The bill has come due for the NFL

Two good football games on yesterday. The Saints had 1st down inside the 20 twice early in the first quarter. Not getting a touchdown in either possession is why they lost.

The Patriots are the Patriots. It has been awesome watching Tom Brady for eighteen years

 

Both of those games were officiated poorly, especially the NFC one. Rumor had it that Goodell (hate him) wanted to revitalize the franchise, there's a stadium involved as well, big market as CMG pointed out and Goodell hates both the Saints and the Patriots for different reasons.

I agree that the Saints should have scored at least one TD in the red zone, but they didn't deserve to lose the game by the fact they didn't. Hopefully, this will lead to a rule revision, since there's no way to protest or confirm a non-call. The Saints probably would have won, Drew throwing that interception in OT sealed their fate but there would have been no OT if not for the blown non-call.

And the Pat game, think that was Belachik's strategy to get ahead so when the game turns into an inevitable shootout, they'd never be too behind if at all. That one was the epic game, it did turn out to be decided by a coin toss but it's just as easy to argue the Chiefs would have won if they hadn't be dead the first half. Super Bowl will be anti-climatic, but pretty sure Gronk and maybe even Brady will retire as winners.

 

No offense, but I'm really tired of the Patriots and no disrespect to Tom Brady or the Patriots, they are true champions and I will still cheer on the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Go AFC! The Chiefs were inches away from going to the Super Bowl, but an unnecessary offsides penalty cost the Kansas City defense what was likely the game winning interception. That interception late in the 4th quarter would have allowed the Chiefs to run out the clock and win the game. What a shame!

The Chiefs are long overdue for a Super Bowl win! Super Bowl IV was waaaaay too long ago!

 

Not too many Colts fans care for Brady, either. Of course, the Colts are mostly kneelers nowadays and play to a lot of empty seats in their $700,000,000 taxpayer-funded stadium. We taxpayers want to make life so easy for these Colts and their owner Irsay--they are changing their name to the kneelers.

 

Me and my wife were going through some boxes and I found a ticket stub from a Red Sox game in 2000. I remembered who won, why the winning pitcher was, and who had hit home runs. My wife said I was full of it but when we looked up the stats, I had remembered correctly.

 

Absolutely. I can do this for many games I've attended. I got into the habit of writing the score on the backside of the ticket stub along with a brief highlight of the game. That's getting hard to do nowadays with electronic tickets!

 

I agree. I like having the stubs.

 

Oh, I didn't need to write anything on the back of this particular ticket stub...

 

That’s pretty awesome. I remember it was Dan Gladden who scored the winning run in extras. Probably the most competitive WS in history.

 

Oh man. As a lifelong Braves fan I’ll never forget that game. Smoltz and Morris going head to head. Tough loss but amazing World Series.

 

Wish I'd kept the stub from a Metrodome game almost 2 years later. Game was much less important, but seeing Dave Winfield get hit #3,000 (which set up the 9th-inning tying run) and the Twins rally to win in the 13th was memorable. It was an optional evening event during a week-long conference, the hotel van had long since departed by the end, so about 8 of us to-the-bitter-enders walked the 2 miles across town at 2 AM. No incidents, just a fellow downtown playing a nice Dixieland trumpet with the music echoing off nearby buildings. Only in Minnesota.

 

Let it go man. The NFL isn’t going anywhere. The whole “NFL is dying fantasy” is over.

 

First-Ever Male NFL Cheerleaders Are Headed to Super Bowl:
First-Ever Male NFL Cheerleaders Are Headed to Super Bowl: ‘You Think Atlanta Is Ready for Us?’

The only time I have ever seen male cheerleaders was in the movie, "The Longest Yard" with Adam Sandler.

 

I think there were a lot of male cheerleaders last century, GWB was one IIRC. And the NFL may be really too big to fail, but remember San Francisco is built on the San Andreas fault line.

Back to football, I know everyone is sick of the Patriots, and in all likelihood they will win Sunday again but the sun is finally setting on that dynasty. They have already ruined the whole thing by giving Donald Trump an interview that will be aired in the pregame:

Report: Donald Trump to return to Super Bowl stage with CBS interview on Sunday

Oh, come on, I've always had an alternative, almost bizarre take on why Trump just reopened the government - the Super Bowl this year is in Atlanta, there were people lined up for hours (one of them) because of the TSA shortage last week. Now Trump is friends with the Pats owner, head coach and star QB and none of them would want all this trouble getting to the game.