Weekend Drunk Thread, 6/14

Not a first date discussion point, no suh.

And Hoosierness if you think rugby is fun to watch, try Aussie Rules Football. It's rugby crossed with Muay Thai. Those guys are animals, plain and simple.

That first one may be the hardest contact hit I've ever seen. A free trip to Brain Damage City:



I swear to God that Barry Hall (the bald dude that sucker-punches the other guy in the jaw) is criminally insane. He may be the dirtiest player in all of sports.

 

I worked with the USA national team all throughout college and know many players on the team. They definitely view it as a gentlemen's game. I think rugby is different in the United States becuase it's not nearly as widespread as in other parts of the world and the culture is different. There are a lot of people who haven't been exposed to the true culture of rugby. Many players on the national team grew up in communities that valued rugby or have played overseas and get that it's a gentlemen's game. Unfortunately this hasn't trickled down to many college rugby teams and to various club teams around the country.

In England there is a saying amongst rugby players "Rugby is a brutish game played by gentlemen. Football (soccer) is a gentle game played by brutes."

 

In the last five years, at least fourteen top level players have served bans of longer than two months for eye gouging. Shoving your thumb in someone else's eye socket is about the least gentlemanly thing I can think of. Not to mention cheating orchestrated at club level like "bloodgate".

Rugby Union has an air of gentlemanliness about it in Great Britain because it's thought of as a game played by the middle and upper classes who go to public schools and drive Range Rovers. Not because the players act like gentlemen.

 

Nice avatar Crown. That one has some style.

 

By "brutes" do they mean Vinnie Jones? That man was a brute. And loved for it.

In North America there is a saying amongst non-soccer (football) players "Watch this video":


...I can't stop fucking laughing. I think it's the choice of music.

 

My favorite part was the imperial death march played on recorder in the background. It added a whole new level of pansy to soccer.

 

Wow! That's like a cross between football, WWF, and a demolition derby. It scares me and excites me at the same time.

 

Any sport where certain types of contact are penalized to an effect that they can dramatically influence the outcome of a game is gonna have this. Soccer gets a justified rap for it, but its polluting the NBA and plenty of players are diving in the NHL now too. To chalk it up to soccer players being pansies is stupid and short sighted.

 

I think it would be an alright sport if they just played the game. I like watching the World Cup tournament and the Euro at that level it is fun, exciting and EVERYONE is into it. But the diving in the sport is unreal. Juice is right, is does influence referees and change outcomes of games. There ARE lots of hard hits in Soccer. You have to be in world-class shape to play because you run so damn much. There is no justifying falling like you were clobbered when you were merely hit with a beam of light. It's like watching children play Cops n' Robbers "Oooo! Ya GOT me!!!"

 

In the NBA, there's kind of a weird incentive sometimes, if you're on offense.

Some plays are just awful flops, and they're bullshit, and there's no way around that.

But sometimes, you legitimately get fouled, but the ref is only going to call it if you've made it clear. Or, if you're taking an offensive foul, you're supposed to actually let the offensive player go right through you. But if they change direction suddenly, and you're already on your way down, you've basically flopped.

I'll say one thing though, I like Lebron's game a lot, but there isn't a fucking excuse in the world to give away plays by bitching to the refs. A quick word during a timeout is one thing, standing for three seconds and gawking while Danny Green lights you up on the other end is bullshit.

 

I think around the mid-to-late 90's is when the refs started letting the bigger stars of the NBA get away with more shit on the court. In the NBA, the bigger the ego the more above the law you are it seems. A rookie cannot break any simple rule of the game, he fouls, he turns over the ball. A big star gets to take four steps while swinging his elbows like cudgels the entire time, gets nudged slightly in mid-air, makes the basket, and still makes the Spurs Face at the ref for the foul.

I know that it adds excitement to let them take those steps and that equals $, but those same rich assholes shouldn't be yelling "WALK!!!!" when a "lesser being" does the same thing.

 

Wrestling was always fun because relatively few things were off-limits and most guys were half insane from cutting weight. I'm still pissed off about the IOC cutting it out of the 2020 Olympic Games.

I can't stand bullshit complaining about fouls in any sport. Shut the fuck up and play your game.

 

I agree with both of you. And I'm a huge soccer fan, but I will NEVER begin to justify diving. I only begin to reason it out when people who hate soccer for whatever reason (too low scoring, not enough physical contact, the fact that its the only "major" sport the US doesn't dominate) use it as an excuse to say soccer players are pussies, or lesser athletes, or its a joke of a sport. If FIFA or individual leagues began penalizing flopping after the fact, as they begun doing for certain hard fouls and incidents, I think it would help the sport alot.

 

I would absolutely watch soccer if they got rid of the diving. I used to love going to friends games when I was younger and people actually jostled for position and were physical. I just can't comprehend/enjoy a sport where people won't do everything to keep on their feet and keep playing. Its not even the play stoppage that bothers me, its that I can't watch without wanting to yall "be a man and stay the fuck up and try to score" every time there's contact.

 

You guys should stop it with ''No no I swear, soccer IS a sport''. You know what's a real manly sport? KARATE!



This is so great. The finale should be a choreography in a Psy video clip.

 

I respectfully disagree. No matter where you play around the world, the referee is always referred to as "Sir." This is not a rule or law of any kind, but it's part of the code that is never to be broken. Fights and dirty play happen on the pitch all the time* but everything ends once the final whistle is blown. It's also customary for the home team to provide food and booze for the opposing team after the match, regardless of the outcome.

I have some very good friends that played for our biggest rival, yet once we lace up the boots and the whistle blows, every part of their body is fair game to get punched or stomped except the nuts and eyes. That is gentlemanly.



*In the last few years, the IRB has done everything they can to banish the dirty play that happens at the bottom of the rucks and out of the view of the ref. It wasn't too long ago that if you got punched or stomped, the ref would turn a blind eye to it because you were probably doing something wrong to deserve it. A broken nose or having welts up, down, and all about your torso were a matter of pride and were considered battle scars.

There is only one ref for 30 players and he can't see everything. It's a shame the IRB has made it their mission to take the fun out of the game.

 

I like watching Euro Cup, and the World Cup, and hell even Champions League. The thing I've noticed is that the degree of diving is really dependent on the country the team is from. The Spanish and Italian teams dive like Greg Louganis, the English and Germans significantly less so but still dive. The African teams seem to be the worst about it.
Unfortunately because I think its a cultural thing diving will never be abolished, it can't really ever be eliminated, especially with one ref (soccer really needs two like hockey).

For hockey fans, I think we'd like to see post game reviews of possible diving plays and subsequent fines/suspensions. Its starting to creep into the game and thankfully it won't ever be as bad as basketball because there's less incentive to dive, but its starting to get to an uncomfortably high level. That along with players holding sticks to get hooking calls, and guys throwing their hands and head up every time a stick comes near their face are becoming issues.
Oh and if you're Canadian, another issue for them is that they apparently have crappy goalies now.

 

I was looking on Craigslist's job postings this morning and found a perfect opportunity for you to make some extra bucks:

<a class="postlink" href="http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/lab/3878088625.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/lab/3878088625.html</a>

 

"Looking for job postings." Sure.

And I'm only 6'1", 235 lbs. I don't meet the employment qualifications.