2014 NFL Season Thread

[IceCap]

The thing that makes Tom Brady likeable is his story. Guy was never expected to amount to much in the NFL and only got a shot because a more proven and established QB got hurt. He goes out and wins three Super Bowls, the first the year he took over. He's Kurt Warner cubed. It's a classic underdog story. Only problem is that he became too successful. Everyone who loved him because he came out of nowhere suddenly hated him because he became the new establishment.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I'm on vacation this week and my team hasn't been good for a generation, so I'm watching a Buffalo Bills playoff game from 1993.

Paul Maguire and Marv Albert are commentators and are great (especially Maguire), there's basically no graphics on the screen, and someone's edited out commercials/between-play replays, so it's moving along at a pretty good clip.

My favorite early-90s moment so far, however, has been 70,000 Bills fans chanting "WHOOMP THERE IT IS!!" in unison after a fumble recovery by the Bills.

[BBTV]

The thing that makes Tom Brady likeable is his story. Guy was never expected to amount to much in the NFL and only got a shot because a more proven and established QB got hurt. He goes out and wins three Super Bowls, the first the year he took over. He's Kurt Warner cubed. It's a classic underdog story. Only problem is that he became too successful. Everyone who loved him because he came out of nowhere suddenly hated him because he became the new establishment.

I think he's likable because he's quiet (off the field at least) and you don't see him on TV all the time in commercials / endorsements, you don't hear obnoxious quotes from him, he just kind of keeps to himself - he's everything that people complain about "diva wide receivers" not being.

I think people don't like him because he's a good looking guy with bajillions of dollars and a supermodel wife and is associated with Hoody, who is generally not likeable.

[Sport]

I'm on vacation this week and my team hasn't been good for a generation, so I'm watching a Buffalo Bills playoff game from 1993.

Paul Maguire and Marv Albert are commentators and are great (especially Maguire), there's basically no graphics on the screen, and someone's edited out commercials/between-play replays, so it's moving along at a pretty good clip.

My favorite early-90s moment so far, however, has been 70,000 Bills fans chanting "WHOOMP THERE IT IS!!" in unison after a fumble recovery by the Bills.

Thanks for this. I love watching old games and I watched this for 25 minutes.

Thoughts:

wow astroturf was terrible. That just looks hard as a rock and miserable with the cold weather. You can see how the game is played higher around the shoulder pads than football played on grass or field turf. No wonder Darryl Talley can't move anymore.

Pre-injury Napoleon McCallum sighting

The Jim Kelly Bills offense was incredible. They could score points in today's NFL. They were ahead of their time.

Tim Brown fumbles a ball, the officials call him down, and then ten seconds later the Raiders punt. If that happened today there'd have been five minutes of reviews and announcers rewinding the play over and over again and dissecting when he was down and if he made a football move. Replay has resulted in a lot of correct calls, but it's also slowed down the sport.

I like how the Bills put numbers on the back of their helmets in that era.

Mark Kelso's procap still looks ridiculous

A blocked extra point. I can't remember the last time I saw a missed extra point in today's NFL. That used to be a way bigger part of the game.

Kids, there was a time when the Bills and Raiders routinely made the playoffs. It wasn't always just Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Ravens.

[TheOldRoman]

The thing that makes Tom Brady likeable is his story. Guy was never expected to amount to much in the NFL and only got a shot because a more proven and established QB got hurt. He goes out and wins three Super Bowls, the first the year he took over. He's Kurt Warner cubed. It's a classic underdog story. Only problem is that he became too successful. Everyone who loved him because he came out of nowhere suddenly hated him because he became the new establishment.

I hate him just because he's such a huge :censored:ing douche. I've never heard so much sneering coming from a press conference. And I'll never forget in the 18-1* season, when the referees basically went Nick Patrick and handed them a game from the Ravens to protect the perfect season. Brady was asked about a horrifically blown call and replied, "You tell me! The refs were screwing us the whole game!" He just seems like a dick, and his whole rah-rah-headbutt thing doesn't make him more endearing.

[GFB]

But that nasty streak (or as you referred to it, "dickishness") is what makes Brady a better QB than Peyton Manning. He just has a drive to win at all costs and if you get in the way of him and his team winning, he's going to go off on you (even if you're on his team). There are few traits in athletes better than an absolute HATRED of losing.

Does that make him more likeable to the public? Probably not, but it does make him a better QB in my mind.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

But that nasty streak (or as you referred to it, "dickishness") is what makes Brady a better QB than Peyton Manning. He just has a drive to win at all costs and if you get in the way of him and his team winning, he's going to go off on you (even if you're on his team). There are few traits in athletes better than an absolute HATRED of losing.

Does that make him more likeable to the public? Probably not, but it does make him a better QB in my mind.

that's almost an essential quality in business in general. You don't make it to the top of your industry by being the nice, awe shucks nice guy. You have to have a level of dickishness to survive the sharks that would gladly undercut you and put a knife in your back for personal advancement.

[BBTV]

But that nasty streak (or as you referred to it, "dickishness") is what makes Brady a better QB than Peyton Manning. He just has a drive to win at all costs and if you get in the way of him and his team winning, he's going to go off on you (even if you're on his team). There are few traits in athletes better than an absolute HATRED of losing.

Does that make him more likeable to the public? Probably not, but it does make him a better QB in my mind.

I agree with this, except that it does make him kinda likeable to me. Manning is obviously one of the GOATs, but he seems to get the Manning look at the end of games when it's tight or when he's down, and while I wouldn't say he panics, he certainly doesn't seem to have the same confidence or killer instinct that Brady seems to keep up no matter what the situation. Super Bowls aside, while you could validly argue that Manning has shown himself with two different teams / systems, I think that Brady has to go down as the better of the two.

[GFB]

I agree with you BBTV... It makes him more endearing to me as well (though I may not be totally unbiased there), but I have a feeling we're in the minority. There's very much still a "win the right way" culture at play with the general public, which is why athletes like Peyton Manning or Russell Wilson are fawned over for their personalities, while players like Brady or Richard Sherman are frowned upon.

[The_Admiral]

Tom Brady has more in common with Manning and Wilson than he does Sherman. If people don't like him, it's because they're sick of him. Had Manning won all the Super Bowls while Brady racked up the stats, those people would hate Manning.

[See Red]

For what it's worth, the deal actually works out to be a $3 million raise for Tom Brady over the next three years assuming he doesn't become terrible and get cut.

[Magnus]

My reasoning for hating the Patriots as a team is more to do with international politics than anything that Golden Boy Tom or Belicheat has done. While I appreciate having the American military counted as an ally, their continued presence in over 150 sovereign nations, many of which are allies, seems like an extension of American imperialism and belief in American exceptionalism - something that I cannot and will not get behind.

**Still, the 2008 Superbowl was super-sweet.**

I'm just happy that my Packers have the #2 seed and the bye week so Aaron Rodgers can heal his leg.

[PSUcelticsWON95]

I have to agree that Brady is better than Manning. If my team was down 6, on our own 17, with one minute left, I would pick Brady. He has done great at the Pats (obviously) with what I think is a worse receiving corps. I know they're very unlikeable, but I can't help but like the Patriots. You have Belichick, aka "Hoodie," who is like the Popovich of the NFL as in he's quiet, good, and does his own unique thing. And you have Gronkowski, who is like the Manziel of the team (partier), except he's a complete freight train with unexpected athleticism. And then you have Brady, who's old but still gets the job done and shows more emotion for the game than most in the NFL, screams "F***" on the sidelines, is married to a supermodel, was a sixth-round draft pick, has made six Super Bowls, has won three of them, and can make-do with whatever he has.

On a side note, my picks for the Wild Card Round:

Pittsburgh over Baltimore

Cincinnati over Indianapolis

Dallas over Detroit

Carolina over Arizona

[Still MIGHTY]

But that nasty streak (or as you referred to it, "dickishness") is what makes Brady a better QB than Peyton Manning. He just has a drive to win at all costs and if you get in the way of him and his team winning, he's going to go off on you (even if you're on his team). There are few traits in athletes better than an absolute HATRED of losing.

Because Peyton Manning loves losing.

Career 4th Quarter Comebacks: Manning 41, Brady 33.

And like admiral said, Tom Brady isn't close to the same category as Richard Sherman is. Please. You're a Pats fan. You see his press conferences and his interviews. Not even close.

[Lights Out]

I absolutely can't stand Tom Brady. He's basically Derek Zoolander in a football helmet. That being said, that's a bold move for him to make. This makes it so the Pats can cut him (if they ever need to) with very little repercussions, and he loses some incentive based pay as well. Love or hate him, the dude is team player.

I sure do hope he never wins another Super Bowl, but damn if he isn't doing all he can to snag another one.

As Bill Barnwell explained today, Brady's not actually sacrificing at all here. He's actually getting a raise in terms of his base salary, his cap hit is the same, and the only thing that's changed aside from contractual language is that the Pats now have some extra cash on hand to put towards signing bonuses.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/tom-brady-new-england-patriots-contract/

[Lights Out]

The thing that makes Tom Brady likeable is his story. Guy was never expected to amount to much in the NFL and only got a shot because a more proven and established QB got hurt. He goes out and wins three Super Bowls, the first the year he took over. He's Kurt Warner cubed. It's a classic underdog story. Only problem is that he became too successful. Everyone who loved him because he came out of nowhere suddenly hated him because he became the new establishment.

I hate him just because he's such a huge :censored:ing douche. I've never heard so much sneering coming from a press conference. And I'll never forget in the 18-1* season, when the referees basically went Nick Patrick and handed them a game from the Ravens to protect the perfect season. Brady was asked about a horrifically blown call and replied, "You tell me! The refs were screwing us the whole game!" He just seems like a dick, and his whole rah-rah-headbutt thing doesn't make him more endearing.

Don't forget how he scoffed at Plaxico for predicting that the Giants would win SBXLII and hold the Pats to "only" 17 points. We all know how that ended for him.

Granted, Peyton is a colossal douchebag himself. There was the mooning incident in college, the long history of him throwing his teammates (the kicker, the O-line) under the bus publicly, "I throw touchdown ducks" followed by 43-8, etc.

Personally, I can't stand either of them.

[GFB]

But that nasty streak (or as you referred to it, "dickishness") is what makes Brady a better QB than Peyton Manning. He just has a drive to win at all costs and if you get in the way of him and his team winning, he's going to go off on you (even if you're on his team). There are few traits in athletes better than an absolute HATRED of losing.

Because Peyton Manning loves losing.

Career 4th Quarter Comebacks: Manning 41, Brady 33.

And like admiral said, Tom Brady isn't close to the same category as Richard Sherman is. Please. You're a Pats fan. You see his press conferences and his interviews. Not even close.

1) Definitely not a Pats fan. Though, I'm sure if you think really hard you can figure out my bias.

2) I was trying to show the opposite end of the Manning/Wilson Spectrum to prove a point about American sports culture, not to directly compare Brady to Sherman.

3) Obviously, no one likes to lose. I'm sure Patrick Ewing or Charles Barkley didn't enjoy losing; but I can assure you that neither one hated losing as much as Michael Jordan did.

4) Nice stat, but it really has no use here. We're not debating who is more clutch... This is a personality/unquantifiable-by-stats debate.

[FiddySicks]

I definitely disagree with the idea that Brady is obviously a better quarterback than Manning. If you give me the choice between the two, I take Manning 100 times out of 100.

[Sport]

I definitely disagree with the idea that Brady is obviously a better quarterback than Manning. If you give me the choice between the two, I take Manning 100 times out of 100.

As would I.

[PSUcelticsWON95]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12099681/ndamukong-suh-detroit-lions-wins-appeal-play-playoff-game-vs-dallas-cowboys

This is stupid. Why do fines in professional sports suck? $70,000 isn't going to teach him anything. First, he SHOULD be suspended. Second, the fine should start at at least $500K with the great potential to go up, IMO. These players make millions of dollars every year, and he gets fined south of $100K for intentionally hurting someone when it isn't even the first time this has happened.