NFL Thread

[meowmommy]

4 hours ago, JTMacc99 said:

At this point, it seems like the coaches are going out of their way to be trailing 20-10 so they can tell Jones "you've got them right where you want them."

IIRC, the year Eli won his first SB, the talk all season was how many come-from-behind wins he was racking up.  Never mind that generally you don't want to be in a position where you have to come from behind.  In the end the win is all that matters.

But whoever is listing Jacksonville as the favorite in this game needs to step away from the crack pipe. 

[Carey]

Washington QB Wentz to have surgery on his throwing hand

[merylinkid]

3 hours ago, Mountainair said:

Panthers have been a shit show since our SB appearance in 2016. I’ve been attending one game a year since around 2009 but I’m done now

Speaking of ruined teams, Houston FINALLY fired Jack Easterby.   The former team chaplain of the Patriots who somehow conned Houston ownership into making him VP of Football Operations despite his considerable lack of experience in that department and his LIES on his resume.   

The relief from some is, shall we say, palpable.   More than a few comments along the lines of how he took a good team and destroyed it because he had no clue.   One person referred to his as Pigskin Osteen and I literally cannot stop laughing at that.

[Chit Chat]

2 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

I do think the Patriot's organization is run tighter than the Bucs.  Although neither organization could control Antonio Brown

I know that TB is getting a lot of negative press at the moment, but aside from his stuff, I wonder how much issue (if any) there is since Arians isn't the head coach now.   I'm looking at all angles at this point: new players?  Injuries?  Coaches? Owners?   I don't think their issues fall on just one person though.  What gives, guys?  Mr. Chat and I are back to being 'Long Suffering Buc's fans", and it sucks!

[bluegirl147]

36 minutes ago, ChitChat said:

I know that TB is getting a lot of negative press at the moment, but aside from his stuff, I wonder how much issue (if any) there is since Arians isn't the head coach now.   I'm looking at all angles at this point: new players?  Injuries?  Coaches? Owners?   I don't think their issues fall on just one person though.  What gives, guys?  Mr. Chat and I are back to being 'Long Suffering Buc's fans", and it sucks!

Arians didn't leave as coach voluntarily did he?

And wasn't there rumors Brady wanted to go to Miami?

Off the field drama usually leads to on the field drama.

[Lady Whistleup]

I once saw a film Brady made of him spending the offseason in an informal boot camp with other players. They were vacationing but really playing football nonstop together. I thought it was telling that during the offseason, he still spends all his time .. playing football.

I don't think he has an off switch at this point. Football has been his life since he was a little kid. His body didn't give out on him the way they give out on other famous athletes either. Think of Kobe's last years -- the ferocious competitiveness was still there, but he had so many injuries he just couldn't do it anymore. Brady's body hasn't shut down yet.

[Fukui San]

The thing is that Brady doesn't outwork the competition anymore. He takes Wednesday practices off, he goes off to New York on Friday night to attend Bob Kraft's wedding. He missed half of the Bucs' training camp. It's perfectly understandable that he doesn't want to do the full grind anymore. But he can't just elevate his game by just showing up, his team has deteriorated a bit this year with injuries and departures, the coaching has to be seen as a downgrade from Bruce Arians who is a downgrade from Bill Belichick.

Just the truth is that it's hard to maintain a team at the top. Take a look at how last year's Super Bowl participants are doing, and appreciate the ones who can manage long term success like Belichick, Andy Reid, Tomlin (until this year), Harbaugh, and it appears now Sean McDermott.

BTW, Brady's "worst" New England years were the ones in which he couldn't trust his offensive line due to multiple injuries during the season. Aside from the Moss years Brady never had truly elite receiving options, but Belichick did his best to keep the OL strong and deep and that usually resulted in top 5 and 10 offenses. The years where a run of OL injuries kept him on the run were the ones where Brady was the most visibly frustrated.

[Xeliou66]

This Broncos/Chargers game is a total flag-fest so far, extremely sloppy game.

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

Arians didn't leave as coach voluntarily did he?

He resigned.  Here was his statement at the time:

"I really began thinking about my personal transition plan earlier this offseason. I wanted to ensure when I walked away that Todd Bowles would have the best opportunity to succeed," Arians said. "So many head coaches come into situations where they are set up for failure, and I didn't want that for Todd.

"Tom [Brady's] decision to come back, along with Jason and his staff doing another great job of keeping the core of this team intact during free agency, confirmed for me that it was the right time to pass the torch to Todd."

It's still somewhat of a mystery to me.  It's pretty clear by what he said that he resigned, but I'm always looking for the hidden meaning or conspiracy behind such decisions!!  

[Lamb18]

Broncos/Chargers tied at 10 at the half!

[Lamb18]

Oops, not quite, Broncos got another field goal, so they lead 13-10.

[twoods]

I’m sure this game is going to end with a tie.

[Moose135]

12 minutes ago, twoods said:

I’m sure this game is going to end with a tie.

Almost...

[Xeliou66]

Hopkins wins it for the Chargers in OT. Something of an ugly game, a lot of penalties and both offenses struggled, the Broncos looked awful on offense after the 1st quarter, they’ve flat out sucked on offense for most of the season, Wilson is playing the worst football of his career. The Chargers offense didn’t look great either, but the Broncos have major issues.

[twoods]

Maybe they will finally fire the Denver offensive coordinator. I know he’s a new hire but they are awful. What a dumpster fire they were after the first half.

Edited October 18, 2022 by twoods

[Carey]

If real life rewind was a decent thing, I'd go back to advise Planet Earth your time would've been best served watching people sit for several hours during a rain delay, coupled with reruns of The Cube

[roamyn]

2 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Hopkins wins it for the Chargers in OT. Something of an ugly game, a lot of penalties and both offenses struggled, the Broncos looked awful on offense after the 1st quarter, they’ve flat out sucked on offense for most of the season, Wilson is playing the worst football of his career. The Chargers offense didn’t look great either, but the Broncos have major issues.

Even Al was highly critical of both offenses, on National TV.  It sounded almost like he was disgusted w/the NFLs and ESPNs programming departments, to keep scheduling these crap showcases and teams.

[meowmommy]

1 hour ago, roamyn said:

Even Al was highly critical of both offenses, on National TV.  It sounded almost like he was disgusted w/the NFLs and ESPNs programming departments, to keep scheduling these crap showcases and teams.

Al who?

[roamyn]

5 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Al who?

Isn’t it Al Michaels who does MNF?

I never know the commentators names, I rarely pay attention to their jibber jabber.  I just happened to have the volume on reg setting on our tv.

Edited October 18, 2022 by roamyn

[Carey]

38 minutes ago, roamyn said:

Isn’t it Al Michaels who does MNF?

I never know the commentators names, I rarely pay attention to their jibber jabber.  I just happened to have the volume on reg setting on our tv.

No it's not Al Michaels LOL. He hasn't done MNF in over a decade & a half.

To be fair, Al & Kirk have had their share of garbage games, so there could be confusion.  They did recently call yet another Broncos primetime game.  And yes, you watch the game for the game, not for the announcers.

For the record, it is Joe Buck on play by play.  I guess one could say that I'd rather watch the game and tune out the announcers when he's calling it!

[mojoween]

On 10/17/2022 at 5:59 AM, mojoween said:

Think we’ll find out tonight just how big the NFL is against everyone else.

MNF has an exciting, yet inconsistent quarterback going against a team that is not very good, and everyone seems to be mad at.  Baseball has an elimination game with a team chasing history against the marquee franchise (I know how obnoxious that is, but I don’t think I’m wrong).

The ratings for TBS vs. ESPN will be interesting.

And now we’ll never know …

[twoods]

Yeah, Al now has the honor of the Thursday night football games, and it’s hilarious his open disgust at how boring most of those games are.

[Carey]

24 minutes ago, mojoween said:

On 10/17/2022 at 5:59 AM, mojoween said:

Think we’ll find out tonight just how big the NFL is against everyone else.

MNF has an exciting, yet inconsistent quarterback going against a team that is not very good, and everyone seems to be mad at.  Baseball has an elimination game with a team chasing history against the marquee franchise (I know how obnoxious that is, but I don’t think I’m wrong).

The ratings for TBS vs. ESPN will be interesting.

And now we’ll never know …

Literally speaking, we will never know, but yesterday's Game 5 postponement changes nothing toward who's king.  And that's in the case that Yankees/Cleveland beats Broncos/Chargers in the ratings.

If it had won Monday night, the league would've been onto Saints/Cardinals while Rob Manfred and company engaged in plans for a victory parade.  It's big market Yankees over a slop-fest.  And if the NFL won the night, it a non-shocker since it's football.  Though if it had been New York vs a division rival (not just Boston), then that would really have been interesting.

Not to knock on Cleveland even though I often do, but despite a winner-take-all Game 5, the thrill would not have been there.  It has to be a later round, especially the fall classic for bigger interest

[xaxat]

Is Russell Wilson's new five year/245 million dollar contract going to be one of the worst signings ever? (Nor to mention all of the draft picks Denver traded to get him.)

[Lamb18]

I did 9 correct, 5 incorrect on my picks last week.  Now for week 7. Picks based on what's best for Vikings, underdogs, who I want to win and who I don't want to win.

Saints vs Cardinals*
Browns vs Ravens
Falcons vs Bengals
Detroit vs Cowboys (this is a tough one but I don't think Vikings' division lead will be ruined if Detroit wins one)
Packers vs Commanders
Buccaneers vs Panthers
Giants vs Jaguars
Colts vs Titans
Texans vs Raiders
Jets vs Broncos
Seahawks vs Chargers
Chiefs vs 49ers
Steelers vs Dolphins (another exciting Sunday night matchup)
Bears vs Patriots

Edited October 22, 2022 by Lamb18

[Fukui San]

18 minutes ago, xaxat said:

Is Russell Wilson's new five year/245 million dollar contract going to be one of the worst signings ever? (Nor to mention all of the draft picks Denver traded to get him.)

What are some other candidates? Brock Osweiler would have to be up there. The Texans spent a 2nd round pick just to get rid of him. 

[Lamb18]

The Hershel Walker trade from Cowboys to Vikings has to be the worst ever (from Vikings' point of view). Cowboys won a superbowl off of that trade.

[Carey]

30 minutes ago, Lamb18 said:

I did 9 correct, 5 incorrect on my picks last week.  Now for week 7. Picks based on what's best for Vikings, underdogs, who I want to win and who I don't want to win.

Saints vs Cardinals
Browns vs Ravens
Falcons vs Bengals
Detroit vs Cowboys (this is a tough one but I don't think Vikings' division lead will be ruined if Detroit wins one)
Packers vs Commanders
Buccaneers vs Panthers
Giants vs Jaguars
Colts vs Titans
Texans vs Raiders
Jets vs Broncos
Seahawks vs Chargers
Chiefs vs 49ers
Steelers vs Dolphins (another exciting Sunday night matchup)
Bears vs Patriots

Not sure if these are straight up or against the spread (likely the former), but given the parity, there's a chance it'll be 12 to 14 correct.  What makes it difficult is you never know what New York team will show up.  They seem to do the exact opposite of one's prediction win or lose

[mojoween]

Black Friday football is something no one has asked for, but something we’re all getting.

And I bitch and moan, and will also watch the game on the iPad, because the stream on the TV is SHITT-AY, because I just don’t not watch football.  Sigh.

[Carey]

7 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Black Friday football is something no one has asked for, but something we’re all getting.

And I bitch and moan, and will also watch the game on the iPad, because the stream on the TV is SHITT-AY, because I just don’t not watch football.  Sigh.

Yeah I heard about it not too long ago.  I'll say this right away: If they put the Steelers on Black Friday, that'll suck, but in the aftermath of something that's very possible, I'll be okay with it.

That would be a slap in the face; it's the one week where you'd take a short week (unless it's a road game); it'll still be a short week, but on a day people would be doing something else.

While the players do not have a choice I don't think, civilians do (for the most part).  It's one thing that many of these games make real garbage & trash look glorious.  It's another to continue to place these on days people would and are doing other things outside of the NFL (just like Thursday).  Furthermore, that's a nice open date for Daytime College Football.

If it's at night, then that may be fair enough, but because the NFL continues to stretch and add, they'll add 2 games down the road, which would be 4:30 in addition to an 8:15 start.

More than not, the NFL has done well, despite an abundance of negative stuff.  I'll continue to watch until I'm dead, since for the most part, it's entertaining.  I have skipped a ton this year, mainly because it's early in the season & have executed my right to turn the TV off and do/watch something else.  I'll admit that I sorta want those emails disclosed if it meant booting out the "bad guys" that might have something to hide.  I'd rather not since a big mess, while pimping up Karma, could result in a much, much worse product (before it better down the road)

[Lamb18]

7 hours ago, Carey said:

Not sure if these are straight up or against the spread (likely the former), but given the parity, there's a chance it'll be 12 to 14 correct.  What makes it difficult is you never know what New York team will show up.  They seem to do the exact opposite of one's prediction win or lose

Well my picks have nothing to do with the spread as I really don't know what that is. I think it's to do with how the betting is going? But I don't think I will have 12 or 14 correct because there are only 14 games. I thought getting 9 out of 14 was decent because my picks are just personal preference, like my March Madness picks are (Big 10 and underdogs).

[Lamb18]

I'm watching the Vikings/Dolphins game. I only saw and heard bits of it on Sunday. Miami is better than I realized, especially their defense. Vikings couldn't do anything until the 2nd quarter when they finally had a scoring drive.

So the Steelers/Dolphins game next Sunday night may be way more interesting than I thought.

[Carey]

Not what I wanted to hear haha

[Xeliou66]

24 minutes ago, Lamb18 said:

I'm watching the Vikings/Dolphins game. I only saw and heard bits of it on Sunday. Miami is better than I realized, especially their defense. Vikings couldn't do anything until the 2nd quarter when they finally had a scoring drive.

So the Steelers/Dolphins game next Sunday night may be way more interesting than I thought.

The Dolphins have a good team - I like what they have, and if it wasn’t for the constant injuries at QB they would have a better record IMO. I think if Tua stays healthy now they should make the playoffs. They do need to have a better rushing attack though, they have 2 capable backs in Mostert and Edmonds and they should try to balance their offense more.

[Lamb18]

1 hour ago, Xeliou66 said:

The Dolphins have a good team - I like what they have, and if it wasn’t for the constant injuries at QB they would have a better record IMO. I think if Tua stays healthy now they should make the playoffs. They do need to have a better rushing attack though, they have 2 capable backs in Mostert and Edmonds and they should try to balance their offense more.

The game's almost over and I can see Miami is a pretty good team. So I hope they beat the rest of the NFC North and get some more wins.

Dalvin Cook just made that long running touchdown and you hear all this cheering. It's Dalvin's family and friends! Plus there's a couple of other guys on the team who are from Miami.

Forgot to say I liked the double doink interception.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Lamb18

[Carey]

4 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

Well my picks have nothing to do with the spread as I really don't know what that is. I think it's to do with how the betting is going? But I don't think I will have 12 or 14 correct because there are only 14 games. I thought getting 9 out of 14 was decent because my picks are just personal preference, like my March Madness picks are (Big 10 and underdogs).

The spread is basically predicting how many points a team will beat another team or how many points a team will lose by.  Certain people make those decisions and people guess based off of that.  For example, if sports experts thought Buffalo should beat Kansas City by 6 points, but fans figured that the Chiefs would not lose by six points, but maybe four points, then you'd pick Kansas to lose by a margin that's less than 6 points.  In other words, one would mark down Chiefs (not necessarily to win the game, but not lose the game by six or more points).

It's a rather neat way of predicting games, in case you ever ran into this stuff down the road.  In college football, certain places make people bet "against the spread" since the best team in the country, who isn't losing to the worst team in the country, may or may not win by 50 points.

Anyway, Lamb, I agree that Sunday's game now looks better than I thought it would a couple weeks ago.  Miami came back down to Earth, and Pittsburgh, who was the worst team in the league at this spot a week ago, might not be close to that anymore.  The Steelers lost 2 games by a TD or more: on a short week and against the best team in the league, both on the road.  The other two losses could've been avoidable.  No QB, lost their DPOY, and there's a ton of parity everywhere.

The Dolphins have had their starting QB knocked out of their games 4 times in a row.  Depending on what happens to the QBs on both teams, things can go one way or the other.  FWIW, if Pittsburgh does win, then out of nowhere they'd jump ahead of Miami (both 3-4 but head-to-head plays out)

[Danielg342]

35 minutes ago, Carey said:

The spread is basically predicting how many points a team will beat another team or how many points a team will lose by.  Certain people make those decisions and people guess based off of that.  For example, if sports experts thought Buffalo should beat Kansas City by 6 points, but fans figured that the Chiefs would not lose by six points, but maybe four points, then you'd pick Kansas to lose by a margin that's less than 6 points.  In other words, one would mark down Chiefs (not necessarily to win the game, but not lose the game by six or more points).

As I understand it, the betting companies set the initial spread and adjust it as the bets actually come in. So if you've got a game where Team X is favoured over Team Y by 10.5 but a large number of bettors start picking Team Y, the spread may go down to 9.5 or 8.5 or further based on the activity.

(If anyone is wondering how a spread could have .5 of a point in a sport where that isn't possible, it's to make sure the bet either wins or loses. This means a bet on "X favoured by 10.5" only wins if X wins by at least 11. 10 points or fewer and the bettor loses)

Now, the actual spread for Bills at Chiefs was Buffalo by 2.5. The Bills beat the spread by one and a half points. So anyone who bet on Buffalo won their bets. However, if the game ended 24-23 for Buffalo, anyone who bet on Kansas City would have won instead, as, although the Chiefs lost the actual game, they lost it by a margin that's less than what the betting companies set, so as far as the bettors are concerned, that's a KC victory because they "beat the spread".

Thus, the spread adds a bit of a dynamic to betting, which can either be fun or dangerous, especially in the NFL. It's why you don't see large spreads in the NFL- for example, the Bills-Steelers game was expected to be a rout (and it was) but Buffalo was favoured by only 13.5, which is high by NFL standards. Since the talent gap isn't very wide in the NFL even amongst the best and worst performing teams, there's a real chance that even an apparent mismatch will still have a close score.

Case in point: in Week 11 of the 1990 season, the New England Patriots at 1-8 (yes, there actually was a time the Patriots were a trainwreck) travelled to Buffalo to face the 8-1 Bills. Three weeks prior, Buffalo beat New England 27-10 at Foxboro. Buffalo entered the game winners of their last seven with the last two of those games 30-point victories over the Browns and Cardinals. New England entered with seven straight losses and facing multiple controversies off the field. Despite the fact Marv Levy actually said- with sincerity- that the Patriots were going to be a challenge, the Patriots themselves (even their own coach, Ron Rust) seem to all believe to a man that the game against Buffalo would be hopeless.

The spread? 14.5. As Vic Carucci said in his book about the 1990 Bills, "everyone expected a rout".

How'd the game actually go? Buffalo got a touchdown on their opening drive, but then Scott Norwood missed a field goal (surprise, surprise) on the next and the game turned into a defensive contest. The Patriots actually had fourth and goal on the one-inch line and were stuffed. The Bills only put the game away in (literally) the final minute when Thurman Thomas broke out for an 80-yard touchdown run.

The final score was 14-0 for Buffalo. So, if you bet on the Bills that day, you actually would have lost.

It's one reason why I don't bet, because so many things can go wrong. I'm sure it's fun for others and they can make it work but the risk is too much for me.

[mojoween]

Interesting, with all that he has been through, that Jim Irsay is the one to take the first shot against Daniel Snyder (while appearing to not know the new Washington team name).

Edited October 19, 2022 by mojoween

[merylinkid]

58 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Interesting, with all that he has been through, that Jim Irsay is the one to take the first shot against Daniel Snyder (while appearing to not know the new Washington team name).

Irsay is the one who CAN do it.   What could Snyder possibly threaten to disclose about him?   Pretty much everything is publicly known.   So Irsay can pretty much say "Go F yourself Snyder, I ain't afraid of you."

15 hours ago, Carey said:

While the players do not have a choice I don't think, civilians do (for the most part).  It's one thing that many of these games make real garbage & trash look glorious.  It's another to continue to place these on days people would and are doing other things outside of the NFL (just like Thursday).  Furthermore, that's a nice open date for Daytime College Football.

My firsth thougt when I heard this was "At least its better than people going to the store and beating people up to get the latest hot toy."    Sure people have other things to do on Thanksgiving, but the numbers are still WAAAAAY up for those games.    The games are so good for ratings there is annual argument for taking the first game away from the Lions since they are usually so bad.   Face it, if the NFL puts a game on, people will watch it.   There needs to be a major shift (and the handling of concussions this year MIGHT do it) before people choose ANYTHING else ove the NFL.   

[mojoween]

I am fully prepared to die on the “Detroit will always have the first Thanksgiving game, regardless of how terrible they may or may not be” hill.

They stepped up when no one else wanted it and I have watched them at noon on Turkey Day my entire life, and I’m not stopping.

[merylinkid]

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

I am fully prepared to die on the “Detroit will always have the first Thanksgiving game, regardless of how terrible they may or may not be” hill.

They stepped up when no one else wanted it and I have watched them at noon on Turkey Day my entire life, and I’m not stopping.

You and I finally agree on something.  I also believe the Lions deserve the early game on Thanksgiving for that exact same reason .

Now if I could onky get you to give up your irrational love of the New Jersey Giants.

[mojoween]

I believe that I have related this anecdote before - when I was 13, I was explained the rules of football while attending a high school football game.  The next day, I finally sat down and watched a game with my dad, which happened to feature New York.  The Giants pasted the Packers something like 52-7 and it was exciting because I understood what was going on.

I fell in love with Pepper Johnson and also, Phil Simms was the most beautiful football player that 13 year old girl had ever seen.

The New York Football Giants became my team in November 1986 and that, as they say, was that.

At the time, CBS was always NFC and NBC was always AFC, so imagine if my dad was watching the Bills or Jets.  I’m so happy he turned on channel 5 that afternoon.

[Colleenna]

22 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

I did 9 correct, 5 incorrect on my picks last week.  Now for week 7. Picks based on what's best for Vikings, underdogs, who I want to win and who I don't want to win.

Saints vs Cardinals
Browns vs Ravens
Falcons vs Bengals
Detroit vs Cowboys (this is a tough one but I don't think Vikings' division lead will be ruined if Detroit wins one)
Packers vs Commanders
Buccaneers vs Panthers
Giants vs Jaguars
Colts vs Titans
Texans vs Raiders
Jets vs Broncos
Seahawks vs Chargers
Chiefs vs 49ers
Steelers vs Dolphins (another exciting Sunday night matchup)
Bears vs Patriots

I'm a Steelers fan and a total  efing yinzer, but there's  nfw the Steelers beat the Dolphins.  

[xaxat]

35 minutes ago, Colleenna said:

I'm a Steelers fan and a total  efing yinzer, but there's  nfw the Steelers beat the Dolphins.  

There was no effin way they could beat Tom Brady and the Bucs.

But they did.

[bluegirl147]

17 minutes ago, xaxat said:

There was no effin way they could beat Tom Brady and the Bucs.

But they did.

The Steelers have a history of beating teams they shouldn't. They also have a history of losing to teams they shouldn't.  This game could go either way.  But I think my Black and Gold wins.  Pickett is starting and we get Fitzpatrick back.  It will be close but I think Boswell wins it with a FG.

[Carey]

1 hour ago, xaxat said:

2 hours ago, Colleenna said:

I'm a Steelers fan and a total  efing yinzer, but there's  nfw the Steelers beat the Dolphins.  

There was no effin way they could beat Tom Brady and the Bucs.

But they did.

1 hour ago, bluegirl147 said:

The Steelers have a history of beating teams they shouldn't. They also have a history of losing to teams they shouldn't.  This game could go either way.  But I think my Black and Gold wins.  Pickett is starting and we get Fitzpatrick back.  It will be close but I think Boswell wins it with a FG.

The Steelers do have that history, but it has been very, very, minimal against TB12.  Outside of that, the history of beating the best is fairly decent.  Usually comes down to a WFG, road or home.

I'm with xaxat here.  Miami might win, but it's not that far-fetched, given everything, more recent stuff.

I will agree (for the most part) that it's doubtful they beat Philly, even if the Eagles were 1-5

[bluegirl147]

6 minutes ago, Carey said:

Outside of that, the history of beating the best is fairly decent

6 minutes ago, Carey said:

I will agree (for the most part) that it's doubtful they beat Philly, even if the Eagles were 1-5

I remember the year they beat the undefeated Patriots and Eagles.  But I don't foresee them beating the Eagles this year.   But it sure would be nice if they did.

[meowmommy]

9 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Now if I could onky get you to give up your irrational love of the New Jersey Giants.

You didn't ask me of course, but my love goes way earlier than Mojoween's, back to the 1960s.  The Giants, who then actually played in New York, were not only New York's, but New England's team.  There was no Boston Patriots team, and for that matter, there was no NY Jets team, until around the beginning of the decade, and being sucky AFL expansion teams, they didn't really start taking fans away from the Giants for a long, long time.  And being a Boston team wasn't the same as representing all of New England, anyway.  That was something they added on in the 70s.  So as a kid, I took on the Giants' fandom mantle.  Even though they sucked for the next two decades.  And even though I left New England as a kid, not returning for another 23 years.  To this day, there are tons of Giants fans in Southern New England.

And I don't have a thing for blond guys, so my love for Phil Simms extended only as far as he could throw the football.  My favorite Giants QB, even though he only played there for five years, has always been Fran Tarkenton.

I'll add another note on giving up irrational love.  A few years ago, a co-worker scornfully upbraided me for not switching allegiance because I had moved to Arizona.  I just felt pity for her.  I'll take the Giants' 4 SB wins over Arizona's none, but even that isn't really relevant.  A true fan sticks with their team, no matter what.  Even -- gulp -- your team, Merylinkid.  😉

[Lamb18]

My young heart broke when Fran Tarkenton left the Vikings and was replaced with DUI king Tommy Kramer.

[Xeliou66]

Here are my predictions for Week 7 (to clarify, these are straight up picks, not against the spread or anything)

Cardinals over Saints. 
Bengals over Falcons. 
Cowboys over Lions.  
Colts over Titans. 
Packers over Commanders. 
Buccaneers over Panthers. 
Giants over Jaguars.  
Ravens over Browns. 
Jets over Broncos   
Raiders over Texans. 
Chargers over Seahawks. 
Chiefs over 49ers  
Dolphins over Steelers.  
Patriots over Bears.