Talk About Off-Topic, Non-Tech...Football?

[Tony D]

I got delayed coverage on CNN last night of Mike Singletary's after game press conference about sending the guy to the locker room for not being a 'team player'...

 

I think Mike was spot-on, and I think as I watched his eyes in that press conference, I got a glimpse of the same look a couple of NFL Central Division QB's had during a game.

 

For a former Bear...he's all right. And I applaud his decision to put a prima-donna in his place. It's long overdue.

 

I might even start watching NFL Games in general again if they get back to playing a team sport, instead of an individual exhibition of marketing opportunities.

[Mikelly]

Tony, Like you, I dropped out of football for over a decade... Last year was the first year I watched from the beginning of the season, until the final play of the superbowl... I must admit that the game has truly changed and that I really enjoy watching it again...

 

Give it a shot, you just might discover the sport has changed in a positive, more exciting way... It did for me!

Mike

[woldson]

Like yourself, I dropped out about the same time.

Considering what you have said, mabey I'll give it a try again...

[xxjoeyxxeb]

I think it was great that he made him get back to the showers. I also like how Goodell is showing that he is not going to take any more crap from the thugs of football. Make those players earn their millions of dollars.

[Tony D]

Truthfully, I will have a far more enjoyable time watching junior college ball (there are like six teams+ near me that I can watch), and High School every Friday nite during the season. And then as a real substitute for first rate pro ball playing, Rugby Union (Go All Blacks!).

 

Of course, there is the Packers, which I was indoctrinated into in 1966/67 and had a loooong wait after that.

 

The new 'celebration and taunting' rules changes are only going so far---sadly there was a time when it was simply not done, they didn't need a rule. I think positive messages by the coaches like Singletary made will do far more to get player's heads back where they 'should' be. And when other players start putting peer pressure to stop the 'me me me' clown antics so many self-important bozos are out there doing it will be better for the game, and for spectators.

 

To make a confession, the Rugby Union thing... I was in Wiggan at a local match between Wiggan and Liverpool. In the 'stands' simply because I showed an interest to one of the guys at the shop in seeing a match.

 

I watched a guy, literally, almost get his ear torn off! The game did not cease. He quickly ran to the sidelines where a trainer who had sprinted up with some tape made two quick wraps around his head, patted him on the back as he ran back to the scrum full speed. The emotion I felt at that point, the involvement and link I felt to see someone with that kind of injury not let down his team, nor his fans...

 

It's something I have not really felt nor witnessed with the NFL in a loooooong time.

 

When the Match is over, the guys are spent. They don't have so much energy to jump around like buffoons and dance. To me, that says they didn't put it all in, and that's not what I'm paying for, especially at that level.

 

Go back to less padding, slow the game down to where tackling someone instead of putting a 'sting' on him is more important. Hell, just let someone get up and start running if they aren't tackled... Knocking someone down and hitting is one thing. But simply making yourself a human guided missle with a one-hit potential wasn't what the game was about for me. it takes skill out of it IMO, and just puts in some quick meat to throw into the fray onto the field.

 

It's like a Kurosawa Epic: "Blood, Mud, Victory or Death!"

 

I am an anachronisim...LOL