Kramerica Industries

1 hour ago, Digby said:

 

Who wants this? Does anyone enjoy that the NBA implemented this with the refs awkwardly staring into a GoPro? Sometimes you get a useful explanation, but just as often you get referees who relish their power trip and newfound path to televised fame. Just leave this to football and let's all move on.

Even hockey was better when replay decisions weren't announced and you knew what the final decision was based on whether the referee gave a washout signal or pointed straight to center ice. These aren't flags in football; we can figure out for ourselves why an out or safe decision was made. There's very few cases where it delves into a bit of minutiae that isn't readily apparent, and only on those occasions is any kind of formal explanation of any value.

2 hours ago, RyanMcD29 said:

Also I felt he was a lot better with Charles Davis than Olsen.

Talk about the biggest loser in all of this, eh? Davis left Fox for CBS because being on the #2 team and CBS having an extra playoff game guaranteed him a playoff game every season, whereas he only got one every two years at Fox. I understand he couldn't foresee what happened here, but my goodness, you have to think he would've been the front-runner for the promotion alongside Burkhardt and, well, obviously that window is completely shut.

Is Bieber purposefully trying to get his Canadian citizenship cancelled at this point?

On 3/13/2022 at 1:24 PM, monkeypower said:

 

I think the tide kind of turned on him, a bit like what's starting to happen with Romo, where what people liked about him to begin with became just too much. Like you don't need to be hootin' and hollerin'  on a four yard handoff.

Feel like the thing I'm finding most annoying about Romo is that he tries too hard with his sarcasm at times, trying to be ironic about things. "So everybody expected [unexpected current score] when this game began", and especially when he does stuff like that in the first half of the game. When you get a marquee game that lives up to its billing and it comes down to the 4th quarter, that's when Romo is still at his best, doubly so if it's the postseason. That his bloom has begun to come off the rose suggests to me a case of him holding back more, and I dunno whether that's a personal decision or CBS wanted him to tone that stuff down (or the NFL pressured him through CBS). Ultimately, there's still not a color commentator I'd rather have on a game across the other networks, though Greg Olsen is very promising. 

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

It blows my mind that the game was around for 100 years before some genius figured out that shifting was an effective defensive strategy.

That's not entirely true. Lou Boudreau was calling shifts against Ted Williams when the Red Sox would play the Indians back in the 1940s. 

Quote

First time he saw the Boudreau shift, Ted Williams literally began to laugh. He promptly hit right into the teeth of it, as if playing along, and he was thrown out by Boudreau himself, who as shortstop was standing between the first and second baseman. The whole thing seemed a joke. "If teams start doing that against me, I'll start hitting right-handed," Williams said after the game. Well, everyone laughed. I've spent the last day or two reading sportswriters initial reactions to the shift; nobody seemed to take it seriously at all. Nobody seemed to buy it as a viable defense against a hitter as great as Williams

(source)

It wasn't a new creation, it just wasn't thought of to be used as a standard defensive alignment against left handed batters with pull tendencies (which is most of them).

I'm having a hard time understanding why the Buck situation is being painted as a 100% either/or situation. Kenny Albert's done work for both Fox and NBC during the same time frame. ARod was doing SNB for ESPN and studio commentary for Fox during the same time frame. What exactly would prevent the two networks from coming to terms that would allow Buck to do MNF for ESPN and retain other gigs he's had at Fox? I'm sure. if both the World Series and being Troy Aikman's booth partner is a big deal for him, that something can be worked out.

6 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

Just wait until we play “How to Save a Life” over him failing a comeback drive.

 

 

Is spoiling this episode OK, or are there people who are sensitive about spoilers for a nearly-16 year old dramedy episode?

If you won't, I'll do it for you.

SPOILER: everyone dies

43 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

 

if Kurt Warner is in the HOF, there is no good argument against Stafford being in the HOF. Stafford has had the better career and it's not even close.

Would have to strongly agree here. Kurt Warner had...five great seasons was it? Just spitballing from memory without looking it up. GSOT Rams which then fizzled out badly for him in 2002, and which point he was basically a journeyman backup for the next several seasons or so before he suddenly popped up good again in Arizona, and even that ended up being only about 2.5 seasons before retiring. 

One of those guys who, when he was good, he was really good, and I have no problem at all with him being in the HOF because the F stands for "Fame" and you can't argue against how famous the late '90s/early '00s Rams were. He's not far away from being a 3x Super Bowl winning QB. And maybe as @Sec19Row53 also alludes to, the NFL is so much more pass happy these days so maybe I'm not being fair to Warner in that first paragraph. The GSOT Rams played like a team that was about 15 years ahead of their time, knowing how the modern NFL looks, and they were doing it at a time when defensive backs were still able to be much more physical on receivers. So if he got a bump thanks in part to that, he deserved it.

(This was a bit OT from your post. I do agree 100% with your claim. It's not Stafford's fault he was often surrounded by incompetence in Detroit. Him being a Super Bowl-winning QB is way overdue.)

Just now, tBBP said:

Legit question: does the outcome of this game influence the competition committee to again review the OT rules? (Recall we even got these OT rules in the first place due to His Favreness.)

 

Why would this game be any different than all the others like it that preceded it? 2018 AFC-CG was basically the exact same type of 4th quarter madness where the team who won the OT coin flip won the game. Nothing changed after that and that was literally a CCG.

Regardless, I've long said OT should be the 4th quarter all over again. 15 minute period and however it ends is however it ends. I've never liked sudden death in the NFL. It doesn't fit with the way the game is played like it does in hockey, or like it would in soccer.

I might go to my grave pissed off that Todd Bowles called a blitz in that situation against the NFL's best quarterback against the blitz this season. When it mattered most, the guy just couldn't help himself. He loves calling blitzes and he was gonna take everyone down with him if it got burned.

13 hours ago, Cujo said:

 

RUN IT BACK! (just round off the Bengals digits)

 

 

Would be super appropriate really since it the Bengals now who have this generation's Joe Cool.

Big Ben going out Dan Marino style.

19 minutes ago, DoctorWhom said:

What an anticlimactic Mike McCarthy way to end it. 

 

I think I  get what they were going for. Obviously 49ers weren't expecting a run, let alone with Dak. 

But he either needed to run towards the sideline or drop down like 5 yards sooner. He got to greedy. 

 

Also when he slide, couldn't the 49ers have just refused to touch him as a way to run out the clock? 

When a QB begins to slide, the play is dead at that moment. So the answer to that question is no, it doesn't work that way.

With Bengals vs. Titans and Bills vs. Chiefs widely expected...wonder how many times we're gonna hear about the latter game being the "true" AFC-CG in the coming week, fair or not.

I'm irrationally bothered that the last play Josh Allen is going to play tonight ended up robbing him of a perfect passer rating.

20/24, 306 yds, 4 TD, 0 INT = 158.3 passer rating

After the last passing play, however, he's going to end up at 21/25, 307 yds, 5 TD, 0 INT, and a 157.4 rating. His YPA dropped from 12.75 to 12.24, so that's why (12.5 is the minimum required to be eligible for a perfect QB rating).

Damn. We were so close. Only three perfect passer ratings in playoff history, last one coming in 2003.

Amazing how something as simple as orange socks instead of black elevates the Bengals uniforms significantly, and that's even with the acknowledgment that black socks themselves would've been just fine.

I feel sad. This absolute insane confluence of circumstances, leading us not only to where the final game of the season could've ended in a mutually beneficial tie but that we also were literal seconds away from that actually happening...odds are, this will never happen again. It's cool to witness a rare circumstance when it's happening but it's sad once it's over and you'll never (expect to) experience it again.

1 hour ago, Crabcake said:

and probably beat the Patriots in the AFC Championship game to do it because there is no joy in life and there most certainly isn't any joy in football.

Even if Tom Brady is no longer with the Patriots, there's always plenty of joy to be had in the Patriots losing in the playoffs. I mean, 'mate, you're a Ravens fan, you've faced the Patriots four times in the playoffs in recent years while never once facing the Chiefs (usually 'cuz you lose before you get to them, admittedly). I don't know how you could even feel this way. 

Unless what you're saying here is that a Patriots/Chiefs AFC-CG in and of itself is already a lose-lose for everybody else, no matter who wins it. I could understand that POV a bit better, but while I will fully acknowledge having biases here (and last year's Super Bowl isn't one of them, I swear), I find these Chiefs teams a whole hell of a lot more tolerable than I ever found those Patriots teams. Frankly, when the Chiefs are on their game, they're really fun to watch and I've never been able to muster up any real disliking for them. Of course there is Tyreek Hill over there who's human rights record has a few undesirable notes on it, to say the least...

14 minutes ago, Dynasty said:

I don't know if the Bucs are just allergic to SNF or the Saints know every detail about Tampa. Two straight sweeps for New Orleans... holy hell.

Being down our top 4 receivers and top running back - losing three of those players during the game - definitely doesn't help. This was like the Black Knight trying to defeat King Arthur after King Arthur had already hacked off both arms and one of his legs.

The real problem with the 2PC attempt - although this isn't intrinsically a "2PC" issue - is that they scored too early. Even if they convert it, is anybody betting against Rodgers getting into field goal range with 42 seconds and a timeout to work with? He did it in even less time against the Niners earlier this season. I understand taking the chance to score the touchdown when you see the endzone open in front of you, I really do, and obviously there's no guarantee you'll score on a later down anyway. Regardless, once you've scored in that situation, I too would rather kick the extra point and see what happens from there.

I had less of an issue doing it against Pittsburgh two weeks ago because that really was an "all or nothing" play for both teams there. Barring a kickoff return, the Steelers were screwed if the Ravens convert the 2PC. Green Bay...probably still wins.

While I still don't like the jerseys, I will say they do look better (to me) when actually being worn by somebody than they did in that leaked image. Might just be damning with faint praise though.

2 hours ago, Digby said:

Was pleasantly surprised that ESPN reported on Enes Kanter's criticism of LeBron and Nike during the Lakers/Celtics game the other night, but then the sideline reporter threw it back to Doris Burke and Mike Breen, and they totally ruined it. The real problem is that Kanter didn't privately talk to LeBron first? As if LeBron is taking calls from Enes Kanter? Pretty embarrassing and feckless.

Well, that and the fact that Doris Burke took exception to Kanter making Lebron kinda/sorta the "face" of things, like Lebron didn't out himself as a massive China stooge the moment his slacktivism on the subject began to hurt his bank account.

5 hours ago, Lights Out said:

Speaking of branding disasters, Aston Villa, Burnley and West Ham United all have almost the exact same uniform. So do Brentford and Southampton.

 

You can add Bologna, Crotone, Genoa, and Cagliari in Italy as well.

There might be subtle enough differences on some of those kits just based on which season those pictures might be from, but if you didn't know which team any of these players played for (I purposely chose pictures that didn't show club crests for this reason), you'd have a of a time knowing which one was which. And there are years, like last year, when all three are in the same league.

EDIT - apparently I don't know how to properly "hide" photos on this new forum design.

EDIT #2 - add Cagliari to that as well. Actually four teams last year in Serie A with almost identical kit concepts. 

I'm afraid to make some comment here because I just know the next step in all of this is that the TB12 Method also uses some pseudoscientific "vaccine-in-effect" concept and Brady's gonna get outed in the worst way eventually.

That being said, give me the Beasley's and Cousins's of the world. They might be stupid but at least everyone knows they're stupid. Rodgers thought he could pull the wool on everyone's eyes with clever wordplay and then just bank on COVID not being a problem from there.

17 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

The New England dynasty's greatest strength was Tom Brady getting paid below market.

I would argue that you didn't quite finish the point. The Patriots' (and now Bucs') biggest strength is Tom Brady being married to someone with an even greater net worth than him. That's a luxury basically nobody else has that I can think of, in any sport.