Well we’re here. After a weird year with no preseason, we’re going to get some football games before everything falls apart later on. I feel weirdly detached and not hyped at all after no preseason, it doesn’t really feel like football is starting. But tomorrow it will.
I like to give the schedule with the betting lines in case you want to discuss that. Whichever team is favored will have a -# point spread next to them, and the end of the line is the over/under.
Thursday night
HOU @ KC -9 | 54.5
Sunday early
SEA -1.5 @ ATL | 48.5
NYJ @ BUF -6.5 | 39
CHI @ DEF -3 | 43.5
GB @ MIN -2.5 | 45
MIA @ NE -6.5 | 42
PHI -6 @ WAS | 42.5
LV -3 @ CAR | 48
IND -8 @ JAX | 45.5
CLE @ BAL -8 | 48.5
Sunday late
LAC -3 @ CIN | 43
TB @ NO -3.5 | 48
ARI @ SF -7 | 48
I am severely disturbed that the title of the thread isn’t something like NFL Week One is the Loneliest Number or NFL Week One Day at a Time.
I’ll admit, I’m desperate to watch some live NFL football. And with such a bizarre offseason, it will be fascinating to see what happens. I doubt they’ll make it through the year without having to cancel or postpone a game, but I’ve been impressed how well the training camps have gone. “According to data released Tuesday, the league tested 2,641 players and 5,708 other personnel between Aug. 30 and Sept. 5. In addition to the one player, seven other staff members also produced a positive result. Since the true start of training camp Aug. 12, a total of 24 people have produced confirmed positive tests.”
That’s a lot better than I had thought. Although, with this pandemic, it only takes one to fuck everything up. Here’s hoping they can keep it up.
As far as the playing goes, I expect a lot of sloppiness early, with more established teams having a huge advantage. I wouldn’'t be surprised if the Chiefs simply march over everyone.
The Packers Vikings game should be awesome, but most of these games will draw attention to see how the changes are looking. Hell, even the Bucs are interesting this week.
A lot to watch, and I’m going to try and catch as much of it as I can. GO PACK GO.
I’m of two minds - first is “Yay! Football!” Second is “this is a really bad idea and more than a few people will get really sick, or worse, because of this”. But I’ll be watching, because geaux Saints.
Maybe I’m just not reading sports related news enough, but I get the impression that the other leagues that have started up have been facing fewer COVID problems than one might expect. The only major incident I heard of was an entire team dropping out in MLB. Am I mistaken? Do current sports playing have anything whatsoever to tell us about football season, given the differences in team size? What kind of precautions are teams and the league taking, especially ones unique to them?
The NHL and the NBA have been playing their extended playoff sessions in a “bubble”. The NHL in Edmonton and Toronto, the NBA in Orlando. I haven’t been paying too much attention to MLS, European soccer, or any other team sport other than baseball. Which has been bad at times with cases and potential cases going through clubhouses and the league changing their rules to keep up. So lots of double-headers to make up games that have been reduced to 7 inning games (like minor league ball), the DH in both leagues, the automatic man on second starting extra innings, and so on.
The NFL might be able to pull it off. After all, MLB is traveling between stadiums. But there is so little room to reschedule if a situation like the Marlins or the Cardinals (just to name two teams that had bad cases) happens I don’t know what will happen. Did the NFL put in multiple floating bye weeks to allow for that sort of flexibility?
In any case, I’m looking forward to it for as long as it lasts. I expect the games will be terrible in a way not seen since the replacement refs. I almost want a Washington Football Team T-shirt or something similar just because the sheer genericness of it seems to sum up this year perfectly.
Good, fun, and well played first half of the first game of the season. It’s weird to me to see so many people in so close contact; I guess the pandemic has drilled social distancing into my head.
No team in MLB has actually been forced to (permanently) drop out of play. The Marlins had a significant outbreak just after the season started, and the Cardinals had another big outbreak soon after; both teams were forced to stop playing for some time (IIRC, the Marlins for over a week, the Cardinals for about three weeks), but they were both able to eventually get back to playing baseball.
And, since those initial two outbreaks, further issues with positive COVID tests in MLB have been fairly minor.
Was proud of Edwards-Elaire. He’s clearly a good running back, but Andy Reid didn’t use him as much as he could have as a receiver, which made him doubly dangerous at LSU. The only problem I see is inside the goal line. He’s not Eddie Lacy or Marshawn Lynch; he’s not going to break through the goal line inside the five.
Thoroughly enjoyed last night’s game, which was a welcome diversion and return to semi-normalcy. Easily the most watchable of all the modified returns to pro sports.
CEH needs to watch Kamara, Ekler and CMC run. The way they avoid big contact and never get stood up in traffic. It was a good showing, but he put himself in harms way unnecessarily on multiple occasions.
As a Chefs fan, I agree. My twitter feed is pretty full of KC media reposting fans’ personal videos of the event, and the audio is MUCH different than what we heard on TV. There are far more people clapping than booing, but any amount of booing was ridiculous.
Hate that Browns have to start at Crackmore for their first game. Probably the hardest game on their schedule and they’re playing with a new coach with no preseason. It’s probably going to be an ass kicking and that’s not a fun way to start the season.
An awful start by the ‘new’ Washington football team. But they’ve settled down a bit and it’s now a 3 point game. Haskins still looks really shaky out there, but he’s what they’ve got so he’ll have every chance to prove it