NFL 2016: The Regular Season Thread

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Yeah....I said last year was my last with the NFL, but I think it's this season. My team is perpetually bad, the Patriots are the longest NFL dynasty in history, the commercials suck, Thursday games suck (especially when they're on Saturday), the politics suck, and the concussions and subsequent brain damage really suck.

 

I'd be out now but I can't seem to cancel my Sunday Ticket subscription.

[ninersdd]

This happened during the Bills game: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-frustrated-are-bills-fans-someone-tossed-a-sex-toy-onto-the-field-201943695.html

[Sport]

I swear Belichick just gets bored and drops guys to challenge himself. It's like playing Madden on the hardest level, getting too good to maintain your interest, so then you try to win the Super Bowl with the worst team in the game. 

[Cosmic]

8 minutes ago, ninersdd said:

This happened during the Bills game: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-frustrated-are-bills-fans-someone-tossed-a-sex-toy-onto-the-field-201943695.html

I'm in phone, so my internet is too slow to watch the videos, but not mentioned in the article: the dildo had Tom Brady's name written on it.

[Crabcake]

31 minutes ago, DG_Now said:

New England's defense isn't even that good. They realize they don't need it to get a 2 seed. They'll regret that decision when San Diego upsets them in the playoffs.

please please please please

[Rj0498]

I wonder if anyone felt this way back in the 80s about niners winning constantly or the 70s when the Steelers won a lot just out of curiosity what makes the pats dominance worse than those teams I mentioned

[CS85]

3 hours ago, Rj0498 said:

I wonder if anyone felt this way back in the 80s about niners winning constantly or the 70s when the Steelers won a lot just out of curiosity what makes the pats dominance worse than those teams I mentioned

 

1. The NFL was still romantic & coming into its own during those years.  It was hand-in-hand with the peak of television's popularity, and the media wasn't out to destroy athletes.
2. The current NFL is so over-produced, overprotective of quarterbacks, over-managed, and destroyed by replays, reviews, & rule changes these days that the quality of the product has dwindled into a near-unwatchable state over the last 7 or 8 years.
3. Fantasy Football is at its apex of obnoxious popularity, being force fed ad nauseam to any and all consumers of football.  Between it and Madden more fans than ever think they know how to run teams better than actual General Managers, and are slaves to stats and stats alone.  Very few fans watch NFL games for the stories of teams and appreciation of the sport anymore; they are all in it for themselves and their stupid fantasy teams.
4. NFL players are making all the wrong headlines for beating their wives, beating their children, murdering people, and killing themselves.  The NFL's response is to slap a sticker on some helmets, change promotional materials, and smugly advertise PINK OCTOBER MONTH and Play60 like nothing ever happened.
5. A great deal of players from the golden age of the NFL's legendary era have come forward as broken husks of men, their brains rotting from years of concussions being a "rung bell" and improper care during a dangerous game.  It's a remarkably uncomfortable grey area that the NFL wishes outsiders never knew about, but now there's no going back - football is an inherently deadly & life-altering sport, a few steps removed from deathmatches at the Colosseum.
6. All the while these controversies have played out, the Patriots (run by a grim-faced, agenda-indifferent football scholar) have had seasons of 12 wins or more 8 times since 2006, and are likely on their way to another in 2016.  They've been in 7 AFC Championship games, been in 4 Super Bowls, and held up the Lombardi trophy only once - all with rosters composed of cast-offs, reclamation projects, or subtly excellent draft picks.  Their teams are businesslike and not remotely Hollywood (outside of Brady and the occasional Randy Moss).  Meanwhile one of their biggest stars is arrested for murder, the crown jewel of the league Tom Brady is implicated in DeflateGate, and even with Brady given a month's vacation, the Patriots won 3 of their first 4 out of sheer NFL spite. 

TL;DR:  

 

The Patriots have become the unlikeable benchmark of consistent excellence with a team mostly composed of castoffs & no-names, spiting all NFL attempts at glitz & glamour, & gruffly dismissing their obvious heavy-handed dips into the well of bending the rules (or outright cheating), all during an era of NFL controversy where the game is secondary to the headlines, the players are secondary to the fantasy stats, and the sport is secondary to the profits.

[2001mark]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

I swear Belichick just gets bored and drops guys to challenge himself. It's like playing Madden on the hardest level, getting too good to maintain your interest, so then you try to win the Super Bowl with the worst team in the game. 

I wouldn't be shocked if Collins had begun chatting about money, why else would someone essentially be cut after week 8.   

Myself with Madden owner mode, I cut anyone who hits age 30 except for my kickers.  Spreads the wealth of my built up players around the league + challenges me to keep developing younger & cheaper players.

[Sport]

yesterday my friend joked that we were watching commercials periodically interrupted by a football game. He's right. Watching an NFL game is not fun anymore. 3 and out, punt, 120 seconds of commercials, holding penalty, dump off pass, injury , field goal, 120 seconds of commericals rinse and repeat. A big play happens? You can’t trust it’ll stand until you look around for a flag, watch the scorebug and hope the yellow graphic appears or doesn’t appear, and then the TV replays confirm that it was actually a catch (whatever that is). Then 120 more seconds of commercials.

 

The league is eating itself.

[Crabcake]

53 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

yesterday my friend joked that we were watching commercials periodically interrupted by a football game. He's right. Watching an NFL game is not fun anymore. 3 and out, punt, 120 seconds of commercials, holding penalty, dump off pass, injury , field goal, 120 seconds of commericals rinse and repeat. A big play happens? You can’t trust it’ll stand until you look around for a flag, watch the scorebug and hope the yellow graphic appears or doesn’t appear, and then the TV replays confirm that it was actually a catch (whatever that is). Then 120 more seconds of commercials.

 

The league is eating itself.

Hear hear

[2001mark]

1 hour ago, McCarthy said:

yesterday my friend joked that we were watching commercials periodically interrupted by a football game. He's right. Watching an NFL game is not fun anymore. 3 and out, punt, 120 seconds of commercials, holding penalty, dump off pass, injury , field goal, 120 seconds of commericals rinse and repeat. A big play happens? You can’t trust it’ll stand until you look around for a flag, watch the scorebug and hope the yellow graphic appears or doesn’t appear, and then the TV replays confirm that it was actually a catch (whatever that is). Then 120 more seconds of commercials.

 

The league is eating itself.

And in between whistles & snaps all we f'n get is Troy Aikman &/or Phil Simms not stfu'ing for a f'n milisecond.

 

'Now I don't know about you Joe, but right here, this commercial sets the tone with that last spot.  If people really want to see what a car on 4 tires looks like driving through the desert to impress, that's the spot right there.  No question they've been working on that ad all offseason & now it's paying dividends, whoops missed the snap can I still keep yapping?'

'I know we've talked about that car all week Jeem, looks like that desert road that no one's driven on before or since is impressing me with its connection to that car's handling.  Maybe I should've driven a car like that when I played Jeem, Coach Parcells might've smiled at me whoops missed the snap there Jeem, he might've smiled at me more often.'

'Boy you said it my friend, hope you're watching me in a few months right around the corner, like Amen Corner, when I hog the mic at Augusta.  Whoa... Brady on that last play just gave the Patriots 44yds, yet we'll wait for the replay to make sure.'

[The_Admiral]

3 hours ago, Rj0498 said:

I wonder if anyone felt this way back in the 80s about niners winning constantly or the 70s when the Steelers won a lot just out of curiosity what makes the pats dominance worse than those teams I mentioned

 

To add to everything CS85 said, the fact that it's Boston, which can't have a sports team be good without thinking they invented the sport.

[Dynasty]

8 hours ago, the admiral said:

31. Chicago

32. Cleveland

 

Eh, their teams are in the World Series at the moment. I doubt the fans care too much.

[CS85]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/the-nfl-is-becoming-more-disturbing-than-appealing-and-tv-viewers-are-tuning-out/2016/10/31/71466610-9f95-11e6-a44d-cc2898cfab06_story.html?tid=sm_tw

 

It’s no great mystery as to why the NFL’s ratings have been dropping: Viewers don’t especially like the stories they’re watching.

The numbers are striking. Through seven weeks, ratings were off for every prime-time incarnation of the NFL: “Sunday Night Football” by 19 percent, “Monday Night Football” by 24 percent and the dreaded Thursday night game by 18 percent. A variety of factors may be contributing to this dive, from the election to so-called “fragmentation” of mass media. But none of the explanations make as much sense as the simplest one: The NFL has put less appealing and more disturbing action on the screen, and viewers are turning it off.

Historian Michael Oriard has observed that the great attraction of the league is that it’s “the true reality TV,” in its most vital form. But the NFL is beginning to seem over-managed and over-staged. Constant commercials and interruptions by refs waving their arms do not produce “appointment viewing;” rather, they produce punts, ties and stasis. Look at the standings: A cluster of 18 teams, indistinguishable save for the colors of their shirts, are at .500 or worse and five more at 4-3. In other words, 23 teams are not must-see-TV to anyone but their most fervent fans. The constant advertisements and hail of yellow flags from overly officious officials make a PBS series seem fast-moving, with a clearer story line.

 

The NFL’s overemphasis on “brand” and “shield” has meant increasingly petty attention to discipline and uniformity, which is sucking away dynamism and rendering it joyless. The league is picking apart its own product with stoppages, until it’s hard for the viewer to separate the major from the minor offense: According to NFLpenalties.com, officials have thrown 1,996 yellow flags, every one of which means a halt. An analyst at The Big Lead ran a database check of profootballreference.com and discovered that offensive holding penalties have increased by fully 43 percent since 2011, and defensive pass interference is up by 45 percent over the same period. Now throw in the new emphasis on curbing celebrations with unsportsmanlike conduct flags. No wonder there are so many cutaways to commercials or to suits in the owner’s box.

[4_tattoos]

3 hours ago, Dolphins Dynasty said:

 

Eh, their teams are in the World Series at the moment. I doubt the fans care too much.

White Sox fans probably don't give a sh**

[Rj0498]

6 hours ago, CS85 said:

 

1. The NFL was still romantic & coming into its own during those years.  It was hand-in-hand with the peak of television's popularity, and the media wasn't out to destroy athletes.
2. The current NFL is so over-produced, overprotective of quarterbacks, over-managed, and destroyed by replays, reviews, & rule changes these days that the quality of the product has dwindled into a near-unwatchable state over the last 7 or 8 years.
3. Fantasy Football is at its apex of obnoxious popularity, being force fed ad nauseam to any and all consumers of football.  Between it and Madden more fans than ever think they know how to run teams better than actual General Managers, and are slaves to stats and stats alone.  Very few fans watch NFL games for the stories of teams and appreciation of the sport anymore; they are all in it for themselves and their stupid fantasy teams.
4. NFL players are making all the wrong headlines for beating their wives, beating their children, murdering people, and killing themselves.  The NFL's response is to slap a sticker on some helmets, change promotional materials, and smugly advertise PINK OCTOBER MONTH and Play60 like nothing ever happened.
5. A great deal of players from the golden age of the NFL's legendary era have come forward as broken husks of men, their brains rotting from years of concussions being a "rung bell" and improper care during a dangerous game.  It's a remarkably uncomfortable grey area that the NFL wishes outsiders never knew about, but now there's no going back - football is an inherently deadly & life-altering sport, a few steps removed from deathmatches at the Colosseum.
6. All the while these controversies have played out, the Patriots (run by a grim-faced, agenda-indifferent football scholar) have had seasons of 12 wins or more 8 times since 2006, and are likely on their way to another in 2016.  They've been in 7 AFC Championship games, been in 4 Super Bowls, and held up the Lombardi trophy only once - all with rosters composed of cast-offs, reclamation projects, or subtly excellent draft picks.  Their teams are businesslike and not remotely Hollywood (outside of Brady and the occasional Randy Moss).  Meanwhile one of their biggest stars is arrested for murder, the crown jewel of the league Tom Brady is implicated in DeflateGate, and even with Brady given a month's vacation, the Patriots won 3 of their first 4 out of sheer NFL spite. 

TL;DR:  

 

The Patriots have become the unlikeable benchmark of consistent excellence with a team mostly composed of castoffs & no-names, spiting all NFL attempts at glitz & glamour, & gruffly dismissing their obvious heavy-handed dips into the well of bending the rules (or outright cheating), all during an era of NFL controversy where the game is secondary to the headlines, the players are secondary to the fantasy stats, and the sport is secondary to the profits.

So basically they are nfls st Louis cardinals/sf giants?

[Rj0498]

also WHY CAN'T THIS OLINE BLOCK ANYTHING?

[Cosmic]

This is a league where a flag was thrown this year because a player pretended to shoot a bow-and-arrow.  That's not the whole problem, obviously, but that's where officiating is at.

[ninersdd]

42 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

This is a league where a flag was thrown this year because a player pretended to shoot a bow-and-arrow.  That's not the whole problem, obviously, but that's where officiating is at.

Also a guy on the Giants got fined 12,000 for pretending to take a photo of his teammate who got a TD.

[CS85]

So that was not expected.