Gripe session

[Kelly the Dog]

I miss the "Mighty Taco" song.

745490[/snapback]

'Soft, hard or super, it won't hurt your pooper"?

[Mike formerly from Florida]

I'm sorry Mike, but, that's an awful big leap.  The NFL fixed the game so a team from a small market with small revenue would win?  Damn, I wish the fix was in when we played Dallas, New York and Washington.  Fuggers can never get it right.

 

Baseball?  So your OK with revolving signs behind homeplate?  Commercials every time someone spits?  Billboards everywhere?  One team outspending others by 4:1?

745415[/snapback]

 

Commercials appear between innings when players are warming up, not in the middle of a drive for a score. Billboards on stadium walls go back to the Babe Ruth area...just not as prominent as today. As far as the spending, there's really only three teams that use it to their advantage: Yankees, Mets and Bosox. I don't disagree that it's a problem, I think teams with limited payrolls but strong scouting can still win: see 2003 Marlins, 2005 Astros.

 

As far as the game being fixed, it's a controversy where there will be people on both sides. I really believe the networks control the outcome of the game. Pitts burgh is a small market, but big big market for tradition and merchandising. Seattle probably sells 1/4 of the Pittsburgh's total sales in merchandise. But, I don't expect everyone to buy the "conspiracy" theory...it's a bit outlandish except when you watch that game. I don't think the league would have fixed it for Buffalo to win over power markets like NY, Washington, and especially Dallas. I think they knew to just let us play and it would all work out for them.

[Marv Levy]

The first quarter of any NFL games looks like this:  Coin toss, trucks, beer, cheeseburgers, kickoff, pepsi, trucks, beer, trucks, incomplete pass, punt, trucks, beer, cheeseburgers, boner pills, first down, offsides, time out, golf update, cheesburgers, public service announcement, beer, trucks, punt, beer, trucks, beer, missed field goal, cheeseburgers, boner pills, taco bell, trucks, false start, punt, beer, trucks, boner pills, taco bell, end of first quarter.

745405[/snapback]

 

Ha! Gringo, you just sumed up the first quarter, perfectly. Actually, sounds like the whole game.

 

"This JP Losman sack, brought to you by Advil, the headache taker away"

[stuckincincy]

Commercials appear between innings when players are warming up, not in the middle of a drive for a score.

745495[/snapback]

 

4 or so years ago, Reds announcers Marty Brennerman and Joe Nuxhall had to go into open revolt to stop them from having to say idioticies like "That's a Procter & Gamble pop-up to deep center" or "That's an easy Pepsi put-out for the 2nd out in the bottom of the 4th".

 

I did notice last week with the uncovered terrorist plot, the jetways at Heathrow had advertising on them...

[The Big Cat]

I agree completely!  Of course, Jim Morrison also regularly soiled himself in public.  But that doesn't take away from how right he is on this point.

 

The first quarter of any NFL games looks like this:  Coin toss, trucks, beer, cheeseburgers, kickoff, pepsi, trucks, beer, trucks, incomplete pass, punt, trucks, beer, cheeseburgers, boner pills, first down, offsides, time out, golf update, cheesburgers, public service announcement, beer, trucks, punt, beer, trucks, beer, missed field goal, cheeseburgers, boner pills, taco bell, trucks, false start, punt, beer, trucks, boner pills, taco bell, end of first quarter.

745405[/snapback]

 

 

personally the commercials that drive me absoultey bannanas are the CBS promos for their hackneyed, predictable, and poorly acted crime series...eseses. By the end of the game I can usually tell you exactly what the premise is for this week's Cold Case, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Numbers, Criminal Minds, and, if it's a reallly bad week, How I Met your Mother. Man, that Doogie sure is whitty.

[stuckincincy]

personally the commercials that drive me absoultey bannanas are the CBS promos for their hackneyed, predictable, and poorly acted crime series...eseses.  By the end of the game I can usually tell you exactly what the premise is for this week's Cold Case, CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Numbers, Criminal Minds, and, if it's a reallly bad week, How I Met your Mother.  Man, that Doogie sure is whitty.

745576[/snapback]

 

Too true...

 

And welcome to the forum.

[Dante]

Live action football is just a blip between commercials now. I can't imagine it getting worse and still being able to sit through a game on TV.

744758[/snapback]

Without the Sunday Ticket and fantasy pools the NFL would be unwatchable. Its a shame that I need a fantasy pool to keep me interested. If I had to sit and watch just one game at a time, well, I wouldnt. Tedious ****. I went to the Raiders/Bills game last season out here and it was one of the most miserable live sporting events I have ever been to. What made that game so offensive was the endless hip hop **** they played at every opportunity. I couldnt wait to get to the parking lot.

Thank god I have the occasional Shark game to got too

[Rubes]

That's one reason I really like watching at a sports bar. Commercial hits, and you still have games going on all around you, people going apesh!t, friends to talk to, etc.

[BillsFanNC]

Another reason to get TiVo. I don't start watching any Bills game until 3 PM, then I can just FF through the commercials. Without TiVo, an NFL game is unwatchable.

[The Senator]

That's one reason I really like watching at a sports bar. Commercial hits, and you still have games going on all around you, people going apesh!t, friends to talk to, etc.

745626[/snapback]

plus...there will be boobies.

[Marv Levy]

Without the Sunday Ticket and fantasy pools the NFL would be unwatchable. Its a shame that I need a fantasy pool to keep me interested. If I had to sit and watch just one game at a time, well, I wouldnt. Tedious ****. I went to the Raiders/Bills game last season out here and it was one of the most miserable live sporting events I have ever been to. What made that game so offensive was the endless hip hop **** they played at every opportunity. I couldnt wait to get to the parking lot.

Thank god I have the occasional Shark game to got too 

745622[/snapback]

 

F'ing gansta hip hop boooullllllllshhhit aways up in yo face!! Man, I hate that crap too. Its terrible noise.

[Kelly the Dog]

Good God, what a bunch of friggin' whiners. NFL football is awesome on TV. You can watch every game you want. HD is incredible. Flat screens are wayyyyyy better than the old ones. Even big screens don't suck anymore. The production values are way better than they used to be. There are more cameras for replays. The little yellow first down marker and scoreboard and stats line is fabulous if you're into fantasy. It's either free or it's pretty cheap overall compared to all kinds of other PPV items.

 

Move to Iraq or Lebanon. Cripes.

[Rubes]

plus...there will be boobies.

745670[/snapback]

 

 

Oh yes, there will be boobies.

[Dante]

Good God, what a bunch of friggin' whiners. NFL football is awesome on TV. You can watch every game you want. HD is incredible. Flat screens are wayyyyyy better than the old ones. Even big screens don't suck anymore. The production values are way better than they used to be. There are more cameras for replays. The little yellow first down marker and scoreboard and stats line is fabulous if you're into fantasy. It's either free or it's pretty cheap overall compared to all kinds of other PPV items.

 

Move to Iraq or Lebanon. Cripes.

745806[/snapback]

So your saying we need to invest 3 large into hi-def equipment and it will all be better? Im not sure what a better TV would do for what we are complaining about. I guess if you drink enough beers anything passes as entertainment Even endless breaks and commercials.

All were saying is that its hard to maintain interest sometimes when there is so little action. Honestly, I don't know how the players manage sometimes. I mean, any momentem or excitement at all must be sucked out of them by 5 minute TV timeouts. I dont know how they can stay focused like they should.

[Kelly the Dog]

So your saying we need to invest 3 large into hi-def equipment and it will all be better? Im not sure what a better TV would do for what we are complaining about. I guess if you drink enough beers anything passes as entertainment  Even endless breaks and commercials.

All were saying is that its hard to maintain interest sometimes when there is so little action. Honestly, I don't know how the players manage sometimes. I mean, any momentem or excitement at all must be sucked out of them by 5 minute TV timeouts. I dont know how they can stay focused like they should.

745887[/snapback]

The timeouts havent changed that much over the last few decades, except they got a little shorter late in the games. There is a timeout after every score and then a timeout after the return until the minimum number has been reached. There is a timeout after every change of possession until the minimum for the period assures the network of the allotted number. After that has been reached they don't go to a commercial all the time. The games last a little over three hours on average like they always did. There are no 5 minute timeouts. What I am saying is that there is the same amount of action as always. The teams actually have to get plays off quicker than they used to, so there are more plays, and there are a couple more commercials. Those things even each other out as far as action goes. And the commericials allow cities like Buffalo to field teams. In fact, you should be cheering more commercials, the Bills wouldnt exist without them.

 

My complaint about your complaint is that we have it so made, pro football on TV is cheap and great, and IMO it's embarrassing how easily people get whiny these days when they don't get everything they want with no interruption exactly how they want it with no sacrifice whatsoever on their part.

[Tolstoy]

The timeouts havent changed that much over the last few decades, except they got a little shorter late in the games. There is a timeout after every score and then a timeout after the return until the minimum number has been reached. There is a timeout after every change of possession until the minimum for the period assures the network of the allotted number. After that has been reached they don't go to a commercial all the time. The games last a little over three hours on average like they always did. There are no 5 minute timeouts. What I am saying is that there is the same amount of action as always. The teams actually have to get plays off quicker than they used to, so there are more plays, and there are a couple more commercials. Those things even each other out as far as action goes. And the commericials allow cities like Buffalo to field teams. In fact, you should be cheering more commercials, the Bills wouldnt exist without them.

 

My complaint about your complaint is that we have it so made, pro football on TV is cheap and great, and IMO it's embarrassing how easily people get whiny these days when they don't get everything they want with no interruption exactly how they want it with no sacrifice whatsoever on their part.

745900[/snapback]

 

I'm not sure that I buy your premise here. The NFL is an incredibly wealthy league. Are you telling me that they can't sacrifice some portion of their TV revenue to make the game more watchable (and keep small-market teams at the same time)? In fact, making the game more watchable might just make the game more watched, thus compensating for some of the lost revenue! Perhaps some of us might watch more than just the Bills game on Sunday, if the games had less commercials and were shorter!

 

Just curious, Kelly, at what point do you think enough is enough?

[Dibs]

......at what point do you think enough is enough?

745922[/snapback]

Well, that's the issue isn't it. As long as you & everyone else keeps watching the games, the TV stations will achieve their ratings, sell the alloted advertizing space & pay the NFL accordingly. The only way that will stop is if the NFL decide they don't want to make as much money....or....people actually stop watching the games.

Neither is likely to happen IMO.

[Pyrite Gal]

...and to think people still don't believe the Superbowl wasn't fixed or at least "favored" to the Steelers. The league has become a shell of what it use to be. There's a game being played between the commercials. The SB halftime event has become  bigger than the game itself to casual fans.  I no longer watch games other than the Bills. To me, that puts it in the same category as the NBA. It is too painful to watch this game anymore. Baseball, in my mind, is #1 again.

744742[/snapback]

 

I used to put the theory that various outcomes showed the game was fixed, the nshe asked me what I consider to be a brilliant question which put an end to my rants. She asked, "If the games are fixed, why isn't it more interesting?"

 

I had to admit she had a point. If the games (or even the big game) was fixed, then even a juvenile could come up with a more interesting script than the one they had for the post-season and the SB.

 

Perhaps you want to subscribe to some conspiracy thepry where they wanted to produce a script around Jerome Bettis winning the big one before he retired in his hometow, nut there would be such greater economic profit:

 

1. If Seattle won giving the NFL more excitement in West Coast Microsoft land. If the Chinese and Tony Blair are sending their heads of states to do real work on the west coast with virtually cursory stops in DC to dicuss King Heorge's latest foreign policy fiasco, it simplu is a better economic deal to curry popularity on the west coast than in a rust belt town like Pittsburgh.

 

2. In addition to the domestic economic benefits, it is clearly the economic strategy of the MFL to spread their product to foreign countries to get some of their bucks and have an SB win for a Pacific Rim team would be a much better script.

 

3. Finally, I can;t even remember which clown won the SB MVP and I think they had to throw darts and pick a Steeler by default. If they are going to go through the trouble of fixing the game (including all the payoffs they would need to make to shut folks up and still somebody is going to get drunk or try to impress some skirt into bed and spill the beans) they would have to produce a better product than this feeble storytale if they were truly fixed/

 

I watch the game and love it because the regular season is fascinating, but the playoffs are a joke and the 2 week SB is the height of silliness. I don't know about you but a few years back I muted the game and turned on the sound for the commericals.

[Kelly the Dog]

I'm not sure that I buy your premise here.  The NFL is an incredibly wealthy league.  Are you telling me that they can't sacrifice some portion of their TV revenue to make the game more watchable (and keep small-market teams at the same time)?  In fact, making the game more watchable might just make the game more watched, thus compensating for some of the lost revenue!  Perhaps some of us might watch more than just the Bills game on Sunday, if the games had less commercials and were shorter!

 

Just curious, Kelly, at what point do you think enough is enough?

745922[/snapback]

There is more action in a football game than any baseball game. There is more action than any basketball game, or soccer game. There is as much action as in a hockey game, which has a lot less stops in action, and yet has two 20 minute breaks instead of one 15 minute break. Do you think perhaps there is a reason that players often do not feel completely healed from an NFL game until four days later? These guys, at least the starters, can't even play without the breaks in the game. Why do you think the Bills are using four DTs this year?

 

People have to make sacrifices for things. One of the reasons, for example, that there are more commercials and more stops in play in the NFL is because of Instant Replay. Well, IMO, Instant Replay is a great thing for the game. It's simply far too difficult for any human to get all these calls right with the speed off the game. I, for one, am very wlling to give up a little constant action to get the calls right. It's asking too much for the refs to do it right. That's a sacrifice as a fan I think we need to make. It's not that friggin' difficult to wait 60 seconds, get a beer or bag of peanuts or take a piss or talk to your buddy about the game. The games are great. The sport is great. Overall the TV coverage is great. Overall the NFL is the best run sports league in the history of the world. People seem to want all the innovations and all the advantages with none of the disadvantages.

 

Do you want to go back to the 60s or 70s when there was three or four games on a week with no Instant Replay, no scoreboard, no yellow line for first downs. Three cameras for replays instead of 6-7. But 2-3 less commercials?

[Tolstoy]

There is more action in a football game than any baseball game. There is more action than any basketball game, or soccer game. There is as much action as in a hockey game, which has a lot less stops in action, and yet has two 20 minute breaks instead of one 15 minute break. Do you think perhaps there is a reason that players often do not feel completely healed from an NFL game until four days later? These guys, at least the starters, can't even play without the breaks in the game. Why do you think the Bills are using four DTs this year?

 

People have to make sacrifices for things. One of the reasons, for example, that there are more commercials and more stops in play in the NFL is because of Instant Replay. Well, IMO, Instant Replay is a great thing for the game. It's simply far too difficult for any human to get all these calls right with the speed off the game. I, for one, am very wlling to give up a little constant action to get the calls right. It's asking too much for the refs to do it right. That's a sacrifice as a fan I think we need to make. It's not that friggin' difficult to wait 60 seconds, get a beer or bag of peanuts or take a piss or talk to your buddy about the game. The games are great. The sport is great. Overall the TV coverage is great. Overall the NFL is the best run sports league in the history of the world. People seem to want all the innovations and all the advantages with none of the disadvantages.

 

Do you want to go back to the 60s or 70s when there was three or four games on a week with no Instant Replay, no scoreboard, no yellow line for first downs. Three cameras for replays instead of 6-7. But 2-3 less commercials?

745930[/snapback]

 

Well, you are right about sacrifices. Everything, and I mean everything, does have its price. Football is a great game to watch, and the NFL owners know it. As some point, however, fans may start to think the price to pay is simply too high. that the commercials tax our patience and destroy the continuity of the game all too much. It hasn't happened yet, but it may (especially if they continue with these 30 second live action spots).

 

The one manifestation of the owners' greed that really bothers me is the fact that they make you pay to listen to the games over the net. What skin is it off the NFL's bones if some guy in some remote corner of the country wants to listen to his favorite team streaming over the net? It certainly doesn't stop people who can do so from attending or watching games. The answer is that the NFL loses nothing by letting people do this, but the greedy ones saw a chance to profit on people's loyalty to their teams. The NFL has even tried to put a price on the statistics for their players, in order to make all fantasy leagues pay for these stats (fortunately, they failed).

 

Finally, the NFL (and other major sports leagues) consititute an outright violation of our country's antitrust laws (as pointed out earlier by a poster in this thread). Congress has given them an exemption, but when they use this exemption to milk every penny out of their supporters, I start to see red.

 

It is greed, Kelly, sheer greed. I know it when I see it, and it is shameful.