I shouldn't be surprised anymore by your ability to be wrong and a total ass, but you continue to find new ways to do both. The Saints record from '96-'05 was 62-92. Their record since is 55-33 with a Super Bowl victory and multiple playoff appearances. Everybody loves a winner (see: Patriots fans since '01). Katrina helped sell tickets in '06, but if they continued to suck after that they would have dropped off the radar.
Brees has the record. Cue the people saying how Marino had it tougher, qb protection rules made it easy, "back in my day, a quarterback had to throw the first 3,000 yards with a diseased hedgehog in his jock strap", nonsense. I have to say, despite all the bandwagon fans, Brees is one classy motherfucker. He was the guy organizing the offseason workouts, spending a lot of time and money on improving the community of New Orleans and becoming the face of a player's organization that somehow didn't devolve into a bunch of whiny millionaires. He's like Tebow for the secular.
<a class="postlink" href="http://twitter.com/#!/NOTSportsCenter/status/151522067991367683" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://twitter.com/#!/NOTSportsCenter/s ... 7991367683</a>
Just heard one about how he gets to play 8 games in a dome. Because over the past 27 years there haven't been good QB's who played for teams like Atlanta, Minnesota, Indy, St. Louis, and Houston.
Is this just the year of awesome QBs or what? Evidently Brady and Rodgers aren't too far behind... <a class="postlink" href="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/26/brees-breaks-marinos-record-but-bradys-not-far-behind/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... ar-behind/</a>
Any Chargers fans on board? How do you guys feel about this? I wonder if A.J. Smith is as good at picking stocks as picking players.
Well, he did come in to Michigan at seventh on the depth chart. It's more than a little ridiculous when you think about it.
Speaking of bengals tickets... <a class="postlink" href="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/29/bengals-wont-increase-seasonticket-prices-for-2012/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -for-2012/</a>
We are now to the point where the tackling very closely resembles Rugby Union rules. Anybody think of this as an opportunity for Rugby to grow in the U.S.? After living in England for a little while and going to see Aviva Cup matches, I can say they are much more fun than an NFL game. The action is constant, no stopping to huddle up but the really big difference is that there aren't T.V. timeouts.
During the lockout I tried watching rugby to see if it could be a substitue for football if the season got cancelled. I find the game interesting even though I have no idea what the rules are. I could see it growing some but its hard to put a dent in the popularity of football, unless they cancel some games or a season.
There are a ton of passionate, loyal Bengal fans who have decided not to attend games this year. The low home attendance is our way of showing Mike Brown we're tired of his shit. The mismanagement of the whole Carson Palmer ordeal (until Oakland came through with that crazy trade offer) caused a lot of people to watch the games in bars or at home rather than at PBS. We have no scouting department and we're the northernmost team without an indoor practice facility. We've all been paying attention to the games and the results but we're tired of paying the owner.
Rugby is great. I could see it seriously starting to chip away from football at a high school/little league level, because of the severe injuries you see in football, the prohibitive cost of the equipment and the simple fact that it's a more athletic activity. I played intermurals in college, and while we were a complete bunch of morons that had no idea what we were doing, it was a blast. I seriously think that football should focus on getting safer at every level if it's going to continue to be successful. I remember at least 4-5 kids whose parents would let them play any sport but football. Also, I watched the World Cup this year for the first time since living in Spain. They put on a excellent show. It's no Super Bowl, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing. Watching a gang of angry, gigantic Kiwis beat the French was awesome.
Any time the French get beaten is awesome, regardless of who they're playing. There are also pretty severe injuries in rugby, like the time Fourie du Preez's knee was bent the wrong way in a match - that happened about a year ago, and it was not an international test - he walked away apparently unscathed, but it was fucking brutal in the replay. The guy's knee fucking shifted position in the tackle. I almost puked - it was one of those tackles where you'd think that no fucking way is this dude walking away - his leg from the knee down went sideways! Youtube seems to not have it...
As someone who has played both, I'm not all that sure the two sports are as similar as a lot of people think. Sometimes it sounds like people think rugby is football without pads and vice versa. Once you get past the fact that both are tackle sports and you're trying to get similarly shaped balls to the end of the field there's not all that much to compare. Rugby is much more of an endurance sport, but less strategic and specialized. Sure, it has both, but not quite on the level of football, and rugby arguably takes more toughness since you get hit more or at least as often and it's without the breathers. Both are quite complicated, but in different ways. What I mean by that is they are not like baseball and soccer where a short explanation will allow someone foreign from the game to at least get the gist of what's going on. As for which is safer, I think it's hard to say. When I played Rugby concussions and broken noses were the norm. I saw broken arms and several other injuries as well and I only played it (in a league at least) for one year. One of my friends was so messed up he couldn't remember two words more than 10 seconds after you told him. I was never sidelined for an injury, but probably should have been as there were a few times I got really light headed after a hit, although I never seemed to have any short term memory problems. If we were talking about football rules in say the 40s or 50s, I would say football is more dangerous, but today I think it's pretty close. I would like to see rugby grow in the states, but sadly people playing isn't necessarily enough to get a good professional league. People have been playing soccer forever here, but it's still hard to get people to watch it. Downndirty - I want to bitch slap you for saying football needs to get safer at every level. Enough has been done over the past decade. Let's let you and the soccer moms put it to rest, please?
I think your post is pretty spot on except for this: What I mean by that is they are not like baseball and soccer where a short explanation will allow someone foreign from the game to at least get the gist of what's going on. Trying to explain basball to a foreigner is compeltely useless. I have tried many times to explain it to people from across the pond and it is useless. Football, rugby, soccer, all have somewhat similiar goals. Get the ball to the other side. Baseball(and probably crickett) is completely different and really difficult to explain/understand.