NFL Time Yet

[EllisDee]

I’m in total agreement with both of you about the pussification of the game, but I still don’t see how that has anything to do with moving the draft to primetime.

@SenorBeef

I’m referring to the city with the nation’s highest STD rates with a stab-happy murder accomplice as the face of their franchise.

Is that better or worse than a rapist? What about an entire team of petty criminals and thugs? What the heck is going on in the AFC North? The Browns are the only respectable team left, and they suck. hehheh.

(I don’t believe the accuser for a second; this has the stink of another Kobe Bryant money-grab. But I probably won’t stop using it to poke Steelers fans / Ben supporters until he retires. “Should’ve drafted Ben instead of Eli!” “You mean the rapist? That may be good enough for the Rooneys, but the Maras have higher standards.” Bwahahahaha!)

[ShadowFacts]

@SenorBeef

My rant was mostly about pussifying the NFL in general, making it more family friendly… and I guess it’s only loosely related to this in terms of mass appeal.

I remember there was a “why you became a Browns fan” thread on the Browns scout board a few months back. He said something like “I grew up in San Diego and I’d gone to a few Chargers games… it was very laid back… people walking around in Sandals, eating fish tacos… no one was that into it… but one time back in the early 90s I went to a Browns game with my friend. There was a jackass in a Steeler’s uniform who started talking some shit… so a few guys went up to him, ripped his jersey off, set fire to it and made him watch it burn right in front of him” and I guess he’s been a fan ever since.
Now the stadium is so ridiculously pussified that you’re just supposed to sit down and shut up the whole time. The blue collar fans are getting priced out and what’s left are what some people refer to as “wine and cheesers”. There are tip lines on the scoreboard where you can call on your cell and complain that the guy next to you is saying some naughty words. The place is locked down tight, and the whole experience suffers for it.

I don’t want actual violence, by the way - for the most part no one should get their ass beat over a football game, but I liked having your rival’s fans know that if they showed up at your stadium in their jerseys and acted like jackasses they were going to pay for it. I liked when the refs actually had to move the game to the other side of the field when it was near the dog pound and they were too out of control.

I do have one fond recent memory of this - in the giant municipal parking lot down the road from Cleveland Browns stadium before the home opener in 2004 we were facing the blight on humanity from the east coast that shall remain nameless. A few times when a fan with the oppositions jersey was walking by on their way to the stadium, one guy would run out from behind a bus and dump water on him, and then a second guy would follow up and dump a ton of flour onto him. Glorious.

I agree with you to a certain extent, but I definitely have a different idea of what is acceptable behavior at a game. “Jerk” lines and no swearing = lame. Ripping off someone’s jersey and setting it on fire?! No fuckin’ way. That’s completely out of line and incredibly unsafe. I would hope that someone who did that would not only be kicked out, but banned from the stadium and maybe fined.

Now the water and flour stunt - that’s funny!