Sykotyk

I think people are forgetting the FIRST year of the Brady era. The tuck rule? The injury and whether it was going to be Brady or Bledsoe playing in the Super Bowl? Going against 'the Greatest Show on Turf' who was the darlings of SB XXXVI but quickly became the Evil Empire because of how explosive they were under Warner leading to the biggest underdog ever winning (18 points at the time)? No. Brady had such a ridiculous jock riding from the start it was nauseating. Rather than just letting it fester and be tolerable, the NFL rode that train for two decades. But the NFL does that with every 'star'. They're either your favorite player or you loathe their existence. I don't know how the NFL marketing continues to do it like that. But, people do forget the long stretch where the Patriots were just 'good' and not great under Brady. They won three Super Bowls in 4 years (Rams, DNP, Panthers, and Eagles). Then went NINE YEARS without a Super Bowl title. I know in that time they had the undefeated season, and two losses to the Giants. But the NFL felt 'wide open' during that time. Teams figured out Brady and Belichick. They cakewalked through the East most years, but they struggled in the playoffs against great teams again and again. And the Giants and Eli (the Manning that Brady couldn't beat) did them in twice in those 9 years. AND THEN, the NFL got back on the Brady Train. Four SB appearances in 5 years, 3 titles and one Philly Special loss. Absolutely repulsive praise of all things Brady and the Patriots. As if the rest of the league didn't exist. Because as much as NFL promoted Rodgers, nobody liked him. He was very unlikeable and Titletown or not, NFL just shuddered at the thought of him doing anything. Say what you want about Favre, but he at least had character as the Packers QB. And in that long span at the end, the only SB Brady didn't get to go to was the Manning farewell game where his entire defense hoisted his desiccated corpse off the ground and carried him to a Super Bowl title. There used to be the claim that the NFL Salary Cap brought 'parity' to the league. In hindsight, it never did. Teams that became successful stayed successful. And one-off blips like Carolina, San Francisco, Carolina, Seattle, etc, could jump up and make a title and even win it one year, weren't going to go against the NFL buzzsaw for too long. Because the Salary Cap doesn't create parity. You overpay for one year success and dismantle (looking at you Rams) or you cycle through mediocrity for years with the occasional blip.

It's not whether the NFL is favoring teams... it's just that when it appears the NFL is favoring teams that it hurts the sport. The NFL favored the Patriots since the first storybook season of Brady. And now they've jumped to Mahomes being the 'evil empire' that fans love to hate and have promoted them as that team. The NFL doesn't realize that they lose fans to this appearance every year. The fact the population still grows and therefore their numbers continue to increase... they're doing it at the expense of the fans that were there through it all.

One more TD and we have the highest scoring SB in history. 75 in SB29 was the highest. 49ers 49-26 over Chargers.

Phoenix is a huge transplant market, so a lot of Chiefs and Eagles fans already live there. So, getting to the Super Bowl isn't as 'last minute travel decision' as it is for some. It's just the ticket cost. And after the Pats-Seahawks fiasco with tickets, short selling them isn't as likely now. So, more 'true fans' are able to get their hands on them.

At first I thought it might be inspired by the Redbird Capital logo. But, either one they're using look nothing like that. I agree. I can't think what that fleur-de-lis with a spearhead(?) going through it has anything to do with Vegas or snakes in general. A fleur-de-lis that's a snakehead would've been kinda cool even if unexplainable. But this, is just odd. Everything about the Vegas team feels like such a swing and a miss.

So the USFL schedule came out and somehow it's even worse than I imagined it could be. Rather than being a 'host city' for teams.... they're doing a tour. Each week at a different venue for all four games. It's hard to take this seriously. I thought I might get to go to a few games in Canton. Yeah, in June. The last three weeks of the regular season are all played in Canton. Week 1 - Memphis Week 2 - Memphis Week 3 - Birmingham Week 4 - Detroit Week 5 - Detroit Week 6 - Memphis Week 7 - Birmingham Week 8 - Canton Week 9 - Canton Week 10 - Canton (edit) Wait... the USFL website is completely screwed up in how they're showing the schedule. https://www.theusfl.com/schedule

Depends which direction the AFL takes. If they go back to their original summer schedule and leave the late winter and spring schedule for the XFL, it opens up a lot more options. One, the original plan for the AFL was to be an offseason tenant for NBA and NHL venues. So, the XFL markets will be done about the same time the AFL is starting. The USFL isn't much of a threat except for Birmingham (doubtful for the AFL anyways), Memphis (also doubtful), Canton (that old arena in town is not an option, at all), or Detroit (not likely to be an option as the Fury never had success at the Palace and without Illitch's support the Drive wouldn't have either). Two, the AFL has some key markets, if small, where in house attendance will be great, and some interest from NFL owners once again. If NFL bylaws haven't changed, the NFL owners are once again allowed to own AFL teams in their home markets. I don't think we'll see Jones ever have another one after what happened with the Desperados and the knockoffs that tried to play afterwards. But, it's a possibility. If they are starting new and either enticing old markets back or starting competing teams I could see: Orlando, Tampa Bay, Phoenix, Denver, Los Angeles, Des Moines, Albany, Nashville, Cleveland and Indiana as frontrunners for markets that had good numbers before, and if they actually market as 'big league' will return to the arena to support the new teams (some preferably with throwback monikers and not all starting with new names). Other markets could be St. Louis, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, Columbus, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans, and even Little Rock. If they're thinking of other small markets to help fill in the 16, there's Spokane, Loveland CO, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Norfolk, Fort Wayne, Worcester MA, and Rockford IL.

I remember the only real options were Tennessee Copperheads, Tennessee Titans, Tennessee Wolves, Pioneers, and a few others. I remember at the time the league had basically stated somewhere that it would not be a 'collective noun' name. Had to end in an S. As for Tennessee Vipers... the Tennessee Valley Vipers already existed in Huntsville, Alabama at the time just a short drive down I-65. No way was that name going to be a realistic option. Even if it was available, they weren't going to take an AF2 name if they were trying to be taken seriously. I also remember a ton of pushback by fans not wanting to give up the Oilers name as Tennessee was the mythical home state of the Clampetts who were from Tennessee when they struck it rich from oil. Even if it were fictitious, it was a contention made back then.

I thought there was one, but I was wrong. Searched the whole city and the biggest stadium I could see probably only holds about 6-7000. Even just outside the city, nothing seemed big enough. Old Miller Park (whatever name it is now) might have the space for a football field. But, not sure.

Bone Shakers.... What?! There's no way that should ever be approved. All are horrible. You have to a) think how kids will perceive it, b) how teenagers perceive it, and c) how the adults at the game perceive it. Bone Shakers and Sawbones can't be, for little kids. Ghost Hounds could be a cutesy name if it goes casper the friendly ghost way. But, Screaming Alpacas or Rail Frogs seems the 'safe' likely choices. But what the hell does Alpacas have to do with Frederick? I'm guessing Rail Frogs has something to do with rail lines in the area? big port or something?

I hope it had some market analysis and not just the whims of the owner. Not a good road to go down. If the league's co-owner put a team in a 10,000 seat venue because they 'wanted to' then there's some cause for alarm. Nothing about Las Vegas looks promising from a sports standpoint. You have a very successful and first time Golden Knights, and now NFL in a giant stadium that's exclusive for them. You have a very successful AAA baseball team in the suburbia that is the southwest edge of town. You have a new minor league hockey team playing in Henderson as an affiliate of the aforementioned popular first major league team in town. You have the Las Vegas Lights soccer team. A moderately successful WNBA team. And you have this huge push to get all these other teams. An XFL/USFL/AAF/AFL team is not going to break in the way they did when they had nothing but AAA at Cashman and ECHL at the Orleans. I wouldn't want to be in Las Vegas as a minor league team, at all. You are not going to get attention right now. There's also an attitude change in the city that they are big league, and an XFL team just a couple years after getting the NFL is not going to go as well as it did in 2001. I just see imminent failure with this Las Vegas team. San Diego, an Ohio city, Milwaukee, Denver, etc seem like major markets that would've accepted an XFL team as they have a dry spell with their NFL teams or lack one inside their city entirely (Green Bay may be their fan support, but Milwaukee is still teamless and might attach to a team the way the city once did with the Mustangs in the AFL).

Wasn't sure where to put this. But this looks like the best place for Fox Soccer's MLS tweet:

But was the Fox money an investment in the company (USFL) or a rights fee for broadcasts? Because if they Fox partly owns the league and puts the games on TV at no cost to themselves, it's hard to say that the investment is a failure. Because we wouldn't know whether Fox considers it a win or not for the TV revenue. Go look at MLS rights fees to see how much live TV is coveted now compared to anything else. It's staggering how even the XFL 2001 would've been highly sought for their numbers when in 2001 they were a laughingstock of television. Today, a million live eyeballs would mean commercial space is going to be seen compared to every other form of entertainment that either gets skipped, or outright bypassed by subscriptions being ad-free. Fox doesn't care about the league. They care about TV ratings and a measuring contest against the other networks for ratings.

I've been to a few. As a photographer, I hate the camo jerseys. Not only did Waterloo (wearing maroon) wear the camo jerseys, it was also October, so had the pink socks for Breast Cancer Awareness. I mean.... tell me what number this is from a distance?

It's very cheap. But that's been their plan from the beginning. Travel was going to kill them. With the Year 1 setup, they basically survived just on the TV revenue and didn't care much about attendance. To grow, though, they need to branch out. Picking Canton but not giving Canton a team seems a bit odd. Yeah, some would glom onto the Steelers Lite, but not having a Cleveland themed team as well missed the boat. I know the USFL never had a Cleveland team, but a Cleveland-Pittsburgh rivalry with a hub in Canton would've done well.

Most teams just wear the jersey they're expected to wear. The Cowboys are expected to wear white, so they will wear white if they're home. The rarity is wearing white such as the Steelers and (I think) Bucs did. Pretty Sure New England did in SB20 as well. But that was because they made deep runs playing only on the road and wanted to keep the same uniforms they wore all playoffs long.

Was a huge, huge fan of the Browns as a kid. Even with the move and everything, I stuck with them through all the bad years. When I could, I got season tickets. Sat through years of crap. Dropped my season tickets the year of 1-15 for two reasons. Had my first kid, and couldn't go to many games if any at all. Plus, I saw that 1-15 season coming. The next year, it disgusted me that fans were openly cheering for 0-16 for the #1 pick. Which was Baker Mayfield. Was able to get season tickets again after two years without. But it was different the next time around. This offseason, though, was the end of the super fandom for me. It wasn't just DW, but just the way they a) treated Mayfield last season while injured (team and fans), and b) the way they tried to whitewash the decision to go after Watson. And then, on top of all that, the contract and salary cap hit was just nuts. I was never sold on him when he was in Houston. Before all of the that. So, even with season tickets, didn't go to a single game this year. Sold most of them but most at a loss. Not renewing for next year. And I'm fine with it. I'll watch on TV, but the team isn't getting ticket money from me as long as Watson is there.

I'm about the same spot. The rematch doesn't intrigue me. And the SF-PHI matchup is probably the least interesting option out of the NFC. DAL-PHI would've been a better one. Buffalo-KC would've been the better option. But honestly it's just KC burnout. Tired of them. Don't really care at this point for them than I did a few years after Brady started playing for the Pats.

In that context, yes. He came in as the 'overlooked' QB in his class. Put up great numbers and seemed like he was possibly the best of the bunch. But then always finds a way to lose a playoff game.

No. Because Marino made a Super Bowl in his second year and then never made it back. If anyone is the new Marino, it would have to be Burrow if he fails to make it again.

Cincinnati has what it takes to beat Kansas City. Last year wasn't a fluke. Kansas City seemed so off, even before the ankle injury by Mahomes. The Bills though, need to do some soul searching. Allen's prime years before his new contract takes affect are for naught. Next year, their salary cap is going to be a lot tighter to try and win. And they are not a playoff capable team. They weren't even built to win in the weather Buffalo claims to favor. They needed a dome for a guy like Allen. Big playoff games in weather he's not going to be the guy.

The goal of football is to move a ball down a field and score points while trying to stop your opponent from doing the same. The goal of wrestling is to score points or win via pin, but subduing your opponent by holding them down. The goal of this is to severely injure your opponent until they are unable to stand. One of these is not like the other.

This bugs me because it comes off as a possessive use of an apostrophe. But, it's actually just using the apostrophe to denote that it's replacing missing letters for pronunciation. Like Shouldn't (which doesn't even shorten the word other than the missing space) or O'er in the national anthem or Ne'er do well. Or the infamous O'clock.

Shame that Istanbul couldn't play this year. Seems like they were angling for an 18-team league with three six-team divisions. Still find it strange that Barcelona isn't with the other western teams. I'm guessing travel to Barcelona is difficult no matter where they're placed. Is the southern route through Europe that much faster than reaching Western Germany?

I don't think I've even seen that in a high school game. Even if they're kicking, after the 2nd or 3rd, they're going for two or swapping out the kicker. According to ESPN, no kicker in NFL history missed four PATs in a single game. Since stats have been kept in 1932.