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.

[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

[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]

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

[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]

...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'...)

[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.

[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.

[GMichael]

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.

Oh OK. So maybe I'm being a little rough on them. But they really pissed me off by keeping "HIM" in charge. They have enough talent to do great things (even without Tikki). But they need leadership that they don't have. Don't think Ely is ready to step up yet, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
Wasn't a big fan of Dan Reeves either though. He cut a lot of pro-bowl players who could have at least been used to trade for draft picks. But he just cut them. And then he replaced them with second stringers from Denver. I do admit that he came up with winning plans and dealt discipline well. So in that respect, he was better than our current coach.
I am one of those rare New Yorkers who actually likes both the Giants and the Jets. For some reason that doesn't seem to be aloud, but there it is. They could be good if the keep Pennington healthy for a whole season. Has that ever happened for them yet?

[Rich-n-Texas]

Who was at the stadium last night when the Phillies lost their 10,000 game? Big news here in north Texas!

Swish?

[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]

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!

[Resident Loser]

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

...that puts a putter in my hand is miniature golf...played once in a while...My participatory "sport" of choice is bowling and I can't remember the last time I polished my ball...A 16lb. Ebonite Don Carter Gyro lll that is...

I could go on about how professional sports just so much cr@pola and a complete waste of time but I won't...

The only sports-like thing I watched with any regularity used to be rasslin' but only because it and it's cast of characters was so friggin' funny, now it's just a cartoon...Oh and the NHRA Winternationals or Summernationals when broadcast on Wide World Of Sports...give me the fire and brimstone of the 1320 any day, the circular stuff is a bore IMO...Maybe some off-road racing, but that's few and far between.

jimHJJ(...later...)

[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.

[Rich-n-Texas]

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

It'll be very interesting to see how the Falcon's season plays out now that Vick's been indicted on animal cruelty and other charges. If what he's accused of turns out to be true, the Falcons better start developing their #2 ASAP. And, I know, the trial won't start until the season's over.

[Swish]

It'll be very interesting to see how the Falcon's season plays out now that Vick's been indicted on animal cruelty and other charges. If what he's accused of turns out to be true, the Falcons better start developing their #2 ASAP. And, I know, the trial won't start until the season's over.

...and has the class of fellow idiots Barry Bonds, Randy Moss, and Terrell Owens. I'm not convicting him before his day in court, but I'm not surprised he was indicted. I just don't get how athletes with mega-millions can be so stupid. Well, I suppose they were stupid before they got all that money, so maybe that's the problem.

Swish

[kexodusc]

...and has the class of fellow idiots Barry Bonds, Randy Moss, and Terrell Owens. I'm not convicting him before his day in court, but I'm not surprised he was indicted. I just don't get how athletes with mega-millions can be so stupid. Well, I suppose they were stupid before they got all that money, so maybe that's the problem.

Swish

Yeah, I think the money is the means to higher stupidity for a lot of these guys. I mean, if they were working at Denny's or something they'd probably have a bit of humility and a lot less opportunity to screw up on such a large scale.

Wow. Of all the things to get busted for - you can't really spin this to give Vick the tough-guy, bad-ass image either.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Yeah, I think the money is the means to higher stupidity for a lot of these guys. I mean, if they were working at Denny's or something they'd probably have a bit of humility and a lot less opportunity to screw up on such a large scale.

Wow. Of all the things to get busted for - you can't really spin this to give Vick the tough-guy, bad-ass image either.

This isn't anything new though. When you bring a talented kid out of the poor, lower class neighborhood, fast-track him through high school and college, throw millions at him, this is generally what you're going to get. Some aspects of situations like this in my opinion can be blamed on the education system and greed for not teaching these kids common sense economics.