Capitalism Rules, Socialism and Communism Suck Thread

[wufwugy]

They probably believe there is a market on account of avid fans dropping the NFL on account of the sorry ass kneelers.

They could be wrong, could be right. I don't know. I know somebody who would check it out for that reason alone. I would too.

[BananaStand]

They probably believe there is a market on account of avid fans dropping the NFL on account of the sorry ass kneelers..

This is being WAY overblown as an explanation for the NFL ratings decline. The only evidence to support this anecdotal at best. Plus, it's virtually over with now anyway. If any players are still kneeling....no one cares.

NFL viewership is down because viewership is down across ALL of television. The NFL is still the highest rated program, by alot.

They could be wrong, could be right. I don't know. I know somebody who would check it out for that reason alone. I would too

Morbid curiosity does not a market make.

A legit complaint about the NFL is that the quality of the competition seems to have declined. My personal take is that the problem stems from a significant dearth of coaching talent. We all know Belichick is top dog, but after that, who is there?? I often ask this question as a punchline "Who is the second best coach in the NFL?"

Anyway, I think it should be obvious to anyone with $100 million dollars that the American public has already made it clear that there is no room for a competing football league. This XFL already failed once. The USFL failed. Arena football is on life support, despite providing a product that is distinctly different and unique compared to the NFL.

I think football fandom is more ritualistic than other sports. The once-a-week time slot fits into everyone's life, and satisfies their needs. Even the NFL is finding that there isn't much interest in their Thursday or Monday night games. They've batted around the idea of expanding the NFL season to 18 games instead of 16, and fans just shrugged.

I mean, what on earth has convinced Vince McMahon that people will watch this?

[wufwugy]

Jordan, Barry Sanders, two guys I don't know about, Belichick.

[BananaStand]

Jordan, Barry Sanders, two guys I don't know about, Belichick.

Deion Sanders is probably one of the most incredible demonstrations of athletic prowess there has ever been.

And if we're talking phenoms of athleticism....we have to mention the freak of all freaks....

[wufwugy]

Deion Sanders is probably one of the most incredible demonstrations of athletic prowess there has ever been.

And if we're talking phenoms of athleticism....we have to mention the freak of all freaks....

I'm not the best for current NFL discussion.

Alls I know is there has only been one Barry Sanders. No NFL player has feats comparable to a fucking running back with a fucking awful line who virtually single-handedly carried the team and who ran circles around everybody with ease.

[wufwugy]

who ran circles around everybody with ease.

Even as those defenses were organizing their entire strategy around stopping Barry at almost any cost.

Sanders is one of the only famous people I would possibly get excited to meet. Just for the mere fact that I would feel like I was in the presence of the most physically gifted person human genes has ever created.


Why do you think Deion Sanders is so good?

[BananaStand]

Why do you think Deion Sanders is so good?

He completely re-defined the position. He was big enough, strong enough, and fast enough to cover any wide receiver in the game 1 on 1. He could cover a guy man-to-man, and still deny entire portions of the field to other receivers because he was so fucking fast. His numbers are impressive, but some of his best games have goose-eggs on the stat sheet. That's because offenses simply wouldn't ever put the ball anywhere near him.

His career occurred during a time when the 'west coast offense' became en vogue. This system of offense did not require receivers to "get open". Basically it requires precise timing of route running and throwing. The receiver would run to a spot, at a certain time, and find the ball delivered there. This eviscerated defenses. The offense knows where the ball is going, the defense doesn't. It's trivially easy to deliver the ball there in less time than it takes for the defense to react and get there.

In 1990, there was 1 QB in the whole league with over 4000 yards passing. in 1995, there were 4, and a whole slew of guys just slightly under that mark. Defense, overall, across the whole league was getting worse. Offenses were getting harder to stop.

But not for Deion Sanders

Size, strength, speed.....no other cornerback has had all three of those ingredients on a level comparable with Deion Sanders.

The 49'ers and Cowboys were juggernauts of the NFC. They met in four consecuitive NFC championship games. The cowboys won the first two. Steve Young's 49ers just could not get by that cowboys team. Then in 1995, they got Deion Sanders. Bye bye cowboys.

The following year, the cowboys threw a shitload of money at Deion. Bye bye 49'ers.

He was literally that important to a team.

Oh...and by the way...football wasn't his only professional sport. He played in a world series once.

[BananaStand]

Alls I know is there has only been one Barry Sanders. No NFL player has feats comparable to a fucking running back with a fucking awful line who virtually single-handedly carried the team and who ran circles around everybody with ease.

He didn't carry his team very far. I remember a playoff game in the mid 90's where Barry logged -1 yards of rushing against Green Bay. The Lions were never considered "good", and were never considered better than second best within their own division during any of the years Barry played.

I'm really not trying to knock Barry Sanders, I'm just not creaming my panties over him the way you are. I mean, even compared to his peers from the time, he doesn't measure up that well. He didn't play long enough, and he didn't win anything, and if he made his team better....it was only marginally so. And in the biggest games, he played his worst.

By any tangible measure, and many intangible measures, Emmitt Smith was better.

Also, there was another back whose agility and explosive running style was often talked about with far more accolades than Barry Sanders. The NFL historians and certainly those who followed the college game knew that even though Barry Sanders was great, he couldn't hold a candle to OJ Simpson. Then, for some reason, everyone stopped talking about OJ around 1993.

[wufwugy]

He didn't carry his team very far. I remember a playoff game in the mid 90's where Barry logged -1 yards of rushing against Green Bay. The Lions were never considered "good", and were never considered better than second best within their own division during any of the years Barry played.

I'm really not trying to knock Barry Sanders, I'm just not creaming my panties over him the way you are. I mean, even compared to his peers from the time, he doesn't measure up that well. He didn't play long enough, and he didn't win anything, and if he made his team better....it was only marginally so. And in the biggest games, he played his worst.

By any tangible measure, and many intangible measures, Emmitt Smith was better.

Also, there was another back whose agility and explosive running style was often talked about with far more accolades than Barry Sanders. The NFL historians and certainly those who followed the college game knew that even though Barry Sanders was great, he couldn't hold a candle to OJ Simpson. Then, for some reason, everyone stopped talking about OJ around 1993.

Other variables. Even the best player gets creamed if the other variables don't work right. I remember laughing at how often Emmitt Smith had holes the size of the Grand Canyon opened to him by his amazing line that he just ran straight through. Barry rarely go those holes. He made his own holes. Put Smith on the Lions back then and nobody would even remember his name. The Lions had one great offense player, Barry. That Barry's results far worse than they would have been since he couldn't build off of teammates success as well and defenses allocated more resources to stop Barry than they would otherwise. The Cowboys from then had the opposite problem. With several great offense players, each could build off the results created by the others, and the defenses against them couldn't allocate resources so directly against any individual.