NFL 2023: Week 16

This continues to be the only division that has all four teams above .500. Overall record is 38-22. The only other division that has a cumulative record over .500 is the NFC North at 31-29.

Just for grins, I just created a scenario in which all four teams from the AFC North can make the playoffs. I’ll post it in the playoff thread.

It’s a VERY mild note, V, but the Washington NFL team is called “Commanders” and the old name is an ethnic slur, so unless we’re specifically discussing the name change we’d prefer not to use that term anymore. I know it’s easy to forget and use the longstanding old name. Thanks!

Hey, I know “Commanders” is super lame, they shoulda gone with “Red Tails” or something, but, still.

RickJay
Moderator

In his defense, he was referring to the last time the Lions won a playoff game, and then the next week they lost to the team from Washington. Which was still called by its old name at the time.

I try to use the term ‘team from Washington’ when discussing the team from Washington prior to the name change.

Okay, I could have used “Washington” instead of the R word. But it wouldn’t have been accurate to say “The Lions lost to the Commanders in the 1991 conference championship game” since the name change was in 2022.

But yeah, I’ll re-word and steer clear.

ETA: Ninja’d by Railer, who said pretty much what I meant.

Again, it’s a very mild note. Just avoid the term if it’s not necessary. It’s a gross word.

Week 17 thread.

“No matter what you change it to, you’ll always be Washington Football Team to me.”

I think that was a better name than “Commanders.”

“Commanders” is in the same vein as Cleveland Guardians. Both franchises correctly decided to retire gross old racist names, but then decided to have a committee come up with the most boringly generic name they could think of. Or maybe they had ChatGPT do it. “Washington Red Tails” and “Cleveland Spiders” would have been incontestably superior names and they just totally blew it.

Yup. Branding by focus group leads to a name that offends no one, but doesn’t excite anyone, either.

(And I say this as a marketing professional, and experienced focus group moderator. :smiley: )

I love arachnids but I can understand why Spiders wasn’t the choice. Too many people who have the phobia of the 8-legs. Some recoil even at the image of an 8-legs on a T-shirt.

At least since superbowl XL the officials aware that the Seahawks have a “12th man” feel like they need to even up the numbers by playing for the opposition.

The Univ. of Richmond (VA) has carried the moniker for decades (Richmond Spiders). Spiders are great at controlling pests. Ickiness/phobia is undeserved.

Guardians is a good name. It’s named after a Cleveland landmark, which is even incorporated into their logo. It’s not generic.

Commanders, I agree that’s extremely generic.

In my Sunday text chains with my gambling buddies, we call them the “Commies.”

Around here, they’re the Salamanders. (There used to be a clothing shop in Georgetown called Commander Salamander).

That’s a Calvin and Hobbes reference unless the shop is too old for that.

I’m not an arachnophobe, but when I woke up one morning in a tent while camping and saw a giant wolf spider inches from my face, my very first thought was not “how lucky I am to have pests in my tent controlled!”

Commander Coriander Salamander and 'Er Singlehander Bellylander!