In no particular order (but the first one is first because I’ve stewed over it for a month)–[list]
[li]the damn add that asks what you would do on your one day off a week, because the wonderful angels of the NFL spend their day off with widows and orphans and lepers and leperous orphaned widows. Well, fuck you, NFL. I work forty hour weeks half the year, and sixty to eighty hour weeks the other half of the year. On top of my two hours of commuting each day. And I make well under the minimum NFL salary, don’t get spring off, etc. It’s wonderful that your pampered prima donnas who have half a year off can make little kids smile, but I’m a little more interested in making my own kids smile.[/li]
[li]Free agency.[/li]
[li]No games September 16, because the players wanted to spend the day with their family. Again, I’m pretty much a working schmuck. I wanted to be with my family on Sept. 12, the 13th, and the 14th. But I had to go to work. I realize that on balance, this might have been the right thing to do, but…[/li]
[li]Ray Lewis. Brian Billick. The Ravens as Super Bowl champs? Come on…[/li]
[li]Instant replay. Nothing better than a game of thundering 300 pound behemoths, fleet-footed running backs and pinpoint passers brought to a screeching halt by a red hankie. A red hankie, for Pete’s sake.[/li]
[li]All the prancing and posing by third-string linebackers who make a tackle after an 8-yard gain when their team is down by three scores.[/li]
[li]Jerry Jones (at least there’s some justice there).[/li]
Last but not least, Norv Turner, Dan Snyder, Marty Schottenheimer, John Cooke, Bill Clinton, or whoever the hell is at fault for the woebegone Redskins.
I agree with most of the second half of your post, though frankly it belongs in the category of sports debate minutae best debated on the moronic emails read at the end of the Jim Rome Show.
Your first three points, I however, find to be an appalling outrage that should be condemned by all except only those that are beyond depravity. The bitterness and anger that you display towards people that have been so gifted as to be professional athletes just oozes out of your post.
Not that I think you would last one day of training camp, or be able to deal with the ramifications of a career that you worked for since being in high school, only to have it cut on an average of four years. And I doubt you will be subjected to the many, many crippling injuries suffered by NFL players in their later years as a result of years of brutal pounding.
But from amatuer style bitterness you descend into unfortunate ignorance, battering NFL players for giving their free time for charitiy. My God, how DARE they or the NFL try to use their role model status to encourage others that look up to them to do good for their community! :eek:
Worse, your unravelling diatribe is completely grounded by complete ignorance when you rail against the NFL for not playing the weekend following the arguably worst tragedy to ever hit our country.
While indeed it was a chance for the NFL players to spend a weekend with their families, it more importantly was a bold recognition by the NFL that sports are so, so unimportant in light of the WTC tragedy. Even if you could make an argument that the NFL should have had games that weekend, it would have been so embroiled in controversy, that it would have undermined the entire slate.
What you need is a new perspective: yes, perhaps football players are overpaid. But their jobs are so unimportant, that they did not have to work Sept 16. Your job and contribution to our society is so important, you did, despite the disparity in paychecks. Even President Bush would be considered underpaid by NFL standards!
I would advise you to think before posting on the BBQ Pit in the future- too many of your remarks were ill-advised to prevent you from being ripped to shreds here.
I guess I’ll go point by point:
Why do you find the NFL charities so offensive? Yes, the football players make more money because us fans give them the money. They do things most of us can only dream of. So they take some time to help others- and the question is only “what would you do?” They are not telling you what to do with your life, just making a suggestion by good example.
Free agency. It’s good and bad- the good is that a player is in control of his own destiny. The bad… that’s another rant.
Do you think it would have been right to play that weekend? In Giants Stadium, in plain sight of the absence of the towers? With families in shock, and everything up in the air about more possible attacks? AND the rest of the sports world looking on to see what the NFL would do? (as evidenced by decisions made by other pro sports that weekend.)
The Ravens won the games. I was unhappy, but they won the damned game. What else would you do? It’s not like it was a vote…
A red hankie? What, does the little yellow hankie offend you too? Or is it the time taken to use technology to assure a FAIR GAME to all those involved? TV timeouts for commercials, injuries, the ends of quarters and the two minute warning stop the “thundering” too. The players are HUMANS. They need an occasional breather.
I agree here, some players celebrate too much- but football is a game of emotion. It’s gonna happen occasionally as a player tries to excite his lackluster team.
Jerry Jones: well, the Cowboys deserve him. “America’s Team”, my ass.
You obviously were a 'Skins fan. I sympathize- I’m not sure where my team is headed, but they are in a rut, too- called Kordell. Hang in there, it’s a long season. Besides, you’ve got Kent Graham now… 
If this isn’t ironic.
It does?
Where?
That is one of the oddest arguments I’ve heard.
You can’t be critical of an occupation or the people that are employed in that occupation if you’re not qualified to do it yourself?
Tell me I read that wrong. Do you really realize what your implying with that comment?
Better go back and check that DUI roadblock check thread again. I doubt you have the qualifications to be a cop, so you better keep quiet about any condemnation of what they did to you, or how they inconvenienced you.
I think it’d be more sincere, and quite frankly, less egomaniacal if they were doing their good deeds without the accompanying camera crew documenting every good deed they do.
Or, maybe the o.p. was simply pointing out his irritation at the part where they try and guilt those that simply don’t have time to do good deeds for the community into giving money to those that do. And, here to, the message is odd. I doubt Duante Culppeper (The football guy always the focus of our guilt ads on Sunday morning up here in Minnesota) is giving much more than the five minutes of his time or money that it took to shoot that ad towards that charity. *He might, I don’t know. I hope he does. But it smacks of ‘Look at me! Look how good I do. Don’t you feel bad you don’t do like I do?’ Even I often watch these ads and think, “Well no shit Duante. You’ve got a boatload of time and money to do that! I’m struggling to make my credit card payments. Where do you get off trying to make me feeling guilty? Schmuck.”
As is your counter-argument.
The point was made, pretty early in the discussion and despite the players wishes, that it would be logistically impossible to carry out the games on that Sunday.
The airports were closed and not a plane was flying.
There were no guarantees the players, or more importantly, the cameras, would be able to make the games.
The idea that they took it off in observance of the tragedy is ludicrous- they didn’t play because they couldn’t even if they wanted to.
Now the spin that came out of it, ‘We’re not going to play because it’s not appropriate’, can be taken however it is you want to take it.
I think it’s disingenuous, to say the least.
There’s nothing wrong with free agency. If everyone else in the country can be a free agent, so can professional athletes.
Yeah, except everyone of those adds that I have seen are produced by the league and not the players. So it’s less ‘look at me!’ and more ‘look at us!’. It’s simply the leagues way of trying to offset all the negative press from guys like Ray Lewis and Rae Carruth.
i think pro football is BORING! i agree with most of the OP.
go ahead, rip me!
I must say, I wish I had the vitriol in my initial post that Vinnie Virginslayer displayed in his (although he did see “bitterness and anger oozing” from my post–go figure). Would have made for more compelling reading, no doubt.
Have to quibble, though–“unravelling diabtribe?” Note the title of the thread–Random rantings about the NFL. Seems you were loaded for bear, and all you could find was a chipmunk.
Thanks, CnoteChris. You’ve encapsulated several of my points much better than I myself did: “maybe the o.p. was simply pointing out his irritation at the part where they try and guilt those that simply don’t have time to do good deeds for the community into giving money to those that do.” Bingo. I think that’s the only point of that ad.
And, for everyone else, yes, free agency is a great thing for the players, and frankly it’s an abomination that it took so long to come. But only for the players’ sakes. It sucks for the fans, has sucked and will suck. The ability to complete an eight yard pass seems beyond the ken of more than half the teams in the NFL. If it weren’t for the Rams, coordinated offenses would be a thing of the past.
Oh, and thanks for the advice Vinnie. I’ll take it under advisement. Or not…
Bingo! I think you went fishing and hooked one! “There’s the answer I wanted to see! I’ll just ignore the rest now.” Please do not be so ignorant as to believe that the sole purpose of those ads is to guilt anyone into contributing. I say the fact that the ads make you feel guilty says a lot about you.
The ads are spin. If they get a few people off the couch to help out, all the better. Mainly they are the puff pieces and feel good niceties that the press seldom does on pro athletes (too busy covering the latest player involved in [pick one] DWI/car accident/murder/rape/suicide/robbery/etc.)
Free agency sucks! It is spiraling the cost of pro sports out of control. Why does the public have to finance stadiums? Because the owners spend everything they have on their free agents. Limited free agency with a matching clause is much more practical.
Say what you will, but you’re wrong.
The specific ad in question is not of the “[some offensive lineman from the Packers or whoever] is too big to go down a kid’s slide” or the “Vinny Testeverde is a magician on the field” variety that the NFL has run since time immemorial. This ad doesn’t make me feel guilty–it annoys me that the NFL is trying to manipulate me and others with guilt.
The only way to interpret this ad is “if these guys, who are so hard up in their lives as NFL superstars, can do it, why the hell aren’t you, you couch potato?” I resent the arrogance of the ad, among other things. And if I recall correctly, it doesn’t even mention any players or feature one who’s recognizable (to me anyway–I’m not as big a fan as I used to be).
And please don’t be so ignorant as to think that public financing of stadiums is due to free agency.
I think johnson is just another embittered 'skins fan. Next.
OK, now you’ve got me confused. I thought you were originally reffering to Daunte’s adoption ad. Now I am not sure what ads you are refering to. Not the NFL and United Way ads? Regardless, the ads are intended to build a positive image. Getting the word out regarding the charities or causes is runs a close second. With guilting you into “being like Mike” brings up a rather distant third.
Touche! To avoid a possible hijack, I will simply agree that it has less to do with free agency and more to do with the ignorance of the public.
Ah, taken in good spirits, I see.
I actually haven’t seen this ad in two weeks or so (well, maybe since Sept. 11, in fact), but I’ll keep an eye out so as to describe it in more detail. It is shot in the same style as the one about the heart being the biggest muscle in the NFL. But it (almost in as many words) essentially says “These guys work their asses off six days a week, and spend time with poor kids on the seventh. What do you do?” It is an NFL ad, no plug to the United Way, I think, or any other specific charity.
And yeah, Acco40, the fact that the Redskins couldn’t beat a team of grandmothers with walkers is the reason I hate instant replay, Jerry Jones, that ad, and free agency.
Well, ok, maybe that is part of the reason I hate free agency.
Ah, taken in good spirits, I see.
I actually haven’t seen this ad in two weeks or so (well, maybe since Sept. 11, in fact), but I’ll keep an eye out so as to describe it in more detail. It is shot in the same style as the one about the heart being the biggest muscle in the NFL. But it (almost in as many words) essentially says “These guys work their asses off six days a week, and spend time with poor kids on the seventh. What do you do?” It is an NFL ad, no plug to the United Way, I think, or any other specific charity.
And yeah, Acco40, the fact that the Redskins couldn’t beat a team of grandmothers with walkers is the reason I hate instant replay, Jerry Jones, that ad, and free agency.
Well, ok, maybe that is part of the reason I hate free agency.
Shoot! My first double-post. Ah well, what are you gonna do?
How about showing me what station I’m watching in 3 different locations, but not telling me what down it is and how many yards to go!
How about John Madden telling me ‘what this guy is thinking’, when he doesn’t have a fuckin’ idea what that guy is thinking.