Many people said that football was a dying sport with terrible ratings a couple of years ago.
Weddle had already reached the "undersized DB making tackles with his head" stage of his career in 2019.
By that, I am guessing you don't mean "Because he was able to diagnose plays quickly (with his head)" but actually, "making tackles with his head (leading with his head)" ?
And regular season ratings increased 10% YoY and its best numbers in 6 years. Probably one of the very few things (along with the other major sports) to see an increase in traditional viewership YoY. Interestingly, Fox only saw a 2% increase while CBS had 9%, ESPN and TNF each had a 16% increase.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33050695/nfl-regular-season-ratings-increase-10-percent-last-season
And they damn well shouldn't. His numbers were good on paper this year. 62.4%, 27 TD: 7 INT, 94.6 rating, etc. - but he was at best a game manager for the Colts and at worst a complete liability. Nearly half (8) of his games was < 200 yards, including 6 of the last 8 games of the season. With Taylor and the rest of that roster, they are a better QB away from being a legit contender. Wentz is holding them back. He's a step down from guys like Mac and Jimmy G (and maybe even Tua?) who can win with good running game and defense.
Maybe if he threw it so hard that it just wedged in Harry’s face mask, which is probably the only way that bust can catch anything
Id be very interested in how many posters here who said they would quit watching football because the NFL is so awful once the Brady / Bb era was done in NE actually are gone.
I was one of those posters. I watch maybe 2-3 games a year out of curiosity but don’t really care about the results. I’m out of market so it’s easy to tune out. I’ll watch some of the playoff game if my schedule allows. Fantasy is far more important to me than the Patriots’ success.
We need to wait until BB is gone, to see, don't we?
(I'm one of those that watched under Rust and McPherson so I don't anticipate leaving, but who knows. I am more of a BB fan than TB fan tbh, but pretty sure that's in the extreme minority view)
I’m one of those posters, still along for the ride with BB. We’ll see after that.
That said, I rarely watch the games live. It’s not appointment viewing like it once was. I think that’s more due to life circumstances than the NFL, though.
That said, I rarely watch the games live. It’s not appointment viewing like it once was. I think that’s more due to life circumstances than the NFL, though.
I don't think the first season of expanded "playoffs" went how the NFL thought it would...
Only two of the WC games were decided by less than 10.. (out of 6 games). Which makes me think they either scrap it, or make changes regarding seeding
Of course this is the NFL so who knows WTF they will do in the offseason if they make changes to the playoffs
Edit: there were ZERO lead changes in the second half off any of the WC games this year.... and were decided by an average of 17.2 points
View: https://twitter.com/ScottKacsmar/status/1483291681634103301
View: https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/status/1483294760488120322
Only two of the WC games were decided by less than 10.. (out of 6 games). Which makes me think they either scrap it, or make changes regarding seeding
Of course this is the NFL so who knows WTF they will do in the offseason if they make changes to the playoffs
Edit: there were ZERO lead changes in the second half off any of the WC games this year.... and were decided by an average of 17.2 points
View: https://twitter.com/ScottKacsmar/status/1483291681634103301
View: https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/status/1483294760488120322
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As long as the network checks clear, the NFL will be happy. They don't really care about the quality- see Thursday night football.
It may be the format, or it may just be statistical variance. The average closing spread for this weekend's games was 5.92 and the median was 5.25 - just for Wild Card Weekend. Here are the mean and median spreads for the past 5 years across all playoff games, including the Conference Championships and Super Bowl. I'm not sure this weekend was historically out of whack at all, despite what the small sample size (6-game) outcome might seem to imply.
The NE/BUF and ARI/LAR matchups both featured teams with very similar DVOAs and spreads of 4.5 and 3 respectively, and both games ended with 30+ point deficits. Sometimes, things just break that way.
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They had 6 games over 3 days and I would assume all 6 games will be in the top 25 for TV ratings for the entire year of 2022.
It went fine for the NFL. I don't know why you're so reactionary about these things. Most first rounds in the NBA are also a bore, too.
If the playoffs were being played under the old format there would be 4 games this past weekend.
Bengals-Raiders (close enough game with a referee controversy to boot)
Bills-Patriots (sorry guys)
Rams-Cardinmals (blowout)
49ers-Cowboys (the game was not as close as we think it was, but it did come down to the last play)
So 50-50 in terms of "good" and "bad" games.
It's the two additional games that proved to be duds, a #7 seed vs a #2 seed in each case. However, I remember when the 3rd WC was added and people were also in a nutty. I do not see the extra playoff team going anywhere. It took some time for a 6 seed to make it all the way (the Packers won like that, and I think the Steelers did too).
Bengals-Raiders (close enough game with a referee controversy to boot)
Bills-Patriots (sorry guys)
Rams-Cardinmals (blowout)
49ers-Cowboys (the game was not as close as we think it was, but it did come down to the last play)
So 50-50 in terms of "good" and "bad" games.
It's the two additional games that proved to be duds, a #7 seed vs a #2 seed in each case. However, I remember when the 3rd WC was added and people were also in a nutty. I do not see the extra playoff team going anywhere. It took some time for a 6 seed to make it all the way (the Packers won like that, and I think the Steelers did too).
If I were the NFL, or any of their network partners, or the owners, I would also be factoring in the additional interest (and thus revenue) that is created by that 7th seed option existing in terms of the final couple games of the regular season as it puts more teams in play longer. It also means that there is more value in being the #1 seed which might keep the final weeks of the top teams in play as well.
Browns DT Malik McDowell walked into a school naked and started punching an officer.
https://theathletic.com/news/browns-dt-malik-mcdowell-arrested-on-charges-of-battery-on-officer-public-exposure/jKRHMEIeXOit/
https://theathletic.com/news/browns-dt-malik-mcdowell-arrested-on-charges-of-battery-on-officer-public-exposure/jKRHMEIeXOit/
Yikes. It can't be a fun time when you taze a 6'-6" 300-lb NFL player, and it doesn't phase them. Gotta be drugs and/or mental issues involved. Sad.
View: https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1484277283330437124?s=20
Chiefs sign Arnette to a futures deal. He’ll fit right in.
Chiefs sign Arnette to a futures deal. He’ll fit right in.
In other Chiefs news, starting LB Willie Gay got booked for criminal destruction of property. Basically he allegedly destroyed a cell phone, vacuum, etc during a confrontation at his kid’s mother’s home.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33107896/kansas-city-chiefs-willie-gay-arrested-misdemeanor-criminal-property-damage-charge?platform=amp
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33107896/kansas-city-chiefs-willie-gay-arrested-misdemeanor-criminal-property-damage-charge?platform=amp
View: https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/status/1484667427015340039
NFL now no longer testing even unvaxxed players. Sounds Trumpish... I bet Rodgers is real happy.
NFL now no longer testing even unvaxxed players. Sounds Trumpish... I bet Rodgers is real happy.
It may just be "preventive maintenance" to ensure the playoffs aren't affected by positive tests. It's not Rodgers since with the old rules he wouldn't be tested again until after the CCG.
Nothing to see here as usual, says Andy Reid.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33117687/despite-midweek-arrest-kansas-city-chiefs-lb-willie-gay-play-sunday-says-andy-reid
Can't believe I'll have to root for the Bills this weekend.
As far as the Pats’s nemeses go (now and years past), the Bills are as tame as it gets. No truly hatable players, and their fans have to live in Buffalo, so they know they’ve got one foot in the grave when comes to talking shit.
Media really took it to Reid after this response, except that they didn’t at all.
"I decided he would play,'' Reid said. "I'm not going to get into the conversations [with Gay]. I decided that after hearing just some of the information there.''
But god forbid he sit a struggling corner in the Super Bowl, then the screws will really get put on him. Well, maybe?
"I decided he would play,'' Reid said. "I'm not going to get into the conversations [with Gay]. I decided that after hearing just some of the information there.''
But god forbid he sit a struggling corner in the Super Bowl, then the screws will really get put on him. Well, maybe?
Bingo.
Mahomes also has the strangest walking gait of any great athlete I’ve ever seen, and - among the many other reasons to root against KC - I choose to hold that against him and his team.
I was going to mention him, but they’ve had to contend with bigger jerk coaches amongst their greatest enemies: Rex Ryan, Eric Mangini, Jim Harbaugh, Tony Dungy, Jeff Fisher, and if you go way back, the biggest asshole of them all, Don Shula.
We haven’t fully experienced the chirpy, superior, entitled version of the Bills and their fans. Give them time! (Allen is great though; demeanor, likeability as a human actually reminds me of Bledsoe.)
Oh… I don’t know… Cole Beasley, Dawson Knox, Jerry Hughes are three complete jackwagons for starters. Allen complains to the refs every other play, as good as he is. The two safeties are lauded, but they’re pretty prickish. Stefan Diggs is a diva. McDermott is an epic red ass.
I’m rooting for Buffalo the rest of the way (it would be a great story), but calling them a bunch of likeable guys is a bit of a stretch.
(Note: of course the Pats continuously have an equal number of toolbag)
I’m rooting for Buffalo the rest of the way (it would be a great story), but calling them a bunch of likeable guys is a bit of a stretch.
(Note: of course the Pats continuously have an equal number of toolbag)
I don't know who you're responding to exactly, but I said "not truly hatable", which isn't nearly the same as "likable."
Here are some hatable players from Pats nemeses (current and past):
Tyreek Hill
Richie Incognito
Bart Scott
Terrell Suggs
Joey Porter
Bernard Pollard
Ray Lewis
Travis Kelce
Ray Rice
T.J. Ward
Ben Rothlisberger
Ndamukong Suh
The guys you name aren't in the same category. Beasley's vaccine stance is ignorant and criminal, but on the field he's far from the biggest douche the Pats have faced. That he's the most easily hated guy on that team supports my point.
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The Bills haven't won enough for me to truly hate them. KC has. It's really that simple for me. I mean, the amount of shit Pats fans (and media as well) talked after that win in Buffalo was ridiculous too, of course their fanbase will be riled up after destroying this nemesis in the playoffs. Let's just hope it becomes a rivalry from here on out. But I'll agree that Bills fans are waaaay too cocky for a team that hasn't really done a lot apart from not sucking the past few years.
I'm probably biased by some Buffalo fans I've befriended along the way, but they have a fatalism to their fandom which I can empathize with. It's not all that unlike Red Sox fans who remember what it was like pre-2004. The Bills fans I know fully expect their season to end the same way it always does: with pain and suffering. Of course, the ones I know are all old enough to have seen them lose four Super Bowls in a row, as well as the Music City Miracle (which they may get a chance to avenge this year). They're hoping for the best and planning for the worst, but I think they feel pretty good about their chances, all things considered. And they probably should. Their season likely will end in pain and suffering, because that's usually how it ends for everyone, but I think they've got as good a shot as anybody this year. It also seems like a real tough field. Other than maybe Cinci, it's a bunch of usual suspects that everybody thought would be in the mix. No easy outs.
That’s put pretty well. I have a good friend that’s a Bill’s fan and I’ve always felt bad for him when watching games, wh I always found odd because he’s kind of a prick. Now I understand my empathy.
Also, in 2010 I went to a pats bills game in Buffalo with my brother and sister. The fans were great, gave us booze they snuck in and gave a few assholes tons of shit when they started screaming at us. They also asked us what it was like to be a Pats fan and wondered what it would be like to have a great team to root for, so I really enjoyed embellishing the answer to that question to further sadden them.
Also, fuck the chiefs.
edit: spelling
Also, in 2010 I went to a pats bills game in Buffalo with my brother and sister. The fans were great, gave us booze they snuck in and gave a few assholes tons of shit when they started screaming at us. They also asked us what it was like to be a Pats fan and wondered what it would be like to have a great team to root for, so I really enjoyed embellishing the answer to that question to further sadden them.
Also, fuck the chiefs.
edit: spelling
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The city of Buffalo has two major sports teams, the Bills and Sabres, that have over 110 seasons between them and has never seen a championship. Their fans are predominantly fatalistic and it will be interesting to see how they act if/when they do hoist the Cup or a Lombardi.