Topic: Official 2010 NFL Football Season Discussion Thread

[Stogi]

Saints had the luxury of picking 32nd everytime. It was sweet.

[D_Average]

Well my Eagles have traded McNabb over to Washington.
Vick is still there and Kevin Kolb is there also they got a rookie QB in the draft. So it looks like Eagles are going young this year. We shall see what comes of this.

A lot of people in the media think the Eagles are crazy.  I'd agree.  McNabb isn't the reason they haven't won a super bowl.  Hey may not be the greatest QB, but he's still way better than most.  Give that team with McNabb some solid defense and some receivers and then you're talking Super Bowl run.  Maybe throw in a new running back too.  Then again, I suppose the same could be said for Cutler and the Bears.  Just get some solid D and receivers.  One thing is for sure, QB's get to much blame.  When a receiver doesn't run his route right, nobody can tell.

[NWR_insanolord]

As they always say, if you listen to the fans, you'll end up sitting with the fans. The Eagles' front office should be updating their resumes.

[BeautifulShy]

Well my Eagles have traded McNabb over to Washington.
Vick is still there and Kevin Kolb is there also they got a rookie QB in the draft. So it looks like Eagles are going young this year. We shall see what comes of this.

A lot of people in the media think the Eagles are crazy.  I'd agree.  McNabb isn't the reason they haven't won a super bowl.  He may not be the greatest QB, but he's still way better than most.  Give that team with McNabb some solid defense and some receivers and then you're talking Super Bowl run.  Maybe throw in a new running back too.  Then again, I suppose the same could be said for Cutler and the Bears.  Just get some solid D and receivers.  One thing is for sure, QB's get to much blame.  When a receiver doesn't run his route right, nobody can tell.

They do have decent receivers with speed. Jason Avant comes to mind but most of the receivers are young. The D is a problem. There was some defensive coverages messed up in the Dallas Cowboy game last year that didn't help.
Brian Westbrook was cut from the team. He had some injures last year and wasn't doing that good.

[D_Average]

Yeah, that was a huge blow with the Westbrook injury.  He was fun to watch.  And of course, a huge weapon, that enabled the other WR weapons to get open a bit easier.

[BeautifulShy]

Well the Eagles have lots of choices for Running Back. Got 2 RB in the draft.

[BeautifulShy]

So yeah the playoffs are underway. There has been an upset already.Seahawks have beaten the Saints,the defending Champs. My other team the Eagles will take on the Packers later today. I like the Eagles chances this year.

Any thoughts on a Super Bowl matchup?

[MaryJane]

I'm hoping that it comes down to Eagles vs Patriots or Jets, with the Eagles winning it all.

[BranDonk Kong]

Seahawks over Saints wasn't an upset if you ask me (Saints are overrated), but Jets over Colts was (Jets are overrated too). The Colts played like **** last night, but then again, basically their entire starting roster is injured. My prediction is Patriots vs Seahawks, but the Pats will completely destroy them.

[TJ Spyke]

It was a shock that a 7-9 team even made the playoffs. I do think it was a big upset over the Saints, but the Saints were terrible in the game (especially defense). I don't see them getting past the Falcons or Bears.

[BeautifulShy]

Well sadly the Eagles are out now.  My other team the Seahawks are a long shot to win it.I'll post who I think will be  the Superbowl match up in a little while.

[BranDonk Kong]

Sure, the Seahawks' record is horrible, but I truly believe the Saints are overrated. They did really well last year, but this year they did not. Lets not forget that it was only 5 years ago that the Seahawks went to the Super Bowl (where poor officiating completely robbed them), they might not be the same team, but Hasselbeck is just as good as he was then, if not better. Marshawn Lynch just needs to go into Beast Mode and plow through anyone and everyone that gets in his way like he did yesterday.

[MaryJane]

Who exactly overrated the Saints? NONE of the major analysts out there (ESPN, CBS, FOX, NFL Network) had them returning to the Super Bowl beyond the season's midway point. And they finished the season 11-5 and had like an 8 game winning streak or something. They just had too many injuries, and they probably assumed they were going to walk all over the Seahawks like everyone else did, which is always a mistake in the NFL.

With the Eagles out, I think it's almost certain the AFC team will win and that'll be between the Jets and Patriots with the Ravens having an outside chance. The Falcons or Packers will likely be the NFC team, with the Bears having an outside chance. Bears vs Ravens would be an interesting (though possibly boring) Super Bowl matchup but Packers vs Pats would probably be the most exciting.

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm happy as long as the Ravens and Steelers both lose.

[Ian Sane]

Being from Vancouver the Seahawks are more or less the de facto local NFL team.  I followed them for the beginning of the season but found myself switching to a different game a lot of times as they got blown out.  With the NFC West being so horrible though I always figured they had a good shot at making the playoffs.  They would be exploiting a loophole in how the playoff teams are selected to do so, but I figured they had a chance.  I was happy they won that "must win" game against St. Louis but I figured they would get creamed in the playoffs.  I was fine with that.  It's Pete Carroll's first season as coach and the team is rebuilding so getting a playoff berth seemed like a nice way to end the season and a good starting point for improvement over the next few years.

As we got closer to the game my brother was saying to me "wouldn't it be cool if Seattle won?"  He doesn't follow sports but he is a ****-disturber.  He thinks people take sports too seriously so he likes sports results that **** with people.  In the Olympics he wants Canada to lose because he knows it will upset some many people around him for what he sees as silly reasons.  With Seattle having a losing record he figured that them beating the defending Superbowl champs would piss off a lot of football fans.  Still he got me excited for the game.  It seemed like an ideal situation since it's the local team but I also had zero expectations so I would not be bummed out of they lost like I would be if they were a contender.

That was such a fun game to watch.  When Lynch was doing his big run I was just yelling "GO! GO!" at the screen and I screamed when he got into the end zone.  The last time I reacted like that to a football game was the famous NY Giants Superbowl helmet catch.  I watch a lot of NFL games where I don't really care who wins, I just like to enjoy a good game.  The Seahawks are the only team I instinctively cheer for which changes the dynamic a lot.  I legitimately wanted the Seahawks to win, not even because they were underdogs, but because I see them as MY team.  And that just made it such a great moment!

Now they'll probably get creamed... or will they?  They beat the Bears in Chicago already once this season.  You never know...

[MaryJane]

This lockout crap sucks...

[rlse9]

The owners are greedy and the players are greedy.  Both sides are out of touch with reality and their bickering sounds ridiculous in an economy where so many people are struggling and there are so many other bad things going on in the world.  I really wish they'd just shut up, get an agreement done behind closed doors, and move on because I enjoy watching football but the business of it makes me sick.

[TJ Spyke]

At least Roger Goodell and Jeff Pash (NFL lead counsel) have voluntarily reduced their salaries to $1 during the lockout. Apparently the two sides were close to a deal when the players decided to walk out and decertify their union (which a lot of people think they did on purpose since it allows individual players to sue the league rather than working as one group, they did the same thing when they striked in 1987). If it comes down to it, I would support the league using replacement players again. It's hard to feel sorry for either side, but I would rather see NFL games with replacement players than no football at all. It seems like every time a CBA deal with athletes or people in film/TV expires, they strike or threaten to strike. Several good TV shows got canceled when the Writer's Guild of America decided to strike a few years ago. I am a supporter of unions, but the athletic and entertainment unions always look greedy in these situations.

[NWR_insanolord]

They can't use replacement players even if they wanted to. The league agreed not to do that ever again after the strike in the late 80s. Also, this is a lockout, not a strike. The owners are the ones opting out of the CBA, not the players.

[MaryJane]

The lockout is in response to the union's decertification, but if they did not decertify when they did, they would have had to wait six months to do it.

A lot of people frame this as billionaires vs. millionaires, and say both sides are greedy, but it's only superstar players who makes millions a year. Most players "only" make a couple hundred thousand a year. Yes, that's still a lot, but there's no league without the players.

The NFL with replacement players will be like the XFL and we all know how well that worked out. The XFL's rules and marketing hurt it as well, but you need good players to make a good sport. Look at basketball, it's more popular than ever this season because of the return of powerhouse teams like the Lakers, Celtics, and Heat. How many less Colts fan will there be without Peyton Manning? Probably as drastic a reduction in Bulls fans when Michael Jordan retired.

The league is the players, and these owners simply inherited or bought the hard work of the original owners who were actually taking a risk by investing in the NFL. Nowadays, owning an NFL team is pretty much a golden ticket, and it is so because of the players. The $9billion in TV revenue that they're arguing over, by right should belong to the players. No one turns to the game on Sunday to see the owners sitting in their luxury box. Yes owners build their teams, but they do so by hiring a competent GM and coach to whom they turn over the reigns, except for Jerry Jones and that hasn't really worked too well.

The players give fans hope that their team will win the championship, players are the ones who visit community schools, and tell kids who are getting bullied that they're brave. Yes they're not perfect, no one is, but the I say again that the league exists because of the players, and the players better the community often with just their presence, and more often with much more.

The owner of the Saints may be the one exception as fans down there know his name as readily as they know Reggie Bush and Drew Brees.

[TJ Spyke]

They can't use replacement players even if they wanted to. The league agreed not to do that ever again after the strike in the late 80s. Also, this is a lockout, not a strike. The owners are the ones opting out of the CBA, not the players.

Just because they agreed to not do it again doesn't mean they legally can't.

If the top players really cared about salaries of their fellow players like they claim, maybe those like Tom Brady can lower their demands. Does he really need $18 million a year? I am not saying that he should make the same as a 3rd string defensive tackle or anything like that, but it's hard to feel sorry for the top players (although at least they are not claiming that they need more than $10 million a year to feed their family, like Allen Iverson did).

[Ian Sane]

I remember the NHL lockout.  For a fan that was hell, to go a whole year without hockey.  I don't want to go through that with the NFL as well.

With the NHL lockout is seemed easy to side with the owners.  They were requesting a salary cap which is something we fans can stand to benefit from in theory.  We had seen the negative effects first hand where a handful of richer teams were signing all the free agents while some of the smaller market teams would consistently lose their stars.  We, the fans, could observe it.  We didn't care about the NHL owners but we cared about our teams and we knew that having a salary cap would prevent richer teams from buying championships and we were in favour of that.  The MLB owners could probably win the fan support on the same issue.  We see the Yankees buy all of the free agents, know that a salary cap would prevent it, and thus would side in favour of that which would be siding with the owners.  At the heart of it these sports labour work stoppages come across as bickering between millionaires (even if that isn't always the case).  We the fans suffer in that our favourite league isn't playing while the rich try to get richer.  It makes the whole thing look very isolated from the average fan.

With this NFL stoppage I side with the players.  In this case the NFL already has a salary cap and they have the ability to more or less FIRE any player at a moment's notice.  In the NHL teams can get cap trouble by overpaying on guaranteed contracts.  With no guaranteed contracts it seems like the owners have a pretty sweet deal and hold much of the power.  The guaranteed contracts of the NHL balance out the cap on salaries.  It appears that both sides take concessions.  But with the NFL the power seems to all be with the owners.  The employees are restricted on their salaries but have no security like NHL players have.  You get injured on the job and you're fired.  And in this situation where the owners have so much power THEY are the ones locking the players out?  There is no way I could side with them.

It doesn't help that Roger Goodell has been appearing on TV and telling ME what I think.  They go on and on about this 18 game schedule.  They tell us that it's because we hate paying for pre-season games that they're going to do us a favour and replace two of those pre-season games with regular season games.  What we really want is less pre-season games, period.  Switching over does us no favours.  A season ticket holder still has to buy 10 games.  And we as fans know that football is a punishing sport and that injuries can derail a whole season.  While we enjoy each game, there is always that risk of losing a star player.  Two more games means two more games of risk.  It's not even about the health and safety of the players.  Even from a selfish point of view it isn't worth the risk of seeing my team's star get knocked out in game 17.  Teams that have their playoff spot locked up rest their starters and as a fan I'm not even that bothered by it.  I want to see the stars in the playoffs and would not want to see them get hurt in a meaningless game.  It seems that dislike of the 18 game schedule is nearly unanimous.  I have never met a fan who wants it.  And yet the NFL has the GALL to constantly TELL us how much of a favour they're doing for us in offering it and how they are answering our requests.  Nothing turns me off more then when you tell me "this is what you wanted" when I didn't want it.  I can't stand that sort of condescending arrogance.  Roger Goodell is telling me that I'm stupid every time he spouts off about that crap on TV.

So we're going to lose games or maybe even a whole season and the only real "benefit" for us fans is an 18 game schedule we don't even want?  That's insulting.  There is no way I will side with the owners on this.

[NWR_insanolord]

The NHL lockout sucked when we were going through it, but looking back I think it was good for the league in the long run. A lot of positive changes came out of it, and without it they wouldn't have been able to rig the draft so the Penguins would get Crosby, keeping them from having to relocate.

I don't think the NFL has anything to gain from this, though, and it has a lot to lose.

[TJ Spyke]

I think most fans actually like the idea of 18 games, at least in polls I have seen in the past. That doesn't even seem to be the main issue, the main issue is money sharing. Right now the teams get $1 billion off the top, and then the rest starts to get divided between the owners and the players. Both sides have agree to increase how much the owners get, they just can't agree on how much more owners should get.

[Stogi]

I kinda hope they don't resolve this.

I love American Football. LOVE IT. Nothin's better then getting drunk with your friends and BBQ some hot wings, while watching the big game. But with none being played, then real Football will get the spot light. Then people will see the real joy of a commercial-less contest with plenty of chanting and booze.