swish]

LT= Ladanian Tomlinson. It was in reference to Rich.

Not like that should come as a surprise to anyone here. I though you were responding to my comment about TO and typed LT by mistake. I certainly like Ladanian Tomlinson! He's the complete package and with a good head on his shoulders. Still can't believe they fired the coach after a 14-2 season, regardless of what happened in the playoffs. That was just STOOPID!

Swish

[Rich-n-Texas]

Ok, I'm an idiot

Don't sell yourself short dude.

Images of Walter Payton came to mind when I was watching LT on local TV here last week. Sweetness is a topic in and of himself though...

[Slosh]

Eagles should be NFC champs this season. Not because they're all that much better this year but rather because the rest of the NFC sucks. Okay, the Saints got some talent but they look like a joke compared to most of the playoff AFC teams. It's their's (Philly) to lose IMO.

Speaking of which I think we're in a transition now. The Patriots/Chargers/Colts/Broncos are getting old. I would say it's the last of the AFC dominance if the NFC wasn't so damn weak.
Jets are still a quarterback away. Titans will be contenders soon but not this year.

My SB prediction: Chargers 41 - Eagles 27

NP:

[Troy]

Where do I start?

Feely is a bum. I don't care how bad the program was in Miami. Loser who may someday rise a notch above mediocrity as he gets old and wise.

Garcia "drew the line in the sand" because he wants to start. He will start in Tampa, he's much better than any of their other QBs. On a team with McNabb he knew he'd never get the chance.

The Giants get all the airtime because they are a NYC team. The Jets don't because they have never gotten any respect in NY. NY is an NFC town. Yeah, Coughlin is the worst coach to get his job back in a very long time. He may as well have LOSER stamped on his forehead. Manning will never flower as long as he's the coach.

The Seabags are in decline and AZ and SF are on the rise. AZ may be the sleeper pick for this year. Yeah, the Tennessee Tuxedos too. Much improved.

The Pats age thing: I'm not questioning the will to win, I just think it's a lot more likely that your gonna see injuries deplete this team.

TO is an alligator-armed douchebag of gargantuan proportions. As a SF guy, I laughed and warned all the Eagles fans. I wouldn't wish him on the Cowgirls . . . oh wait . . . ! I would never say anything positive about him.

[MindGoneHaywire]

my team is the Giants. Sure, they've made the playoffs a few times since 90 but they've never really been good again. Even that 90 team was so-so.

Whoa. That team had an X-factor I'd say made them absolutely great, beating a Buffalo team that was way better on paper after beating a San Fran team that should've blown them out of Candlestick.

Possibly the best special-teams outfit I've ever seen. Remember a guy named Reyna Thompson? He might've had the best year I've ever seen a special-teams player have. One of the reasons I think of the '90 team as great is because they actually weren't the juggernaut the '86 team had been...although nobody remembers that that team didn't have to face the Bears in the playoffs, since they stumbled against the beatable Redskins, and their record, 14-2 just like the Giants' was, ended up meaning little. Even though they'd lost Buddy Ryan.

Also, Dan Reeves managed to put together two very decent Giants teams, which I would say could reasonably be described as strong contenders, in 1993 & 1997. No, I don't think they would've beaten the Cowboys or Packers, but those were still good teams in the era of parity.

This team beat the Vikings soundly in the playoffs in 1993, had them beaten in the 1997 game until a fluke at the end handed Minnesota an improbable victory, and then...to suggest that the 2000 team wasn't good? Come on, that Ravens team matched up well against everybody that year. Those same Vikings were absolutely throttled by the Giants in one of the most one-sided conference championship games you'll ever see--and the Giants had already pretty much manhandled the Eagles already. Baltimore destroyed them. But while I thought the comparisons of their defense to that of the '85 Bears was ludicrous, they were still the most dominant all-around team since...probably the '86 Giants & '85 Bears. I like teams that compete & win rather than necessarily dominate in that fashion, give me the 80s 49ers, most of the Super Bowl winners from the 90s, and of course the recent Patriots. Way better games. But the old-school, one-sided dominance of the Ravens doesn't negate how well that Giants team performed when they were firing on all cylinders, either.

On the Asylum last winter, someone put up a detailed post going into the failures of Marty Schottenheimer in the playoffs. It was a long post.

Eric Mangini has the potential to put a damn good team on the field, but he needs a QB. Pennington's damaged goods, a credible backup, but a poor man's Joe Montana who has a good head, some finesse in the art of being a field general, but who just can't throw the ball downfield. A couple of years ago I remember Herm Edwards--man, were his press conferences passive-aggressive, ranging from unintentionally amusing to downright unwatchable--making a remark about how the Jets were at heart a blue-collar team, and how they had to get back to that.

With a name like Chad Pennington, some might offer a shallow observation rooted in stereotypes that this guy just isn't, uh, a blue-collar sort of quarterback. Me, I'd say that a franchise that once employed Bubby Brister (albeit years past his prime) and Richard Todd might just have the least 'blue-collar' type quarterback I've ever seen (though the difference is starker due to the style of Testaverde, although he was long gone at the time of this remark), unless I can perhaps somehow conjure up an image of Browning Nagle. Of course, Edwards' remark was just stirring the pot for the local radio talk show guys. Man, did he love pretending to be a buffoon. Still, Pennington is too fragile to be a grinder, but that was never his game anyway.

Obviously San Diego can put a credible squad on the field. I think the main question has already been raised, if in a slightly different form: can Indy & NE avoid injury? I still think Tom Brady is the best QB in the league. Even if he's not the best passer. His command of the team on the field is the best since what we saw from the likes of Favre & Elway circa 10 years ago, only more consistent. Peyton Manning I see as more of a Dan Marino type who, unlike Marino, finally found the right team put together around him after both Marino's Dolphins & Manning's Colts languished for quite a few years with a pair of consistently crappy defenses. For me, personally, I like the Bradys, the guys more in the mold of Montana, than the pocket passer-types. But that's me.

Will the Broncos or Chiefs offer the Chargers much competition? With Tiki Barber gone, will the Giants find a way to put it all together? I was stunned at some of the things he said last year...if he'd always been about him & not the team, I'd missed it. Waaaaa. and too bad that he was as good as he was, but sometimes addition by subtraction is helpful, as the 2001 Seattle Mariners showed. However...Tom Coughlin is not what he seemed to be, but Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl, too, so who knows. Maybe the Eagles are one of the best teams in the NFC, but the Giants gave them all they could handle in the playoffs, and I think they probably match up well. We'll see.

Just for once I'd like to get through a season where the surprise teams that were in the dumps at least a year or two prior to getting off to strong starts...offer little intrigue...and fade more quickly than they usually do. Everybody likes an underdog, right? Fine...but just once I'd like to see no slick video packages put together on teams that sucked last year & are therefore a sentimental/trendy favorite...because none of them are the '58 Colts, or the 70s Steelers, or the Vince Lombardi Packers. They just play that way for a few weeks & everyone jumps on board. Bah, humbug, I'm sick of that crap.

[kexodusc]

Ok fellas, gimme the low-down on the Redskins this year - for some reason the office is full of crazy Washington fans...

[Rich-n-Texas]

Where do I start?

Feely is a bum. I don't care how bad the program was in Miami. Loser who may someday rise a notch above mediocrity as he gets old and wise.

I'll trade ya A.J. for Tony Romo...

Garcia "drew the line in the sand" because he wants to start. He will start in Tampa, he's much better than any of their other QBs. On a team with McNabb he knew he'd never get the chance.

I don't know who TB's other QB's are, but I'm not seeing Garcia as their saviour. He was riding an emotional high in Philly... can he carry that momentum with the Buc's?

The Giants get all the airtime because they are a NYC team. The Jets don't because they have never gotten any respect in NY. NY is an NFC town. Yeah, Coughlin is the worst coach to get his job back in a very long time. He may as well have LOSER stamped on his forehead. Manning will never flower as long as he's the coach.

The Seabags are in decline and AZ and SF are on the rise. AZ may be the sleeper pick for this year. Yeah, the Tennessee Tuxedos too. Much improved.

The Pats age thing: I'm not questioning the will to win, I just think it's a lot more likely that your gonna see injuries deplete this team.

TO is an alligator-armed douchebag of gargantuan proportions. As a SF guy, I laughed and warned all the Eagles fans. I wouldn't wish him on the Cowgirls . . . oh wait . . . ! I would never say anything positive about him.

Can I borrow that descriptiion? I could really pi$$ off some fans down here with that one.