Football

[Poulet Frit]

It’s that time of year again!!

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

So where was I? Oh, that’s right. Barcelona!

[Poulet Frit]

What?

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

There’s a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good.

[Jeff Ross]

I think Josiah’s attempt to “comment on everything” left a whole lot to be desired on this thread. However, his remark about Barcelona reminded me that FC Barcelona plays a home match on Saturday. It may be association football and not American football, but it’s definitely worth the ticket investment if you’re only in Barcelona for once or twice in your life. The cheapest tickets I saw that were still available for Saturday’s game were 74 € (roughly $89.36 in USD or $107.91 in CAD). FC Barcelona is one of the best soccer clubs in the world, so they’re likely to win against RCD Espanyol.

As for American football, I film another high school game tomorrow night. It’s week 4 of the season in my state. Concerning the NFL, I’m curious to see how Houston starts the season following Tropical Storm Harvey (they play the Jaguars) and how Tampa Bay & Miami handle not playing this week because of Hurrican Irma. They will play 16 straight weeks thereafter to compensate for the opening bye. The NCAA football season started last week (including an epic upset of Liberty over Baylor), and some of the games scheduled for Florida this week have been canceled. The CFL starts week 12 of its 20 week regular season tomorrow. (Having 9 teams each play 18 games in 20 weeks leads to some interesting scheduling quirks that the NFL doesn’t have to deal with.)

I looked up how the seasons are going in the AFL for Australian Football & The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship for Gaelic Football. The AFL plays round one of its playoffs this week, with one game already in the books (the Crows beat the Giants, 84 to 48). This is not to be confused with Australia’s National Rugby League, which also starts its playoffs this weekend. In Gaelic Football, the only match remaining is the championship on September 17, Dublin vs. Mayo. This is the third straight year that these two have met in the final, with Dublin winning both of the previous years (but it was really competitive; Gaelic football doesn’t do “overtime”, so a tied match in the playoffs results in a “replay”, where the teams play a second game at a later date. Both of the previous two finals have required “replays”.) Fun fact: Gaelic football is a completely amateur sport, unlike the other types of football.

(I enjoy all kinds of the games known as football, and I even once wrote a report in college on how all the different sports called “football” came to be. Thanks for starting this thread, Kristen!)

[Poulet Frit]

Personally, I only watch when my team (or my family’s teams) are playing.
NCAA- We all like the Gamecocks, they won last week. I don’t follow them as much as I do NFL.

NFL- I like the Patriots. My sister likes the Packers. My brother likes the Panthers. My dad likes the Cowboys. Patriots lost last night which completely ruins the possibility of having a “perfect season”. Tbh, I didn’t pay attention as much as I should’ve because I was reading It.

I, like most Patriot fans, would like to see them go to Super Bowl again, but I’m wondering if, at 40, Tom Brady is burning out. I know his throws technically got fast, but I feel like we should’ve been able to win last night. Whether it was our offense or defense that caused us the loss (or a combination of both and just a well rounded opposing team), we need to not lose anymore.

We shall see what this weekend brings. Hopefully the Gamecocks don’t have a season like they did last year or the year before that.

(You’re welcome, Jeff!)

[Jeff Ross]

South Carolina hasn’t been the same since Steve Spurrier left, and playing in the SEC doesn’t help them any. Will Muschamp is a decent coach though (my family roots for Auburn and remembers him as a great defensive coordinator, even if his head coaching records appear average). Looking at their schedule, the USC Gamecocks should have a good chance at being bowl eligible, but it is no cakewalk. Here are the highlights to their first game, which was a shootout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HusfFe8Kszg

My family primarily roots for Auburn, Illinois, and Wisconsin when it comes to FBS college football. All three won their first game of the season.

As for the NFL, my family roots for the Packers and the Saints. I don’t normally root for the Patriots, but I did root for them to come from behind in the Super Bowl, which made their victory extremely fun to watch in the second half. I wouldn’t say that the Patriots are done this season because they lost one game; the Chiefs played like a team who wanted to win during the final six minutes (it was a one point game before then), and the Patriots played like a team that expected that they’d find a way to win somehow. This opening loss should put a fire into the Patriots like nothing else could, and they’ll play more inspired football from here on out. I do expect them to lose at least one more game before the season is over. Worst case scenario they start 0-4, but even that wouldn’t cause me to count the Patriots out. If you look at their schedule, 5 of their 6 division games come in the final six weeks of the season, so they could be looking like a long-shot after week 11 and still rally to make the playoffs. That being said, the Patriots have won 9 or more games every year since 2001, up to 16 straight seasons now, winning 14 division titles during that span. Don’t buy the lie that they “need to not lose anymore” because they can lose several games early in the season and still win back-to-back Super Bowls. Their playoffs start in week 12 against the Dolphins, the first game after Thanksgiving. That’s when they need to not lose anymore. #DontJumpOffTheBandwagonTooEarly

As much as I like Jimmy Garoppolo and his ridiculously quick throwing motion, I don’t think that anything but an injury will sideline Tom Brady, as his experience, preparation, and heart compensate for any defects he may have at the moment, even at his age. He did throw a 55-yard pass last night without straining himself at all, so it’s not like he looked older or more burned out than Tom Brady normally looks while playing football. It will be interesting to see how the season progresses.

[Poulet Frit]

I haven’t jumped off the Patriots bandwagon once since I started actually paying attention to football (…roughly 5 years ago) (except when I say a game in person 2 days ago and rooted for the redskins because it was a preseason game and we werent trying and it was redskins home and I was outnumbered and long story short, I zipped up my jacket.)

Superbowl was insane for several reasons. One…it just was. Two, after the first quarter I said “Brady just needs the ball and a time crunch and he’ll get it done” and at the beginning of the 4th quarter I said “Brady just needs 2 minutes” and…it was beautiful. Just beautiful. Brady is…awesome, I’m just afraid of the day his age catches up to him (though, 40 isn’t old imo). I don’t pay attention to stats as much as I should, mostly because it doesn’t make sense to me.

Like I said (or at least think I said), I don’t pay attention to NCAA like I should…it’s an excuse to eat football food. I’m just from SC and love them and hate Clemson! Thats…all I know about college football.

Patriots are great at comebacks. I just love “perfect” seasons.

[Poulet Frit]

(Warning to Jeff: I don’t know stats or…very much when it comes to football. I’m sorry if I get stuff wrong, most of it is my own opinion and stuff I’ve heard.)

[Dawn]

Me on watching sports:

Football: Never watch it until it’s the SuperBowl.

Then I care about the food. I’d be perfectly happy if a SuperBowl party didn’t even play the SuperBowl.

Volleyball: Would rather play it. Will be attending every home volleyball game at my college.

Olympics; Don’t watch all of it, but definitely watch as I can. If they’re in the Olympics, they’re pretty awesome.

Anything else: If I don’t know someone on the league or sport team, I don’t care. Please don’t make me watch it.

[Jeff Ross]

For the record, there’s only been one “perfect” NFL regular season within Tom Brady’s lifetime, and it was the Patriots in 2007. That team was ridiculously stacked, so it’s by far the exception and not the rule. Otherwise, six teams have gone 15-1, and three of those six lost their one game in the final four weeks of the season. Pro Tip: Don’t ever get your hopes up for a “perfect” season unless it’s week 17 and your team is 15-0. Then you can start anticipating.

(That’s okay, Kristen; the beauty of American Footballl is that almost everything can be debated, discussed, and justified regardless of stats because they only play up to 16 now games per season. I am a sports person, so I enjoy taking 5-15 minutes to research sports information in order to gain perspective if I don’t know it off the top of my head. However, I would like to know how you were able to attend a Patriots @ Redskins pre-season game in-person two days ago. From what I could find, the most recent Patriots @ Redskins pre-season game was August 7, 2014. http://www.patriots.com/video/2014/08/07/patriots-vs-redskins-preseason-highlights Were you somewhere in this video clip? There is a Patriots fan surrounded by Redskins fans at 1:22, but that fan didn’t have a jacket. Wait, so you love the Patriots but hate Clemson? What a roller coaster of a winter you must have had, with Clemson and the Patriots both winning championships! [Unless you really weren’t paying attention to college football and didn’t realize that Clemson won the title last year; if so then I’m sorry for spoiling that for you.])

[Jeff Ross]

Dawn, do you watch the FIFA World Cup or any other world-class competitions other than the Olympics?

[Jeff Ross]

*pardon my excessive use of the word “other”

[Dawn]

(It has been pardoned. And nope)

[Poulet Frit]

Woah. That was a lot.

Last winter was a rollercoaster.

And 2014 was when I watched the game. Gosh I wanna go to another one. I’ll watch the video and see if I can see myself, but probably not, because our seats were so far up. Third tier

[Poulet Frit]

I’m not in that video, I should mention, my dad and I left at the beginning of the 3rd quarter because we had a really long drive back home. One of the scariest drives of my life, I may mention, because we didn’t get home til like 4am. And he was falling asleep. Not good.

I was walking down the road to the satidum when the Pats rolled up in their buses. That was a cool thing to see. I also had people yelling at me a lot…weirdos.

I paid attention to college a bit last year…geez Clemson smh. The rivalry is real, anytime I head back to my hometown…just geez

[Poulet Frit]

I had meant 2 years ago (I typed that before I had coffee), though, it was apparently 3 years ago (my memory is terrible too).

“(That’s okay, Kristen; the beauty of American Footballl is that almost everything can be debated,”
Football** one L…just because I can

[Jeff Ross]

(Oops; don’t know how I missed the extra “l”. Thanks for catching that. Also, I can abstractly relate to the Clemson/USC rivalry because my Dad lived part of his life in Alabama [which is why we’re Auburn fans] so I’ve heard stories and interviews about how the Auburn/Alabama rivalry permeates the state, to the point that if Alabama goes 11-1, wins the SEC title and goes on to win the national title while Auburn is 1-11 and misses a bowl game but Auburn beats Alabama, people in AL will see Auburn as the team who had the more successful season. Probably a little more intense rivalry than USC/Clemson because of all the national titles & Heisman trophies the two schools have won during the past decade, but comparable. There was even an ESPN Films movie from 2011 called “Roll Tide/War Eagle” about how intense the rivalry is. Fun fact: Clemson is nicknamed the “Tigers” because of an Auburn alumnus who worked at Clemson in the late 1800s. South Carolina’s mascot is based on a Revolutionary War Hero’s nickname, with the mascot adoption taking place in 1900.)

*stadium, not satidum

The people were yelling at you because you were wearing Patriots garb to a Redskins home game, right?

[Poulet Frit]

The USC/Clemson rivalry is enough that I’ve been told by family and neighbors (they are from SC too and cheer for USC) that if I marry someone who likes Clemson, I’ll be disowned. My family was joking (I hope), my neighbors were not.

Thank you for catching my mistake.

Yes, it was because I wore the opposing team’s garb, but I was a minor and didn’t like being yelled at. Thankfully, nobody cussed me out though!

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Hey look, the Lions are winning. This is fun.

[Poulet Frit]

I’m currently watching Packers and Seahawks.

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Fun.

[wileycoyote]

Sad to say I’m not big on football but I do like the Seahawks as a team in general and I know Chris McCain from the Miami dolphins

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Yeah, I’m a casual Patriots fan.

[Poulet Frit]

I’m a…not too craaazy pats fan

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Oh, you’re pretty normal as Pats fans go.

[Poulet Frit]

Oh that’s good

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

Indeed.

[Poulet Frit]

Now I’m watching Cowboys vs….whoever

[Josiah the Carrot Stick]

The Lions now have a better record than the Patriots. This is hilarious.

[Author]

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