NFL 2023 - The groundhog said, "It Hurts, but Allen need is to Burrow for Mahomes."

[Hot Pepsi]

That is the same dynamic behind them promoting flag football for girls

Getting girls to play is better than getting them interested just because a pop star is, at least temporarily, also interested.

[caja-dglh]

Getting girls to play is better than getting them interested just because a pop star is, at least temporarily, also interested.

How so? So you can let them play as kids and then tell them "actually, it is just for men"?

[ursus arctos]

Well, the League would sayy that women can play in the Olympics

[Hot Pepsi]

Correct.
There is womens tackle football, but I don’t think it will ever be a college sport. It just requires too many players.

Better that than telling girls that their role in the world is to just cheer for the men.

[jason voorhees]

Take the f’n points in the Bay.
Take the f’n points in the Bay.
Take the mofuggin points in the Bay.

or lose your 17-point lead.

[caja-dglh]

Lions Lionsing.

[jason voorhees]

Or lose the game.

Better luck next 35 years.

[caja-dglh]

Credit to the 49ers for working out how to fix things. But my have the Lions just combined some disastrous luck, poorly timed mix ups and straight up painful mistakes.

[caja-dglh]

This is a crazy mix of a hard-to-watch disaster for the Lions and some potential ridiculous tight-rope act victory.

[jason voorhees]

I hope they can come back, but you do not want to lose a game because your receivers ate a halftime meal of Butterball turkey and buttered popcorn with hot buttered corn with butter cookies while wearing butter gloves.

Terrible, terrible loss.

That idiot Greg Olsen saying it was the right decision to go for it to get stuffed on those 4th downs…OBVIOUSLY IT WASN’T WHEN YOU LOST BY 4 ASSHOLE.

I mean you saw the Pack lose to this team because they went for it and didn’t take the points. Your job is to win a game, not let “the math” make choices for you.

Here’s some math for you: YOU HAVE TO SCORE MORE FUCKING POINTS THAN THE OTHER FUCKING TEAM TO WIN THE FUCKING GAME.

Detroit scores two field goals, they’re in their first Super Bowl.

[Hot Pepsi]

[blameless]

YOU HAVE TO SCORE MORE FUCKING POINTS THAN THE OTHER FUCKING TEAM TO WIN THE FUCKING GAME.

Both Dan Campbell and John Harbaugh should have this tattooed on the inside of their eyelids.

[ursus arctos]

I don't the assumption that they definitively would have made the second field goal.

The Niners had already missed a shorter one with a better kicker.

The assumption that they would have scored the late touchdown in the same way had it been to take the leadis equally flawed.

[Eggchaser]

Hmm. Part of me wants San Francisco to win to cap the Brock Purdy story with the perfect ending, but equally I want to see KC win so I can revel in the amount of small dick energy whinging generated by Taylor Swift holding the Lombardi trophy.

[Hot Pepsi]

I don't the assumption that they definitively would have made the second field goal.

The Niners had already missed a shorter one with a better kicker.

The assumption that they would have scored the late touchdown in the same way had it been to take the leadis equally flawed.

All of that is also true.

The clock management was worse.

[Hot Pepsi]

Hmm. Part of me wants San Francisco to win to cap the Brock Purdy story with the perfect ending, but equally I want to see KC win so I can revel in the amount of small dick energy whinging generated by Taylor Swift holding the Lombardi trophy.

I’d rather the Chiefs win, I guess. Cement Mahomes legacy. What else does Kansas City have going for it?
The Bay area, and the Niners, have won enough.

[ad hoc]

I want the 49ers to win. If nothing else because of Deebo Samuel. Hell, if nothing else I'd want them to win just because Deebo Samuel is called Deebo. Even if he wasn't my favourite player of the moment.

[nmrfox]

Watching the highlights, a couple of minor observations.

Are SF the only team not to have their city name in either end zone?
How come so many Detroit fans were able to get tickets for such a big game? Are they allowed an allocated amount or are there often spares available at SF?

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm not really sure how the playoff allocation works.
I assume that a lot of the seat-license holders in Santa Clara are corporate, etc, so those tickets could just end up on the market for a high price.

Ben Solak, an excellent analytics nerd, explains why going for it instead of kicking was the right call on those plays. That's not where the Lions blew it.

[caja-dglh]

Watching the highlights, a couple of minor observations.

Are SF the only team not to have their city name in either end zone?
How come so many Detroit fans were able to get tickets for such a big game? Are they allowed an allocated amount or are there often spares available at SF?

At this part of the season, yes. But otherwise no - JETS immediately spring to mind.

I don't believe there are allocations. The big component is comparable budget when you have not been to a Championship game in over 30 years.

[ursus arctos]

it is surprisingly difficult to get comprehensive information on current end zone designs, but I don't think the Niners are alone.

An example that immediately came to mind was the Dolphins' throwbacks, which didn't feature text at all.



Minnesota is another example



The Niners may be especially sensitive, given that they play more than 30 miles from the city they claim to represent.

[caja-dglh]

I think we need to build a website UA. I was expecting a comprehensive resource. I expect the challenge is that they get repainted and changed more often than one might first think.

[Hot Pepsi]

It's also much harder to fit "San Francisco" in legible letters than 49ers.

[steveeeeeeeee]

I might have asked this question before, but why is the NFL season so short? I appreciate players get injured a lot in NFL, but for a organisation that is all about expansion, you would think you could extend the regular season by 4 or 5 games and have the Super Bowl in March? Teams that don't reach the play offs have played for just under 4 months, which is the blink of an eye compared to other physical team sports. There are no midweek games and you spend more than half the game sat on the side lines.

[Hot Pepsi]

I might have asked this question before, but why is the NFL season so short? I appreciate players get injured a lot in NFL, but for a organisation that is all about expansion, you would think you could extend the regular season by 4 or 5 games and have the Super Bowl in March? Teams that don't reach the play offs have played for just under 4 months, which is the blink of an eye compared to other physical team sports. There are no midweek games and you spend more than half the game sat on the side lines.

No chance. The NFL players union, which is usually relatively management-friendly, resisted the shift from 16 to 17 games. The concession was to expand rosters and to reduce the preseason. It will get progressively more difficult to add any more games.

I don't think you appreciate how violent, painful and exhausting the game is. It may look like they're mostly standing around.* Every play is like being in a minor car crash. And there are mid-week games if you count Thursday as midweek. The players hate those.

As it is, there are so many injuries that it sometimes just feels like a game of attrition and luck. One serious injury - especially to a quarterback - can sink the whole team's season.

More importantly - from the owners' perspective, at least - it just works really well as it is.

The more games there are, the less each game "matters," not just psychologically for the fans, but mathematically. The more games there are the less likely it is that two teams will be tied for a playoff spot going into the last two weeks. The playoffs are, I think, just the right size to keep lots of teams in it late into the season, but home field advantage matters - at least to the fans - and the game is such that we've never really had an "undeserving" Super Bowl champion.

The gridiron is the number one US sport by far because every game is an event. As Albert Brooks' character says in that Will Smith concussion movie, "They own a day of the week."

All the other sports struggle to keep fans' interest during the regular season because there are just too goddamned many games. 82 in hockey and basketball. 162 in baseball. Each game just feels not-that-important, because it isn't. This is especially bad late in the year when only a few teams are on the playoff bubble. They insist on having that many because it does maximize income, but the atmosphere in the building would be a lot better if their were fewer and TV ratings per game would be better.


* There was a time when most players played more or less the whole game - offense and defense. A lot of high school football is still like that. It's possible. But you'll if you look at the pictures of the old leather helmet days (or even into the 80s), the players were a lot smaller. 180 pound centers, etc. So the wear and tear on themselves and each other was not as severe.

Specialization has led to players being the ideal shape and size for their particular position. At least, ideal for their short gridiron career. Not ideal for the long term health of their joints or brain.

One proposal for radically changing American football to make it safer is to make it more like rugby and/or sandlot football. No helmets, no pads, restrictions on tackling technique and much smaller rosters. If guys had to play the whole game, they'd be less likely to be enormous and therefore the dangers to themselves and the people they're hitting would be reduced. I don't expect that version to catch on.