Thanksgiving

(24-11-2023 14:08 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  I love the idea of the Madden tributes yesterday. Players wearing his silhouette on their uniforms and the special coin for the toss with his head on one side and the famous 6 legged turducken which came about after Madden started awarding a turkey leg to the standout player or players. He had commented that it was a shame that there wasn't more legs to go round for the linemen and someone then came up with the six legged bird.
Last night as the Niners stars tucked into their turkey legs during an interview, after the last words Kittle ran off with the whole bird.

For a lot of us John Madden was more than the Video Game
Him and Pat Summerall were the best duo in the booth ever in the NFL
Madden's love of Food, Family, the NFL, and Thanksgiving was something special.
I loved the Coin and the Patch

Yeah, the 49ers took care of business. They have a big showdown with the Eagles next week. The NFC is a three team race Eagles, 49ers, Cowboys.
The Lions are good, but yesterday kind of showed they need to step up on the big stage if they want to advance this season.

The Black Friday game, meh. Jets are struggling and benched their QB. I'll watch (if I'm around I usually will watch any NFL game)

George knows how to celebrate a win

But it's the big match next against the Eagles on Monday 3rd Dec.
I hope that the 49er's have a plan to combat the Eagles 'Brotherly Shove' play.

Getting ahead of the Eagles does help with that
The Eagles have had a few comeback wins this season, but them (and the Ravens) are built for being ahead in games. I think the Ravens have only trailed for a ridiculous amount of time this season (under 30 game minutes)

Should be a really good one next week. 49ers want revenge for the NFC Championship game last season. They are capable of going on a run to end the season. The win last night gave them a nice cushion in the division.

^^ Without Madden I doubt I'd have got the love for the game that I have now. What looked like something complex became straightforward the way he explained the game. I don't see anyone in the modern era coming close to calling a game his way and a genius with the telestrator. Had that knack of pointing stuff out that many would miss. Above all he made the game accessible and fun.

Fair play to the Eagles, but I think their mastery of the QB-sneak has taken something away from the game. I don't see it as the way the game was meant to be played. The league has got it wrong in allowing it. Just odd to me that when so much is about trying to make things safer that it looks dangerous and only a serious injury will see a reversal of the rules.
I also find the concussion protocol all over the place, we seem to be much more stringent in the UK with rugby, football and cricket.

Only the woeful Pats have score less than the Jets, with Miami racking up double, it isn't crying outas a must watch.

(24-11-2023 17:02 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  ^^ Without Madden I doubt I'd have got the love for the game that I have now. What looked like something complex became straightforward the way he explained the game. I don't see anyone in the modern era coming close to calling a game his way and a genius with the telestrator. Had that knack of pointing stuff out that many would miss. Above all he made the game accessible and fun.

Fair play to the Eagles, but I think their mastery of the QB-sneak has taken something away from the game. I don't see it as the way the game was meant to be played. The league has got it wrong in allowing it. Just odd to me that when so much is about trying to make things safer that it looks dangerous and only a serious injury will see a reversal of the rules.
I also find the concussion protocol all over the place, we seem to be much more stringent in the UK with rugby, football and cricket.

Only the woeful Pats have score less than the Jets, with Miami racking up double, it isn't crying outas a must watch.

Since I don't watch football, I don't know how you guys feel about announcing.
The Charm of John and Pat was they were a duo. Pat would call the action as simple as possible. "Montana, Rice, Touchdown" was all you needed during the action. John would add in how it happened, what the team needs to do in the future to stop it from happening. He also would throw in random humor during the time between plays. Now guys sort of just ramble and give off "this is why I know" or "I'm smart, I saw this before anyone else" sort of vibe. It does bleed into the action. I like letting the action take place before adding dialogue.

As for the sneak. I hate the play. It can be stopped. It's sort of a throwback to the early, early days of the NFL. The Leather Helmet days. The Chiefs don't run sneaks like that cause Mahomes got hurt before, so if there are injuries over it, it will stop. The protocol is a joke. Depends on who is needed out there. It's better than it was when I was growing up, but it has a long way to go.

I think that announcing/commentary is a lost art across all sports. Less is more, it is ok to be silent at times and let the action speak for itself. They are there to enhance the spectacle and not be the actual stars themselves, far too big egos and wanting to drive their own narrative and opinion.
In NFL games it does seem heavily focussed on dissecting the officiating which I can never remember it being so bad. Correct me if I'm wrong but the crews aren't full-time pros, why not pay them better and train them properly. The rules interpretations don't help, contradictory at best. I'm not suggesting it's easy, a super fast sport, you can argue for or against throwing a flag for holding or pass interference on ever play if you're picky. More consistency is what the game needs. I did hear a good argument the other day as to why they don't tend to penalize on a Hail-Mary when it is a game changer, the whole outcome resting on one play and they ignore major illegal contact when calls would be made on far less earlier in the game.

I do have a few discussion with people about flags during the games. They just want their teams to get all the calls. The game would be unwatchable if they actually did throw flags for every infraction (they had Replacement Refs who were throwing too many flags) Most of the talk is about the game being "rigged", but that's been going on since the dawn of time

They should have Full Time Referees. It's not an easy sport to make bang bang calls. They also tried "Reviewable" Pass Interference, but that was a mistake.

You are spot on with letting the atmosphere take over. It does ADD to the moment, not someone babbling about "what are they going to call". Less is more

As a Browns fan I have seen them call Pass Interference on the final play of a game before. I've seen a lot of unusual stuff as a Browns fan.
Bottles thrown on the field
Someone getting a flag for taking his helmet off on the field (which led to a loss)
This season they have gotten the calls

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends from the USA. Especially ukusagolf who is firmly established as part of the gang & one of us now. Hope you enjoy the food, festivities, family & friends, maybe find some time to catch some of the NFL games.

(28-11-2024 10:43 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends from the USA. Especially ukusagolf who is firmly established as part of the gang & one of us now. Hope you enjoy the food, festivities, family & friends, maybe find some time to catch some of the NFL games.

Thanks, all of you have been extremely nice over the years to this simple 'Merican

Maybe the slate of games will be better on the field than on paper

Thanksgiving's fabulous. And it's always on Thursday, what's the chances
And they put all those NFL games on TV to watch

But if they eat their turkey today, what do they eat at Christmas?