I will NOT Watch The Super Bowl This Year

[Wadcutter]

Originally Posted by rmp

Neil,

I had a reply typed up just saying exactly this re officiation and the NFL, I was getting long winded so I gave up on it. There should be better coverage for the officiating. These guys are elite athletes and the game has just sped up to the point where you have to have eyes everywhere.

That missed call was really about as bad as it can be, both in the lack of any one doing anything and the timing.

re: Brady,, I think experience calms these guys down when things get tight. How many times has he been here? Ability to focus when everything around you is in chaos is definitely a skill as much as any.

and not to stir the pot, but this whole bias against NE has gotten really crazy. I guess I get it,, people are tired of seeing NE all the time.. but how about that no one is talking much about the laser light being pointed at Brady in the KC game.

If that game was in NE, and the laser was getting pointed at Mahomes, people would be losing their minds.. but, all ya hear is Crickets...

That laser light incident is beyond scary. What kind of an animal mental case would do something like that? You just have to shake your head in disbelief.

[rmp]

yea, That was pretty stupid. Does kind of show the unfair bias against the Patriots, where no one is saying a word about it.. At all.. Can't imagine the shenanigans that'd be going on right now if the tables were turned.

[robj144]

Originally Posted by raysachs

That’s true, but the reality is that long games tend to wear down defenses more than offenses. By late in the 4th quarter nobody was getting stops in that game. So in a game that goes to OT, particularly in a game with even one great offense, let alone two, it’s pretty common for the team that wins the coin toss to just march down and score. The KC defense was wasted by that OT drive and, if the flip had gone the other way, the Pats defense would have also been running on fumes. I think each team should get at least one offensive possession. I actually think they should play a whole 15 minute period. No matter how you do it, getting the first possession would be an advantage, but not the overwhelming one it is with current rules...

Didn't happen in the other Championship game.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by robj144

Didn't happen in the other Championship game.

No, doesn't happen every time, but happens often enough that when you've got someone like the league MVP on the team that kicks off, it'd probably be good for the league and a bit more fair that he gets to at least step on the field...

[Bax Burgess]

First team to score twice (any combination of TD, FG, or safety) wins.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by Wadcutter

That laser light incident is beyond scary. What kind of an animal mental case would do something like that? You just have to shake your head in disbelief.

This is a big reason why I will NEVER take my 11yo kid to another NFL game. It's not that the game is overly violent, it's that there are too many idiots in the stands. Unless my wife's company somehow lets her bring us to their luxury box - which was a rare event and was just at a preseason game - I actually feel more comfortable taking him to a hockey game.

[Nyghthawk]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

This is a big reason why I will NEVER take my 11yo kid to another NFL game. It's not that the game is overly violent, it's that there are too many idiots in the stands. Unless my wife's company somehow lets her bring us to their luxury box - which was a rare event and was just at a preseason game - I actually feel more comfortable taking him to a hockey game.

I went to a playoff game in San Antonio many years ago. The Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs were playing. Me and a close friend went, I thought it would just be a fun evening. There were drunk (expletive deleted) yelling profanities at each other. Finally it ended in a fist fight that got several people thrown out of the venue. I would not take a child to one even then. That was a basketball game. Not even a contact sport. NFL and NHL I would not go to period, much less take my kid.

[billybob77036]

Originally Posted by Nyghthawk

I went to a playoff game in San Antonio many years ago. The Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs were playing. Me and a close friend went, I thought it would just be a fun evening. There were drunk (expletive deleted) yelling profanities at each other. Finally it ended in a fist fight that got several people thrown out of the venue. I would not take a child to one even then. That was a basketball game. Not even a contact sport. NFL and NHL I would not go to period, much less take my kid.

I was lucky enough to go to pretty much all the Astros playoff games this year and last year (including the World Series games) and can tell you this was NOT the case at all. Hate to hear that you had this type of thing happen at that event. Sign of the times I guess.

Similarly, sudden death OT in a playoff game is entirely appropriate - albeit heartbreaking. When NE won the toss they won the game as far as I'm concerned.

How is a coin flip an appropriate way end a playoff game? Because that's pretty much what sudden death is.

[Wadcutter]

Originally Posted by Neil K Walk

This is a big reason why I will NEVER take my 11yo kid to another NFL game. It's not that the game is overly violent, it's that there are too many idiots in the stands. Unless my wife's company somehow lets her bring us to their luxury box - which was a rare event and was just at a preseason game - I actually feel more comfortable taking him to a hockey game.

I went to a Charger/Raider game in San Diego a few years back when I was visiting my brother and his young son in San Diego. The language and behavior of the Raider “fans” was off the charts bad. We actually left the game at half time. Saw on the news the next day there were scores of fights in the parking lot after the game, some injuries requiring an ambulance ride. Unbelievable how far some of these nut job “fans” will go to “support” their team. Now I guess the bar has been lowered to pointing lasers in the eyes of the opposing QB. Sick man, so sick.

[raysachs]

I go to quite a few Phillies games every year, and have done for the past 15 years or so. And the occasional 76er game. Philly fans have a terrible reputation and, while I don’t actually think we’re worse than fans in most cities, I don’t think we’re generally better either. And in all those years of going to games with my wife, my kids, friends, etc, I’ve seen one really out of hand drunk guy nearby who was removed from the stadium and at a Mets game (NL East arch-rivals), one fight did break out between a belligerent Met fan and a Phillies fan who finally had enough. But there were a TON of Phillies and Mets fans sitting around each other giving each other a good natured hard time without incident other than that one - and I’ve been to a LOT of Phillies / Mets games with lots of fans of both teams intermingled and basically getting along fine.

I have no doubt NFL and NHL games are worse since both are far more violent games and there’s a certain amount of blood-lust in those fan bases. I haven’t been to a regular season NFL game since I was a little kid and I’m not a hockey fan at all, so no firsthand experience. But I’ve never had any issues or felt unsafe (for myself or my family) at a baseball or basketball game.

[Rodger Knox]

I used to be a huge football fan, but the only thing I saw was the last few minutes of the KC-Pats game. Here's a perspective that hasn't shown up in this thread. Near the end of the game, Brady's pass is tipped up and intercepted, which would have ended the game, but there's a flag.

Lined up in the neutral zone, clearly over the line in the re-play. That guy made more this season than I've made in the last 50 years, and he can't even line up correctly, and it cost KC the game. I don't want to watch that.

I've gone from watching 4 games a week a couple of years ago to about 12 minutes of one game this year and I'll do my best to miss the SB. I'm sick of overpaid players making stupid mental errors and rule changes to make the game safer.

[robj144]

Originally Posted by Bax Burgess

First team to score twice (any combination of TD, FG, or safety) wins.

Twice??? The NFL would never in a million years go for that. Also, what if one team scored, the other team scored, and then the first team scored? They would complain the other team should get two shots too.

[hairpuller]

Originally Posted by AmericanEagle

I WILL be watching the super bowl.

Go Pats!

Me too.
Go Rams!
Scott

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Bunch o' whinin'. I learned long ago: the deeper you go into post season, the less inclined the ref staff are to having the game turn on a call. Better a miss than a bad call. A defender could sink an ax into the skull of the receiver and as long as they could hose what's left of the receiver off the Astroturf before the station break is over there would be no call. However, the dainty quarterbacks are still bring protected - Brady wasn't even touched, it was a swing and a miss last night, WHIFFF... and it cost the Pat's fourth down for the Chiefs. Technical ball clubs have always lost to physical, edge-of-legality clubs in the post season.

I am surprised by the by the sheer volume of bellyaching by the fans of the Saints, though. The kings of dirty ball got out-dirtied and they won't have it. I still remember the Saint's cash bounty on Brett Favre.

If the Saints had won to play the Pats in the Super Bowl there couldn't have been enough losers in that game for me. At least there's a moderately clean opponent in the fight this time.

Bob

It's certainly true that playoff fouls are not called the same way as regular season fouls. It's also true that in critical situations the refs sit on their whistles more. That said, this no-call had absolutely nothing to do with those facts.

It was an egregiously early hit, to the head, with the helmet, of a defenseless receiver. Any one of three fouls could have been called, and should have been called. The refs turned the outcome of the game by a no call. Unacceptable.

What team you think is dirty has no bearing on this issue. It was a horrible missed call that absolutely changed the outcome of the NFC championship game. 100% turnaround in the outcome if the correct call is made.

Inexcusable.

That said, it happens. I think the answer is pretty simple. Let any play be reviewable, and keep the number of challenges the same as they are now.

[alnico5]

I will continue my lifelong streak of having never watched a SB.