2014 NFL Season Thread

[ninersdd]

I have this feeling Seattle is going to rip my Niners this Thursday ending their playoff hopes.

It will be close. The Niners have obviously played them better at home then up north. Still it just doesn't bode well barely beating a team in disarray and with an inept defense. It seems like there have been several incidents of the Niners over the past year at home and barely winning or choking it away when they should've crushed their opponent(vs ATL last year, vs CHI, STL, and WSH this year). It scares me that Seattle is a defense getting healthier and rounding into form. I think we win though tomorrow in a a field goal filled game.

[BBTV]

So a week after being fined for not talking to the media, Marshawn Lynch took questions from reporters in the locker room after the Arizona game and responded to just about every questions with "...yeah"

Thanks for your time, Marshawn.

I don't know why the NFL is so hell bent on making these guys talk to media. It's painfully obvious he doesn't want to talk to them, and when he does he has nothing to say. Who does this serve?

I agree. This is one thing I just can't care about and I don't know that many fans do either. I think the outrage comes from the fact that the people who are reporting the story are the ones who are outraged and nothing offends goober sports journalists more than an athlete not talking to them.

I really don't need to know what Marshawn Lynch thought about that Field Goal Regatta from yesterday.

Maybe I care because I'm aspiring to be one of those goober sports journalists, but it's part of the job. You don't want to talk to the media Marshawn? Don't be a pro athlete, or at least don't be a notable one. Honestly, it's not hard to just answer the questions. It's at the most five minutes of your time. Just give some boilerplate answers and go home. It actually makes everyone's job harder when he either doesn't answer or does what he did yesterday.

And you're right, you probably didn't need to hear from Marshawn at all after that game. 39 yards rushing, 43 receiving, 0 TDs. Not a banner game. I guarantee the only reason anyone went over to talk to him was because of last week's fine.

If I was a Seahawks reporter, I wouldn't even bother with him at this point. You know he doesn't want to talk. You know if he does, he's going to be a terrible quote. Anybody that went with anything from that is just a glorified gossip columnist. Talk about the win, talk about the defense, talk about keeping playoff hopes alive. The only thing that he was worth is maybe a fluff humor column or something.

I don't think that is fair. Don't play a pro sport if you don't want to do something that really doesn't benefit you or your team? So I ask again, why is this even a requirement? Why should a guy be fined because he didn't want to contribute to some reporters story? Sure, it's only five minutes of his time, but why should he owe that to a reporter? That's all I'm saying.

This is dumb. Pro sports only exist because of fans. That's the whole point. Originally it was to sell tickets, now it's to sell everything.

Sports media is really the fans only connection to the players. After a game, fans may be wondering why someone did something, and it's the reporter's job to ask the question as sort of a proxy between the fan base and players. That's the whole reason there's coaches press conferences, media days, mandatory post-game sessions, etc. it is NOT to appease the newspapers or bloggers or whatever, but to appease the fans, without whom there wouldn't be a league. So it absolutely DOES benefit the team. It's the only way fans get to "know" the players (or at least know what little they want to share).

So a player refusing to talk to the media is essentially turning his back on the fans and putting up a wall. Now, if that player wanted to do his own call-in show or do a live chat or something else to make himself accessible, then cool, sort of. I think sports reporters are grossly overvalued and it's questionable whether they're even true journalists, so I have no problem cutting them out, as long as there's a viable alternative to keep the fans connected to the team. Until then, just answer the questions.

[Lee Noire]

So a week after being fined for not talking to the media, Marshawn Lynch took questions from reporters in the locker room after the Arizona game and responded to just about every questions with "...yeah"

Thanks for your time, Marshawn.

I don't know why the NFL is so hell bent on making these guys talk to media. It's painfully obvious he doesn't want to talk to them, and when he does he has nothing to say. Who does this serve?

I agree. This is one thing I just can't care about and I don't know that many fans do either. I think the outrage comes from the fact that the people who are reporting the story are the ones who are outraged and nothing offends goober sports journalists more than an athlete not talking to them.

I really don't need to know what Marshawn Lynch thought about that Field Goal Regatta from yesterday.

Maybe I care because I'm aspiring to be one of those goober sports journalists, but it's part of the job. You don't want to talk to the media Marshawn? Don't be a pro athlete, or at least don't be a notable one. Honestly, it's not hard to just answer the questions. It's at the most five minutes of your time. Just give some boilerplate answers and go home. It actually makes everyone's job harder when he either doesn't answer or does what he did yesterday.

And you're right, you probably didn't need to hear from Marshawn at all after that game. 39 yards rushing, 43 receiving, 0 TDs. Not a banner game. I guarantee the only reason anyone went over to talk to him was because of last week's fine.

If I was a Seahawks reporter, I wouldn't even bother with him at this point. You know he doesn't want to talk. You know if he does, he's going to be a terrible quote. Anybody that went with anything from that is just a glorified gossip columnist. Talk about the win, talk about the defense, talk about keeping playoff hopes alive. The only thing that he was worth is maybe a fluff humor column or something.

I don't think that is fair. Don't play a pro sport if you don't want to do something that really doesn't benefit you or your team? So I ask again, why is this even a requirement? Why should a guy be fined because he didn't want to contribute to some reporters story? Sure, it's only five minutes of his time, but why should he owe that to a reporter? That's all I'm saying.

This is dumb. Pro sports only exist because of fans. That's the whole point. Originally it was to sell tickets, now it's to sell everything.

Sports media is really the fans only connection to the players. After a game, fans may be wondering why someone did something, and it's the reporter's job to ask the question as sort of a proxy between the fan base and players. That's the whole reason there's coaches press conferences, media days, mandatory post-game sessions, etc. it is NOT to appease the newspapers or bloggers or whatever, but to appease the fans, without whom there wouldn't be a league. So it absolutely DOES benefit the team. It's the only way fans get to "know" the players (or at least know what little they want to share).

So a player refusing to talk to the media is essentially turning his back on the fans and putting up a wall. Now, if that player wanted to do his own call-in show or do a live chat or something else to make himself accessible, then cool, sort of. I think sports reporters are grossly overvalued and it's questionable whether they're even true journalists, so I have no problem cutting them out, as long as there's a viable alternative to keep the fans connected to the team. Until then, just answer the questions.

It's far from dumb. In fact it's a fair argument to the premise that players owe that time to reporters. Now you are right about the game being nothing without fans, and I can understand some fans wanting to feel that connection to the players of their teams. Personally, I don't care what the players have to say. I just want the team to win.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

I have this feeling Seattle is going to rip my Niners this Thursday ending their playoff hopes.

Their playoff hopes will be fine. There's Detroit, division loser of Philly/Dallas, Seattle, San Fran fighting for 2 wild cards. Regardless of this week, it's still anyone's for the taking.

[IceCap]

Maybe the NFL outta put in a rule that if a division champion is below .500 then they forfeit their playoff spot. It happens so rarely that it's probably not necessary, but we're looking at a 6-10 team hosting a playoff game fercryingoutloud. It wouldn't hurt to make such a rule.

Eh. The 7-9 Seahawks were a hoot. The 6-10 Falcons will be too. It happening rarely is precisely why you don't need extra rules. You need an entire division to be historically bad to pull it off, and that doesn't come around very often. So if a 6-10 team makes the playoffs once in a blue moon? Not a big deal.

[BBTV]

So a week after being fined for not talking to the media, Marshawn Lynch took questions from reporters in the locker room after the Arizona game and responded to just about every questions with "...yeah"

Thanks for your time, Marshawn.

I don't know why the NFL is so hell bent on making these guys talk to media. It's painfully obvious he doesn't want to talk to them, and when he does he has nothing to say. Who does this serve?

I agree. This is one thing I just can't care about and I don't know that many fans do either. I think the outrage comes from the fact that the people who are reporting the story are the ones who are outraged and nothing offends goober sports journalists more than an athlete not talking to them.

I really don't need to know what Marshawn Lynch thought about that Field Goal Regatta from yesterday.

Maybe I care because I'm aspiring to be one of those goober sports journalists, but it's part of the job. You don't want to talk to the media Marshawn? Don't be a pro athlete, or at least don't be a notable one. Honestly, it's not hard to just answer the questions. It's at the most five minutes of your time. Just give some boilerplate answers and go home. It actually makes everyone's job harder when he either doesn't answer or does what he did yesterday.

And you're right, you probably didn't need to hear from Marshawn at all after that game. 39 yards rushing, 43 receiving, 0 TDs. Not a banner game. I guarantee the only reason anyone went over to talk to him was because of last week's fine.

If I was a Seahawks reporter, I wouldn't even bother with him at this point. You know he doesn't want to talk. You know if he does, he's going to be a terrible quote. Anybody that went with anything from that is just a glorified gossip columnist. Talk about the win, talk about the defense, talk about keeping playoff hopes alive. The only thing that he was worth is maybe a fluff humor column or something.

I don't think that is fair. Don't play a pro sport if you don't want to do something that really doesn't benefit you or your team? So I ask again, why is this even a requirement? Why should a guy be fined because he didn't want to contribute to some reporters story? Sure, it's only five minutes of his time, but why should he owe that to a reporter? That's all I'm saying.

This is dumb. Pro sports only exist because of fans. That's the whole point. Originally it was to sell tickets, now it's to sell everything.

Sports media is really the fans only connection to the players. After a game, fans may be wondering why someone did something, and it's the reporter's job to ask the question as sort of a proxy between the fan base and players. That's the whole reason there's coaches press conferences, media days, mandatory post-game sessions, etc. it is NOT to appease the newspapers or bloggers or whatever, but to appease the fans, without whom there wouldn't be a league. So it absolutely DOES benefit the team. It's the only way fans get to "know" the players (or at least know what little they want to share).

So a player refusing to talk to the media is essentially turning his back on the fans and putting up a wall. Now, if that player wanted to do his own call-in show or do a live chat or something else to make himself accessible, then cool, sort of. I think sports reporters are grossly overvalued and it's questionable whether they're even true journalists, so I have no problem cutting them out, as long as there's a viable alternative to keep the fans connected to the team. Until then, just answer the questions.

It's far from dumb. In fact it's a fair argument to the premise that players owe that time to reporters. Now you are right about the game being nothing without fans, and I can understand some fans wanting to feel that connection to the players of their teams. Personally, I don't care what the players have to say. I just want the team to win.

The players don't own that time to reporters. They owe it to the fans. The fans want answers and get them from questions asked by reporters. I think that the overwhelming majority of fans want a little bit more than simply watching guys play on TV and never hear from them, especially after they have a great game.

[Still MIGHTY]

Yeah, BBTV's got everything I was going to say pretty much down.

Sports reporters exist for the fans. Reporters give the fans what the players thought or some insight to how their team is operating, and reporters ask questions or criticisms of the players/coaches because the fans can't directly.

If fans were strictly about who won and who lost and how many yards someone had, we'd just publish box scores and get rid of us all.

And it's not about the players "owing" time to reporters. It's not a favor. It's become requirement, for both sides. There's a large chunk of reporters that would rather not speak to the players either. However, if they don't have quotes in a story, their editors would get on their ass about it or fire them because, again, that's what the fans (the readers/viewers/consumers of media) want. The leagues are also about pleasing the fans, so they make it a requirement for the players to be available to speak, because, again, that's what the fans want.

[The_Admiral]

But with Twitter and all that, the sports reporters aren't the only conduit between players and fans anymore.

I wouldn't mind giving out some waivers or exemptions for media availability. Refresh my memory, but isn't Marshawn Lynch like legit functionally illiterate or borderline retarded or something? Requiring him to make time to talk is almost cruel, especially when half his teammates will yammer to anyone who might listen. Same deal with Brian Urlacher, who whether from football or from birth had a Broca's area the size of a gnat. All those days we had to listen to "yup, yep, hmph, yep, hrmph, yup, meh, huh, mmmph, hrmp, yep" and it's like man, just let him be Brian Urlacher and let Peanut Tillman do the talking after games. Taking media availability away from the hopelessly inarticulate would take away a lot of rope from the loathsome ProFootballTalk crowd.

EDIT: ironically, Brian Urlacher later took a job in the media, where he sounded just as dim as he did after games but did turn out to be a stopped clock on the matter of Jay Cutler.

EDIT 2: holy crap, Urlacher, a true football pioneer, already did the one-word spite interview years before Marshawn Lynch did, except Urlacher's ended with "go to foxsports.com."

EDIT 3: come on, by now SOMEbody out there has synched up Lynch's interview with "Yeah" by Usher, why hasn't anyone linked to it?

[The_Admiral]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[Still MIGHTY]

But with Twitter and all that, the sports reporters aren't the only conduit between players and fans anymore.

Sure, but you've seen athlete twitter accounts.

They're either swag/money/booze, incredibly boring, or run by some agency's intern. You're not going to have them break down what went wrong on 3rd and 3 over Twitter.

[Cosmic]

If you're playing for the love of the game, go to the FXFL and nobody from the media will bother you. If you want to be well-compensated for playing football, then you have to deal with media. It's a symptom of success.

[neo_prankster]

If you're playing for the love of the game, go to the FXFL and nobody from the media will bother you. If you want to be well-compensated for playing football, then you have to deal with media. It's a symptom of success.

I completely agree. Beast Mode would be a great draw for the Los Angeles KISS of the Arena League.

[neo_prankster]

Given the Chargers' injuries on defense, they need to man up, sign Michael Sam and be on the right side of NFL history for once.

[rams80]

But with Twitter and all that, the sports reporters aren't the only conduit between players and fans anymore.

Sure, but you've seen athlete twitter accounts.

They're either swag/money/booze, incredibly boring, or run by some agency's intern. You're not going to have them break down what went wrong on 3rd and 3 over Twitter.

They don't tell you that in person either, so why ask?

[IceCap]

If you're playing for the love of the game, go to the FXFL and nobody from the media will bother you. If you want to be well-compensated for playing football, then you have to deal with media. It's a symptom of success.

Yep. If you want to play professional sports at the hightest level then you talk to the media. Part of the job.

[BBTV]

Did they just play Ultimate Warrior's music at jerrydome?

[IceCap]

The Cowboys' march to 8-8 starts here.

[Lee Noire]

Burn those damn blue jerseys!

[Dalcowboyfan92]

Burn those damn blue jerseys!

So much for people saying the curse was broken earlier this year winning back-to-back games in 'em.

...What a complete embarrassment.

[Lee Noire]

Burn those damn blue jerseys!

So much for people saying the curse was broken earlier this year winning back-to-back games in 'em.

...What a complete embarrassment.

I drank the kool aid for sure, but I was wrong. Torch them. In all seriousness they were losing that game regardless of what they had on. They had no answer for the Eagles D.