I don’t really care about football — it’s no hockey! — but thank dog the Broncos won so I don’t have to deal with crabby kidlets and my ultimate Bronco-fan mom being disappointed
. I guess the game was exciting enough, but compared to the speed at which a hockey game takes place, it just seems so freaking slow to me.
5.
RobertDSC-Quad Intel Mac
Disappointed my Pats didn’t win.
6.
FlipYrWhig
Gostkowski has to be kicking himself. (Get it? Get it?)
Well, I just hope the investigation into the Patriots’ tablets going dead takes four months, cost 5 million dollars and winds up in Federal Court. Integrity of the game, donchano.
@redshirt: It is, especially on the radio. I love it for long drives and such. Of course it didn’t hurt when the Braves won division titles for more than a decade.
Bleah. My slight hangover from last night’s work party triggered a small migraine, which is annoying as hell. (Since I only had two drinks, it was less the drinking than the drinking+dancing that dehydrated me and caused the headaches. I’m too old for this now.)
16.
Heliopause
Palmer hasn’t thrown a remotely accurate pass yet. Bit nervous.
@Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, nothing like having the game on the radio on a nice summer day while you got a BBQ going or something else outside. Lazy summer days…
@raven: The Braves were the best non dynasty ever. It’s like the Buffalo Bills of MLB, but even more so. Though Buffalo’s 4 straight trips to the SB without a win is rather incredible.
19.
Heliopause
Field is still in shitty condition too.
20.
raven
@redshirt: Well, the Bravos did win one World Series. Sid Bream lives!
eta except they didn’t win it that year!
@raven: Should have won 2-3 more. I suppose the 90’s Yankees were a factor. But that Braves pitching staff was one of the best of all time and they only got 1 title out of it.
I’m waiting for the first copy of Becoming Phoebe to ship. It should do so tomorrow, given that I asked for rush service, and arrive on Tuesday, since I paid an exorbitant amount for 1-day shipping. Then I’ll spend time digging through it to see if I find any problems before it starts selling for real.
34.
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): In the old Turner? Looks like Georgia State is going to get the property when they move to Cobb.
35.
Misterpuff
@raven: Hey Trumpie yer QB buddy is a loosah! Why are you hangin around a loozah?
36.
different-church-lady
@efgoldman: I don’t really give a shit if he drinks the blood virgin goats while sniffing glue. I just want the treatment to even approach lip service to being equitable.
@Betty Cracker: Besides cricket, I suppose – which no American will ever watch – baseball is the ultimate background sport. Long season, long games with a lot of rather mundane action. It’s less an event and more a rhythm of the summer.
I watched this cool golf channel tourney last monday that had other sports stars and some entertainers golfing and 1. Brett Saberhagen is really good at golf but 2. So is Tom Glavine. He smoked Smoltz. It was fun to see the two compete against each other.
It was really neat to see all these other sports guys play golf. Like Marcus Allen sank a 40 foot putt and it was awesome. Larry the Cable Guy was there though, which brought everything down a notch.
I don’t know how Palmer reacts to being in a hole. The Seahawks were just reenacting a frequent theme of theirs; look like crap offensively in the first half, tell Wilson to start winging it, they come back.
@Steeplejack (phone): Given that the Braves were originally a Boston team, and in the 90’s they were one of the few teams you could reliably watch on TV thanks to TBS, I tried to make them my NL team.
But I just can’t dig the NL. Pitchers in windbreakers is just boring.
@JPL: Just as well: the NFL would investigate, claim it was more probable than not Peyton didn’t do anything shady, and then suspend Brady for 4 games.
@raven: I believe it. He’s probably a great golfer too, but he choked his short game which was awesome to see an elite athlete like him choke like I choke on the golf course.
48.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: Being an Illini it didn’t really bother me much!:)
@Heliopause: Having watched that game, I also got the sense that Carolina let off the gas when they were up by three possessions. Still, was fun to watch.
Yeah, at the Ted and also the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
I went to one World Series game against the Yankees when it was so cold I could barely concentrate on the game. It was football playoff weather!
51.
JimV
Of interest probably only to me: statistically Brady and Manning played similar games, in this sense: both had about 50% pass-completions (Brady slightly below, Manning slightly above); Brady got 310 yards on 56 attempts (5.54 y/a) and Manning got 176 yards on 32 attempts (5.50 y/a).
52.
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): When I broke my back and spent 2 months in Grady my ward window looked right over I-20 at the old Fulton County. The early days of TBS.
53.
JMG
@JimV: Brady two interceptions, Manning none. There’s your stat differential of note.
Gostkowski has to be kicking himself. (Get it? Get it?)
Actually Belichick should be kicking himself – he’s the one who came up with and pressured the league to adopt the new PAT rule.
At the time a former pro said Belichick isn’t pushing the new rule for the good of the game, he’s too cynical and devious, rather he’s pushing it cuz he thinks he has the best kicker, who never misses, while his opponents will screw up.
Law of unintended consequences.
56.
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack (phone):
It used to be but now it is infested with the same sort of jackholes who cannot shut up for 1- seconds and love to talk about everything but the game. We used to a have a great guy here, HoF radio guy. His pace was as easy as a fine summer night and covered the game perfectly. His replacements will be jabbering about some game he saw 23 years ago as a kid or how some clown in AA went 12 for 14 last week. If you listen carefully you can hear the ball hit the catchers mitt or tick off a bat and the crowd react but damned if he will mention it.
57.
Prescott Cactus
Cards are doomed. Cursed (pronounced Cur – said) by the Pottsville Maroons and it will haunt them until they return the 1925 claim of Championship.
The Cardinals did not attempt to publicly take credit for the title until 1933, when it was acquired by Charles Bidwill whose descendants still own the modern-day franchise (since relocated to St. Louis and now Arizona). The Cardinals have won only one further NFL title, in 1947, leading to discussion that the franchise is “cursed” as a result of the debacle. The Chicago Cards didn’t claim the title until the Bidwells bought the team in 1933. Their only Championship win & it’s tainted like Flint water
@Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, golf is great background TV, especially in the winter. So soothing.
But now that I’m getting into golf I find it all far more interesting, because I’m taking those same shots, so there’s some learning that might be done. As opposed to any other sport, which I ain’t learning a damn thing other than better watching skills.
64.
NotMax
Jeez Louise, the first 16 Superbowls were over and done with by the close of Jan. 25.
Guess by the time they get to #100 it will be played at the end of March (although as February is a sweeps period, the networks will fight to keep it in that month.)
65.
David *Rafael* Koch
@ThresherK: Yeah. as the say in Bawston – dats ah wicket burn
All but two NFL owners voted to push the extra point back from the 2-yard line to the 15-yard line at the owners’ meetings in March, which has been discussed for several years. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick led the charge for this rule change, saying last year that extra points weren’t designed to be automatic when they were first put into the game.
OK, creepy KFC guy is channeling Jeb! and it’s kind of sad.
The Bronco’s are gonna get the same treatment as the ‘Hawks and Card’s, and its gonna be sad too.
OK, maybe not.
68.
Corner Stone
Good lordt!
69.
raven
@redshirt: After 30 years of trying I finally got Masters Tickets. Practice round on Monday but still!
70.
Joel
@GregB: I wish that were true, but pretty much every high profile white NFL player (or owner) is a wingnut.
71.
raven
@David *Rafael* Koch: Vince Dooley pushed through the “player calling attention to himself” rule and it cost us the game against LSU when AJ Green caught a touchdown pass and did NOTHING. They called it and pushed the kickoff back 15 yards and the short field was instrumental in LSU winning that game.
@raven: Nice! Should be awesome. I’m going to some tournament in Florida at the end of February. Looking forward to watching these guys with my own eyes. I need to improve my game, drastically.
73.
raven
@Schlemazel: Sutton is really good. Skip Carey was a jerk.
One of the things I have come to appreciate about SiriusXM is that they run a lot of MLB games (if not all of them). And for the non-weekend, non-network games, usually you get your choice of either team’s local broadcast. I used to love listening to Seattle Mariners games because Patrick Warburton did some hilarious ads for a regional bank where he and some other guy played Lewis and Clark.
76.
different-church-lady
@JimV: In other words, they both played lousy, but Manning played slightly less lousy.
77.
David *Rafael* Koch
@raven: the “player calling attention to himself” was that in response to the university of miami’s famed on-field antics or did it relate to some other event/team?
78.
raven
@redshirt: It’s a maddening fucking game. I was a caddy at Medinah CC back in the early 60’s and spent many moons on the links. It was a good way for a kid to make a buck and you got to meet all levels of the social strata from pro-jocks who followed the sun to the rich bigwig members.
extra points weren’t designed to be automatic when they were first put into the game.
They were designed to be the ONLY way you could score when they were first put into the game. All a touchdown got you was a favorable place on the field for a “try”. Eventually they realized the touchdown part was harder than the kick part, so they started handing out points for the touchdown.
College football, governed by the NCAA also penalizes excessive celebrations with a 15-yard penalty. NCAA Football Rule 9-2, Article 1(a)(1)(d) prohibits “Any delayed, excessive, prolonged or choreographed act by which a player (or players) attempts to focus attention upon himself (or themselves)”; in addition, Rule 9-2, Article 1(a)(2) asserts that “After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot.”[3]
Vince Dooley viewed the flag thrown on Georgia receiver A.J. Green Saturday for excessive celebration not just from the vantage point of a former Bulldogs football coach.
Dooley also looked at it from the perspective of a former NCAA football rules committee chairman who worked to crack down on what he described as “this business of look at me, of strutting and trying to choreograph celebration.”
Dooley, in attendance at the game, didn’t see Green’s actions after his 16-yard touchdown catch as flag-worthy.
“When I first saw it, it was a team celebration, which I thought was perfect,” Dooley said Monday. “What we were trying to encourage was team celebration and spontaneity. I thought it was great, but the next thing I knew a flag came.”
Southeastern Conference coordinator of officials Rogers Redding told the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday the flag with 1:09 to go and Georgia ahead by one point should not have been thrown. Redding said a video review did not support the call.
Georgia kicked off from its own 15 and after a long return, LSU scored two plays later to win 20-13.
83.
different-church-lady
@David *Rafael* Koch: It affected this game in a negative way for this fan, yet I’m still in favor of the 15 yard P-A-T. A scoring play ought to affect the outcome of a game.
@raven: Yeah it is. I have a theory there’s a “Line of Madness” in golf. It’s a skill based line. If you’re below it, you don’t care, and golf’s just an activity and so what. If you’re above it in terms of skill, then it becomes the most diabolical game ever invented. A definition of Hell would be a golf course you can never do better than double bogey no matter how good you are, for example.
I’m below the line for now, but I’m getting closer to it.
@different-church-lady: Same. It burnt us today, but I like the rule change. Having extra points be basically automatic is boring. In fact, I’d like to increase the reasons to go for 2.
I’m not watching football anymore. What’s the score?
89.
Corner Stone
That was damned close.
90.
p.a.
I saw earlier this week both NFC teams would be favored over either AFC teams. Not seeing it with Arizona over Denver. If Carolina holds on they should be favored BUT Denver has SB experience ( not good experience) but they’ve been through the week’s BS before.
91.
Bill Murray
@Joel: Is ConnorBarwin high profile? Because he’s a pretty liberal white Pro Bowl NFL player. but that is pretty rare
Not that Bud Light is actually desirable in any way…but Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen as spokesmodels? What are you selling, here?
94.
David *Rafael* Koch
–
95.
Magatha
@Joel: Yeah, I’m sure you’re right about NFL wingnuts, but one reason I still love my one and only most favoritest quarterback ever Steve Young is that he and his wife were publicly opposed to that horrible California anti-gay Prop 8, the passage of which cast a pall over the the satisfaction I felt over the election of our first non-white prez.
It’s amazing how bad the NFL’s online game information is.
109.
different-church-lady
Whomever ends the game with the most interceptions wins, apparently.
110.
p.a.
@Magatha: That’s an especially admirable stance since he’s Mormon.
111.
Tripod
Carolina is the class of the league. The Denver defense is good, but it’s going to be like Golden State vs. Cleveland in the NBA finals. Youth will be served.
Good for Ron Rivera – he was a large part of the Bears getting to XLI – and promptly got fired by that idiot organization for his efforts.
112.
p.a.
@efgoldman: Does Bob have a speech impediment? Or is he just always drunk?
113.
Magatha
@raven: Is golf the sport in which getting the yips is most prevalent? I know in football, kickers can have yip-like stretches of messed up kicks. I remember a long time ago, 49ers kicker Mike Cofer had such a bad run that there was a joke going around – “Did you hear Cofer tried to commit suicide last night? Yeah, he tried to kick the bucket…and missed.” And of course pitchers and QBs can get the yips. But on further review, of course it would be more devastating in golf because it’s not a team sport. I don’t even enjoy golf, but golf yips scare me. But football kickers – oof, they’re part of the team but they have an almost solo job. If I’d remembered to have kids, I wouldn’t have wanted my sons to be kickers.
@p.a.: I’ve always assumed the latter. But then again, there’s a Boston area slurred thing that happens on occasion — Mayor Menino was not known to be a drunk, but he frequently sounded like one.
116.
p.a.
@Magatha: Who was the 2nd baseman who got the yips? Played for the Yankees, but didn’t start his career there.
117.
Nerull
Mason Crosby had the yips for an entire season – officially the worst kicker in the league in 2012, but recovered.
118.
ThresherK
Not to jinx anything at the half, but has there been a starting QB wearing #1 in the Super Bowl?
119.
Bill Murray
@p.a.: steve sax. The worst yips (pitching variety) was Steve Blass
You could say it’s the middling MLB infielder who can no longer hit for the month of July. Why? The yips, most likely. Or an injury and then injury induced yips.
MLBer’s play almost every day. There’s something to that, compared to all the other sports. Basketball players have it the toughest, it seems, due to how much they must run per game. As compared to baseball players. lol.
Golfers get the yips, no doubt. But tournaments are such intense and brief time frames. You could choose to only play once a month for ideally 4 days. You could have the yips for one tourney and not for another. Who knows – the yips are often unpredictable.
I have a theory there’s a “Line of Madness” in golf. It’s a skill based line. If you’re below it, you don’t care, and golf’s just an activity and so what. If you’re above it in terms of skill, then it becomes the most diabolical game ever invented.
I think a lot of sports are like that. I’ve competed in chess and sailing, and in both of them I know that everything that goes wrong is because I made a bad decision.
Basically any sport in which your opponent doesn’t really interfere with your play (ok, they can cover in sailing, but you let them get there.)
128.
raven
Carolina scores and it may be Downton Abbey.
129.
raven
@redshirt: I knew a number of basketball players who just had to stop playing when they could not play up to their expectations. They had been really good and it killed them to lose that edge. I, on the other hand, played until I was 50 and then hung it up.
@efgoldman: Yeah it’s weird when a professional baseball player loses basic ball playing skills, like throwing and catching. It happens regularly though.
@ThresherK: Brief investigation on Teh Google indicates, not yet. Further analysis required.
ETA: Ugh, baseball. You guys should get a room.
137.
raven
@redshirt: Another reason I stopped. When I moved here I had a student membership at the UGA course. After I finished my program it was too expensive to keep up so I didn’t. I like to save my dough for blue water fishing now.
138.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: Fuck baseball. This year we get the Olympics so that will help.
@efgoldman: Palmer is way off his timing and missing Fitz in awkward ways. I put the majority of that on Palmer.
153.
Corner Stone
Nice route by the TE for Cards.
154.
p.a.
I have to admit watching the team from the immigrant hating, MLK holiday negating state go down to defeat is enjoyable. Is that wrong?
Feel a bit for Palmer; his first knee injury, early in a playoff game, was a cheap shot and set him back for years (traded to Raiders etc.)
155.
danielx
Peyton Manning thought bubble at the end of the Broncos-Patriots goround: Going to the Super Bowl is great, but if we don’t win at least I’ve beaten that sonofabitch Brady one last time.
156.
Heliopause
Sorry I compared Palmer to Leaf earlier. Unfair to Leaf.
@danielx: Based on Manning’s public statements, it seemed that the two had mutual respect. Always good to best your equal, though I don’t get a sense of malice from either QB.
Oh look, five turnovers. One more and it’s a nice box for Monday morning break room.
ETA: Yeah, Panthers really snoozing in this second half.
158.
Corner Stone
Going for 2? That’s just wrong.
159.
J R in WV
I used to help out the elderly farmers next door with heavy work. I was a youngster then, and could do for them what they couldn’t do any more. Both passed on now, taught me most of what I know about farm work.
Frequently we would have some leftovers for lunch, and then sit in the living room with Cincinnati Red baseball on the TV. Hot summer afternoons, no A/C, their family just never did that. We would chat a little, and drowse off, coming back to the room when we heard the bat strike the ball, or the crowd cheer.
More recently Mrs J and I have gone to some of the minor league games just to watch the youngsters play ball. Cheap summer evening fun.
I will say though that an acquaintance’s wife was hit by a foul ball some years ago, never recovered from the blow, and died in a nursing home… so even baseball can be tragic. I keep my eyes on the ball as well as I can.
CAR is going to fucking destroy the zBroncos. And, yeah, the z there stands for zombie. Because I may not even watch Cam pull a Mortal Kombat fatality on Denver.
I have a sneaking suspicion the story of Su Perbowe L is going to be the Panthers D.
169.
David Koch
Panthers have to be at least a 12 pt favorite over the Broncos.
Broncos have a great defense. But their offense is limited to a running game, which can be clogged up.
170.
Corner Stone
CAR is going to completely fucking destroy DEN. This is going to be the most boring SB since the last time DEN was involved.
171.
p.a.
@Corner Stone: I don’t know what, if anything, the Denver O will be able to accomplish against Carolina, but the Bronco D is for real. Couple of picks, stripsack; shit happens. Broncos have the experience. As I already noted it wasn’t a GOOD experience, but sometimes knowing how to prep for the Super Bowl ™ makes a difference.
I don’t think the difference maker will be Carolina O v Denver D. I think Peyton Manning is going to get demolished by Carolina’s secondary. Denver won’t be able to stifle Newton, and Manning will throw at least three picks. Carolina’s offensive line isn’t going to get owned by three-man rushes like the Patriots did, so Denver won’t be able to flood the secondary. And Carolina’s TE was second in offensive production to Gronkowski, who made Denver’s d-backs look pretty bad. Finally, Newton is a hell of a lot more mobile than Tom Brady.
177.
John
@Betty Cracker: He’s a really good looking guy. I wonder if all the companies that have thrown themselves at one-step above mediocre QB Tom Brady will come looking to hire Cam after he wins the Superbowl.
178.
Onkel Fritze
@Steeplejack (phone): Weird. Maybe somebody decided it was too graphic. Just google pictures of ‘cardinal roadkill’.
179.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Steeplejack (phone): I think there’s some FYWP stuff going on. Similar weirdness was happening to me in Adam’s JC’s later thread.
Cheers,
Scott.
180.
Joel
Only watched the first quarter of this one. It was over before it started.
From the look of Fritze’s link, he forgot to put in the http prefix, which causes FYWP to insert the URL of the current post. (Don’t ask me why.)
182.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Steeplejack (phone): I had lots of garbage added to a URL when I tried to edit it after posting. Something like: balloon-juice/editor/jkd;lja;sdf/ak;sdkfj/my.url.org Maybe something similar happened to him.
Whatever it was, was very annoying in my case.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
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GregB
Brady bought some bad karma when he semi endorsed Trump.
The Trump Curse.
CaseyL
Well, now that NE is out there’s no team I really hate and want to see lose.
The game is very young, but already Arizona is getting a taste of what Seattle went through last week.
Misterpuff
Go Panthers!
jacy
I don’t really care about football — it’s no hockey! — but thank dog the Broncos won so I don’t have to deal with crabby kidlets and my ultimate Bronco-fan mom being disappointed
. I guess the game was exciting enough, but compared to the speed at which a hockey game takes place, it just seems so freaking slow to me.
RobertDSC-Quad Intel Mac
Disappointed my Pats didn’t win.
FlipYrWhig
Gostkowski has to be kicking himself. (Get it? Get it?)
redshirt
Who cares? Football season is over.
Pitchers and catchers in a few weeks!
Go Sox!
different-church-lady
Well, I just hope the investigation into the Patriots’ tablets going dead takes four months, cost 5 million dollars and winds up in Federal Court. Integrity of the game, donchano.
raven
@redshirt: Fuck baseball.
redshirt
@raven: It’s a great background sport.
Steeplejack (phone)
Panthers favored by only 3, which seems a little light to me.
BruceFromOhio
@redshirt: So is cricket.
GO PANTHERS
raven
@redshirt: It is, especially on the radio. I love it for long drives and such. Of course it didn’t hurt when the Braves won division titles for more than a decade.
Steeplejack (phone)
@redshirt:
That’s true. Good radio sport, too.
Mnemosyne
Bleah. My slight hangover from last night’s work party triggered a small migraine, which is annoying as hell. (Since I only had two drinks, it was less the drinking than the drinking+dancing that dehydrated me and caused the headaches. I’m too old for this now.)
Heliopause
Palmer hasn’t thrown a remotely accurate pass yet. Bit nervous.
redshirt
@Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, nothing like having the game on the radio on a nice summer day while you got a BBQ going or something else outside. Lazy summer days…
redshirt
@raven: The Braves were the best non dynasty ever. It’s like the Buffalo Bills of MLB, but even more so. Though Buffalo’s 4 straight trips to the SB without a win is rather incredible.
Heliopause
Field is still in shitty condition too.
raven
@redshirt: Well, the Bravos did win one World Series. Sid Bream lives!
eta except they didn’t win it that year!
redshirt
@raven: Should have won 2-3 more. I suppose the 90’s Yankees were a factor. But that Braves pitching staff was one of the best of all time and they only got 1 title out of it.
raven
@redshirt: Yup.
Heliopause
And yes, I saw that block in real time, so if I saw it on my TV the refs should have too. Missed call.
raven
Got I hate Cam. ..and he’s really fucking good.
PaulW
smart thing the Panths do, hand off td balls to kids in the stands
Cacti
I heard that Brady was feeling a little deflated about the loss in Denver.
Too soon?
BruceFromOhio
Ginn made so many great plays for OSU back when, and it is a blast to see him still at it.
And another lucky kid in the Panther stands.
@redshirt: Kelly’s was a fun, exciting, painful era. Always a bridesmaid, never the bride.
raven
@Cacti: That Trumps anything I have!
Felonious Monk
Holy Shit!
Betty Cracker
@redshirt: Yeah, that 90s Braves pitching staff was unbelievable — Maddox, Smoltz, Glavine. And you’re right — it’s an awesome background game.
Steeplejack (phone)
@redshirt:
I love the Braves. Went to a lot of games when I lived in Atlanta. They’re still my team. I try to see them when they’re in town to play the Nats.
My all-weather ball cap is a fitted cloth Braves cap, not one of those cheapo adjustable ones.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: Remember that both the Buckeyes and the Bears ran back the opening kickoff’s in their respective championships and both lost.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@jacy: Ditto on hockey vs. football.
I’m waiting for the first copy of Becoming Phoebe to ship. It should do so tomorrow, given that I asked for rush service, and arrive on Tuesday, since I paid an exorbitant amount for 1-day shipping. Then I’ll spend time digging through it to see if I find any problems before it starts selling for real.
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): In the old Turner? Looks like Georgia State is going to get the property when they move to Cobb.
Misterpuff
@raven: Hey Trumpie yer QB buddy is a loosah! Why are you hangin around a loozah?
different-church-lady
@efgoldman: I don’t really give a shit if he drinks the blood virgin goats while sniffing glue. I just want the treatment to even approach lip service to being equitable.
BruceFromOhio
@raven: I have a feeling the Carolina squads aren’t really worried about it at the moment. Panthers D notches 5 sacks, and this is over.
ETA: …or a pick-six…
raven
@BruceFromOhio: I thought it was an interesting factoid.
redshirt
@Betty Cracker: Besides cricket, I suppose – which no American will ever watch – baseball is the ultimate background sport. Long season, long games with a lot of rather mundane action. It’s less an event and more a rhythm of the summer.
I watched this cool golf channel tourney last monday that had other sports stars and some entertainers golfing and 1. Brett Saberhagen is really good at golf but 2. So is Tom Glavine. He smoked Smoltz. It was fun to see the two compete against each other.
It was really neat to see all these other sports guys play golf. Like Marcus Allen sank a 40 foot putt and it was awesome. Larry the Cable Guy was there though, which brought everything down a notch.
JPL
@different-church-lady: Calling ESPN … Nope it won’t happen.
Heliopause
@efgoldman:
I don’t know how Palmer reacts to being in a hole. The Seahawks were just reenacting a frequent theme of theirs; look like crap offensively in the first half, tell Wilson to start winging it, they come back.
redshirt
@Steeplejack (phone): Given that the Braves were originally a Boston team, and in the 90’s they were one of the few teams you could reliably watch on TV thanks to TBS, I tried to make them my NL team.
But I just can’t dig the NL. Pitchers in windbreakers is just boring.
raven
@redshirt: Smoltz was a really good hooper.
different-church-lady
@JPL: Just as well: the NFL would investigate, claim it was more probable than not Peyton didn’t do anything shady, and then suspend Brady for 4 games.
BruceFromOhio
@raven: Unknown: how many televisions suffered screen damage resulting from objects thrown by angry Buckeyes on 08 JAN 2007.
raven
I want to hear the Mexicans!!!
redshirt
@raven: I believe it. He’s probably a great golfer too, but he choked his short game which was awesome to see an elite athlete like him choke like I choke on the golf course.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: Being an Illini it didn’t really bother me much!:)
BruceFromOhio
@Heliopause: Having watched that game, I also got the sense that Carolina let off the gas when they were up by three possessions. Still, was fun to watch.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
Yeah, at the Ted and also the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
I went to one World Series game against the Yankees when it was so cold I could barely concentrate on the game. It was football playoff weather!
JimV
Of interest probably only to me: statistically Brady and Manning played similar games, in this sense: both had about 50% pass-completions (Brady slightly below, Manning slightly above); Brady got 310 yards on 56 attempts (5.54 y/a) and Manning got 176 yards on 32 attempts (5.50 y/a).
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): When I broke my back and spent 2 months in Grady my ward window looked right over I-20 at the old Fulton County. The early days of TBS.
JMG
@JimV: Brady two interceptions, Manning none. There’s your stat differential of note.
Steeplejack (phone)
@redshirt:
I like golf as a background TV sport too. Low-key, announcers are knowledgeable and remarkably unobnoxious, and the scenery is great.
David *Rafael* Koch
@FlipYrWhig:
Actually Belichick should be kicking himself – he’s the one who came up with and pressured the league to adopt the new PAT rule.
At the time a former pro said Belichick isn’t pushing the new rule for the good of the game, he’s too cynical and devious, rather he’s pushing it cuz he thinks he has the best kicker, who never misses, while his opponents will screw up.
Law of unintended consequences.
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack (phone):
It used to be but now it is infested with the same sort of jackholes who cannot shut up for 1- seconds and love to talk about everything but the game. We used to a have a great guy here, HoF radio guy. His pace was as easy as a fine summer night and covered the game perfectly. His replacements will be jabbering about some game he saw 23 years ago as a kid or how some clown in AA went 12 for 14 last week. If you listen carefully you can hear the ball hit the catchers mitt or tick off a bat and the crowd react but damned if he will mention it.
Prescott Cactus
Cards are doomed. Cursed (pronounced Cur – said) by the Pottsville Maroons and it will haunt them until they return the 1925 claim of Championship.
The Cardinals did not attempt to publicly take credit for the title until 1933, when it was acquired by Charles Bidwill whose descendants still own the modern-day franchise (since relocated to St. Louis and now Arizona). The Cardinals have won only one further NFL title, in 1947, leading to discussion that the franchise is “cursed” as a result of the debacle. The Chicago Cards didn’t claim the title until the Bidwells bought the team in 1933. Their only Championship win & it’s tainted like Flint water
Bill Murray
@raven: Glavine was a 4th round pick of the LA Kings hockey franchise
Corner Stone
Balls out!
Heliopause
Palmer looks awful. I mean, Ryan Leaf awful.
ThresherK
@David *Rafael* Koch: I didn’t know that. Reminds me of the “Amend the Constitution so naturalized Americans
Ahnuldcan be Prez” movment.Mike J
@Corner Stone: I thought I was the only one juvenile enough to giggle at that. I should have known I could count on you.
redshirt
@Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, golf is great background TV, especially in the winter. So soothing.
But now that I’m getting into golf I find it all far more interesting, because I’m taking those same shots, so there’s some learning that might be done. As opposed to any other sport, which I ain’t learning a damn thing other than better watching skills.
NotMax
Jeez Louise, the first 16 Superbowls were over and done with by the close of Jan. 25.
Guess by the time they get to #100 it will be played at the end of March (although as February is a sweeps period, the networks will fight to keep it in that month.)
David *Rafael* Koch
@ThresherK: Yeah. as the say in Bawston – dats ah wicket burn
an article from the beginning of the season was titled: “The new extra point rule will affect the outcomes of games, and that’s not a good thing”
Heliopause
@NotMax:
The regular season will be expanded to 40 games and the players will all be cyborgs.
BruceFromOhio
OK, creepy KFC guy is channeling Jeb! and it’s kind of sad.
The Bronco’s are gonna get the same treatment as the ‘Hawks and Card’s, and its gonna be sad too.
OK, maybe not.
Corner Stone
Good lordt!
raven
@redshirt: After 30 years of trying I finally got Masters Tickets. Practice round on Monday but still!
Joel
@GregB: I wish that were true, but pretty much every high profile white NFL player (or owner) is a wingnut.
raven
@David *Rafael* Koch: Vince Dooley pushed through the “player calling attention to himself” rule and it cost us the game against LSU when AJ Green caught a touchdown pass and did NOTHING. They called it and pushed the kickoff back 15 yards and the short field was instrumental in LSU winning that game.
redshirt
@raven: Nice! Should be awesome. I’m going to some tournament in Florida at the end of February. Looking forward to watching these guys with my own eyes. I need to improve my game, drastically.
raven
@Schlemazel: Sutton is really good. Skip Carey was a jerk.
redshirt
@David *Rafael* Koch: The Dark Lord works in mysterious ways.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
One of the things I have come to appreciate about SiriusXM is that they run a lot of MLB games (if not all of them). And for the non-weekend, non-network games, usually you get your choice of either team’s local broadcast. I used to love listening to Seattle Mariners games because Patrick Warburton did some hilarious ads for a regional bank where he and some other guy played Lewis and Clark.
different-church-lady
@JimV: In other words, they both played lousy, but Manning played slightly less lousy.
David *Rafael* Koch
@raven: the “player calling attention to himself” was that in response to the university of miami’s famed on-field antics or did it relate to some other event/team?
raven
@redshirt: It’s a maddening fucking game. I was a caddy at Medinah CC back in the early 60’s and spent many moons on the links. It was a good way for a kid to make a buck and you got to meet all levels of the social strata from pro-jocks who followed the sun to the rich bigwig members.
different-church-lady
@David *Rafael* Koch:
They were designed to be the ONLY way you could score when they were first put into the game. All a touchdown got you was a favorable place on the field for a “try”. Eventually they realized the touchdown part was harder than the kick part, so they started handing out points for the touchdown.
raven
@David *Rafael* Koch:
Corner Stone
What kind of stupid fucking decision was that?
raven
@David *Rafael* Koch:
different-church-lady
@David *Rafael* Koch: It affected this game in a negative way for this fan, yet I’m still in favor of the 15 yard P-A-T. A scoring play ought to affect the outcome of a game.
redshirt
@raven: Yeah it is. I have a theory there’s a “Line of Madness” in golf. It’s a skill based line. If you’re below it, you don’t care, and golf’s just an activity and so what. If you’re above it in terms of skill, then it becomes the most diabolical game ever invented. A definition of Hell would be a golf course you can never do better than double bogey no matter how good you are, for example.
I’m below the line for now, but I’m getting closer to it.
BruceFromOhio
Is Card’s D going to make this a contest?? That could be fun. Time for a bourbon-and-pierogies break!
David *Rafael* Koch
@different-church-lady: I’ve got nothing against Boston or Patriot fans, but Belichick and Kraft are so unlikeable.
redshirt
@different-church-lady: Same. It burnt us today, but I like the rule change. Having extra points be basically automatic is boring. In fact, I’d like to increase the reasons to go for 2.
redshirt
I’m not watching football anymore. What’s the score?
Corner Stone
That was damned close.
p.a.
I saw earlier this week both NFC teams would be favored over either AFC teams. Not seeing it with Arizona over Denver. If Carolina holds on they should be favored BUT Denver has SB experience ( not good experience) but they’ve been through the week’s BS before.
Bill Murray
@Joel: Is Connor Barwin high profile? Because he’s a pretty liberal white Pro Bowl NFL player. but that is pretty rare
Steeplejack (phone)
@redshirt:
Carolina 24-7 just before halftime.
Corner Stone
Not that Bud Light is actually desirable in any way…but Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen as spokesmodels? What are you selling, here?
David *Rafael* Koch
–
Magatha
@Joel: Yeah, I’m sure you’re right about NFL wingnuts, but one reason I still love my one and only most favoritest quarterback ever Steve Young is that he and his wife were publicly opposed to that horrible California anti-gay Prop 8, the passage of which cast a pall over the the satisfaction I felt over the election of our first non-white prez.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Best. Called. Inning. EVAH..
Corner Stone
Goodness gracious and great piggly wiggly!
Misterpuff
Yow ouch!
jacy
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Whoohoo! That is so, so awesome. :)
Of course you’ll find mistakes, though. There are always mistakes.
Corner Stone
Shazam! Really bad throw by Cam there. Manning-esque, almost.
Steeplejack (phone)
Smart int return by Peterson. Waited for his blockers and used them well.
Misterpuff
Yow ouch 2 : Electric Bugaloo
Corner Stone
SONOFABITCH THIS FUCKING GAME!!
Steeplejack (phone)
And the Cards give it right back.
different-church-lady
Honest to Got, I’ve got the screen grab to prove it — NFL.com gameday thingy now says the following:
The dotted line representing the arc of the football goes off the top of the screen and doesn’t come back down again.
Baud
3 plays. 3 turnovers.
Misterpuff
Naw, that didn’t just happen……
Baud
@different-church-lady:
It’s amazing how bad the NFL’s online game information is.
different-church-lady
Whomever ends the game with the most interceptions wins, apparently.
p.a.
@Magatha: That’s an especially admirable stance since he’s Mormon.
Tripod
Carolina is the class of the league. The Denver defense is good, but it’s going to be like Golden State vs. Cleveland in the NBA finals. Youth will be served.
Good for Ron Rivera – he was a large part of the Bears getting to XLI – and promptly got fired by that idiot organization for his efforts.
p.a.
@efgoldman: Does Bob have a speech impediment? Or is he just always drunk?
Magatha
@raven: Is golf the sport in which getting the yips is most prevalent? I know in football, kickers can have yip-like stretches of messed up kicks. I remember a long time ago, 49ers kicker Mike Cofer had such a bad run that there was a joke going around – “Did you hear Cofer tried to commit suicide last night? Yeah, he tried to kick the bucket…and missed.” And of course pitchers and QBs can get the yips. But on further review, of course it would be more devastating in golf because it’s not a team sport. I don’t even enjoy golf, but golf yips scare me. But football kickers – oof, they’re part of the team but they have an almost solo job. If I’d remembered to have kids, I wouldn’t have wanted my sons to be kickers.
justawriter
@Corner Stone: sex, what else?
different-church-lady
@p.a.: I’ve always assumed the latter. But then again, there’s a Boston area slurred thing that happens on occasion — Mayor Menino was not known to be a drunk, but he frequently sounded like one.
p.a.
@Magatha: Who was the 2nd baseman who got the yips? Played for the Yankees, but didn’t start his career there.
Nerull
Mason Crosby had the yips for an entire season – officially the worst kicker in the league in 2012, but recovered.
ThresherK
Not to jinx anything at the half, but has there been a starting QB wearing #1 in the Super Bowl?
Bill Murray
@p.a.: steve sax. The worst yips (pitching variety) was Steve Blass
redshirt
@different-church-lady: “Veritek kicking it through the uprights!”
You could put a small book together of our beloved marble mouth’s malapropisms.
ThresherK
@p.a.: Chuck Knoblach, a 2B from the Twins.
John Tamargo, a catcher who played for NYM and Montreal, among others, wasn’t any great shakes (sic) getting the ball back to the pitcher either.
redshirt
@Magatha: It’s a debatable topic.
You could say it’s the middling MLB infielder who can no longer hit for the month of July. Why? The yips, most likely. Or an injury and then injury induced yips.
MLBer’s play almost every day. There’s something to that, compared to all the other sports. Basketball players have it the toughest, it seems, due to how much they must run per game. As compared to baseball players. lol.
Golfers get the yips, no doubt. But tournaments are such intense and brief time frames. You could choose to only play once a month for ideally 4 days. You could have the yips for one tourney and not for another. Who knows – the yips are often unpredictable.
raven
@redshirt: Have a ball!
raven
@redshirt: As seen in the April issue of Golf Magazine, top batting coach Charley Lau Jr. explains how his superstar sluggers can also help you develop more power off the tee and better accuracy with every iron in your bag
raven
@Magatha: Ya drive for show and putt for dough.
redshirt
@ThresherK: Chuck Knoblach lost the ability to throw to first base. Damnedest thing to see in real time. Poor Chuck I thought even at the time.
Mike J
@redshirt: .
I think a lot of sports are like that. I’ve competed in chess and sailing, and in both of them I know that everything that goes wrong is because I made a bad decision.
Basically any sport in which your opponent doesn’t really interfere with your play (ok, they can cover in sailing, but you let them get there.)
raven
Carolina scores and it may be Downton Abbey.
raven
@redshirt: I knew a number of basketball players who just had to stop playing when they could not play up to their expectations. They had been really good and it killed them to lose that edge. I, on the other hand, played until I was 50 and then hung it up.
Mike J
@ThresherK: http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/news/story?id=3218941
(naked links should work now)
redshirt
@raven: I broke 100(99) legitimately on the black tees. But I was real lucky that day I’ll tell ya.
Corner Stone
@justawriter: ***Shutters***
raven
@redshirt: Stick with it as long as you enjoy it.
redshirt
@raven: It’s an expensive hobby.
redshirt
@efgoldman: Yeah it’s weird when a professional baseball player loses basic ball playing skills, like throwing and catching. It happens regularly though.
BruceFromOhio
@ThresherK: Brief investigation on Teh Google indicates, not yet. Further analysis required.
ETA: Ugh, baseball. You guys should get a room.
raven
@redshirt: Another reason I stopped. When I moved here I had a student membership at the UGA course. After I finished my program it was too expensive to keep up so I didn’t. I like to save my dough for blue water fishing now.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: Fuck baseball. This year we get the Olympics so that will help.
raven
@efgoldman: You though Cam had problems huh?
BruceFromOhio
@efgoldman: Ted Ginn, Jr.
Career NFL
Receptions: 254
Receiving yards: 3,524
Total return yards: 8,890
Total touchdowns: 30
But maybe you were thinking of something else.
Corner Stone
Good God. A 20 yard QB keeper?
AmmoniaShorts Bundy
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick ride home after the game:
https://youtu.be/HoaoP3aJi5U
Magatha
Jeepers, I think I shall turn off my radio now. I am willing to risk missing an astounding Cardinal come-back.
Baud
Yay! A sequel to Olympus Has Fallen!
Suzanne
I think the entire city is going to be ready to commit seppuku tomorrow. Man, what a bummer.
Baud
Cam had pre-game costume changes?
Corner Stone
@Baud: I actually love Gerard Butler. So…yay!!
Schlemazel
@redshirt:
To quote Yogi – “90% of the game is half mental”
Is there any other sport where this sort of thing happens?
JPL
I switched to Downton Abbey. I assume that if the Cardinals make a comeback, you all will let me know
Corner Stone
@Baud: They have phonebooths in the tunnels under the field.
Schlemazel
@raven:
We should all have such problems!
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: Palmer is way off his timing and missing Fitz in awkward ways. I put the majority of that on Palmer.
Corner Stone
Nice route by the TE for Cards.
p.a.
I have to admit watching the team from the immigrant hating, MLK holiday negating state go down to defeat is enjoyable. Is that wrong?
Feel a bit for Palmer; his first knee injury, early in a playoff game, was a cheap shot and set him back for years (traded to Raiders etc.)
danielx
Peyton Manning thought bubble at the end of the Broncos-Patriots goround: Going to the Super Bowl is great, but if we don’t win at least I’ve beaten that sonofabitch Brady one last time.
Heliopause
Sorry I compared Palmer to Leaf earlier. Unfair to Leaf.
BruceFromOhio
@danielx: Based on Manning’s public statements, it seemed that the two had mutual respect. Always good to best your equal, though I don’t get a sense of malice from either QB.
Oh look, five turnovers. One more and it’s a nice box for Monday morning break room.
ETA: Yeah, Panthers really snoozing in this second half.
Corner Stone
Going for 2? That’s just wrong.
J R in WV
I used to help out the elderly farmers next door with heavy work. I was a youngster then, and could do for them what they couldn’t do any more. Both passed on now, taught me most of what I know about farm work.
Frequently we would have some leftovers for lunch, and then sit in the living room with Cincinnati Red baseball on the TV. Hot summer afternoons, no A/C, their family just never did that. We would chat a little, and drowse off, coming back to the room when we heard the bat strike the ball, or the crowd cheer.
More recently Mrs J and I have gone to some of the minor league games just to watch the youngsters play ball. Cheap summer evening fun.
I will say though that an acquaintance’s wife was hit by a foul ball some years ago, never recovered from the blow, and died in a nursing home… so even baseball can be tragic. I keep my eyes on the ball as well as I can.
PaulW
x-files open thread
Corner Stone
CAR is going to fucking destroy the zBroncos. And, yeah, the z there stands for zombie. Because I may not even watch Cam pull a Mortal Kombat fatality on Denver.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
LUUUUUKE!!!!
Corner Stone
Freakin’ Keeeekly!!
justawriter
I miss old Dandy Don singing “Turn out the lights the party’s over.”
BruceFromOhio
The John 3:16 guy got a good seat. Gaia admires such crafty thinking.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@justawriter: Wish he were here calling the game, frankly.
Corner Stone
Oooootayyyy.
BruceFromOhio
I have a sneaking suspicion the story of Su Perbowe L is going to be the Panthers D.
David Koch
Panthers have to be at least a 12 pt favorite over the Broncos.
Broncos have a great defense. But their offense is limited to a running game, which can be clogged up.
Corner Stone
CAR is going to completely fucking destroy DEN. This is going to be the most boring SB since the last time DEN was involved.
p.a.
@Corner Stone: I don’t know what, if anything, the Denver O will be able to accomplish against Carolina, but the Bronco D is for real. Couple of picks, stripsack; shit happens. Broncos have the experience. As I already noted it wasn’t a GOOD experience, but sometimes knowing how to prep for the Super Bowl ™ makes a difference.
Onkel Fritze
Trigger warning:
This link is not for the faint of heart
Corner Stone
@p.a.:
They should prepare by practicing how to duck and cover under their school desks.
CAR is going to rip DEN into itty bitty pieces.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Onkel Fritze:
Your link is completely fucked.
Betty Cracker
Cam Newton has beautiful teeth.
John
I don’t think the difference maker will be Carolina O v Denver D. I think Peyton Manning is going to get demolished by Carolina’s secondary. Denver won’t be able to stifle Newton, and Manning will throw at least three picks. Carolina’s offensive line isn’t going to get owned by three-man rushes like the Patriots did, so Denver won’t be able to flood the secondary. And Carolina’s TE was second in offensive production to Gronkowski, who made Denver’s d-backs look pretty bad. Finally, Newton is a hell of a lot more mobile than Tom Brady.
John
@Betty Cracker: He’s a really good looking guy. I wonder if all the companies that have thrown themselves at one-step above mediocre QB Tom Brady will come looking to hire Cam after he wins the Superbowl.
Onkel Fritze
@Steeplejack (phone): Weird. Maybe somebody decided it was too graphic. Just google pictures of ‘cardinal roadkill’.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Steeplejack (phone): I think there’s some FYWP stuff going on. Similar weirdness was happening to me in
Adam’sJC’s later thread.Cheers,
Scott.
Joel
Only watched the first quarter of this one. It was over before it started.
Shades of the 2013 Seahawks.
Steeplejack (phone)
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
From the look of Fritze’s link, he forgot to put in the http prefix, which causes FYWP to insert the URL of the current post. (Don’t ask me why.)
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Steeplejack (phone): I had lots of garbage added to a URL when I tried to edit it after posting. Something like: balloon-juice/editor/jkd;lja;sdf/ak;sdkfj/my.url.org Maybe something similar happened to him.
Whatever it was, was very annoying in my case.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.