"We've been completely disrespected all season long."

Worst. Pregame. EVER.

Also, did anyone see Jimmy Johnson's new haircut? I'll diss that.

I don't really know what to think of teh Jimmy's new look. He is too old to be a hipster, what is he doing? Still, it didn't look bad.

Anyway, I think in "Smitty's" instance it is about getting himself psyched up but it is very pathetic at this point. The rest of them, I don't think it is motivational necessarily. I think it's just some kind of crazy follow-the-leader thing...T.O. and Steve Smith (and receivers in general, wtf is wrong with that group of people and their bipolar inferiority complexes) think they're disrespected and treated badly...and they get x amount of press...I get y amount of press...so this must mean...PEOPLE HATE ME etc etc etc. It gets to a point where you have a situation like on the New York Football Giants where Shockey is claiming his own QB is disrespecting him because he sometimes throws the ball to Plexiglass instead of Shockey. That's not motivation, that's paranoid schizophrenia.

???????????

btw, love that tagliabue:

Despite being a childhood baseball fan, he dismisses the national pastime as “about as exciting as standing in line at the supermarket. Baseball doesn’t test anything but your ability to withstand boredom.”

Perhaps trying to soften the blow he’s just landed on baseball’s chin, he broadens his attack. “Look,” he says with a sigh, “I think the popularity of all sports in our society is a measure of how much disposable income there is and how much interest we have in the unnecessary.”

Critics say that he has been too effective arguing the owners’ position on certain issues, such as virtually eliminating guaranteed contracts in the NFL. “I don’t have any problem with where we are in terms of guaranteed contracts,” he says, his voice rising. “Guaranteed contracts don’t do anything except take money from a guy who is playing and give it to a guy who isn’t.”

He cites the NBA. “Are those players slacking? Absolutely. Football is a sport that is way too tough to take a chance – it comes back to my contrived-adversity point. Since this is contrived adversity, you have to maintain the incentive to put up with the adversity. I acknowledge it’s not a prolabor stance, but it is a properformance stance.”

Serious answer: parity. Teams always go from 6-10 to the playoffs and back to crap again. From year to year, it keeps getting harder to predict which teams are for real, so teams that come out of nowhere and go 9-7 are treated with a fair amount of skepticism.

Similar logic applies to the great teams. I know I always use this example, and I'm sure people are tired of it, but New England were considered underdogs against Indy in the playoffs last year -- were the mid-90's Cowboys considered underdogs against ANYBODY when they were the defending champs? I think parity enforces the notion that upsets can, and will happen, except in this case it's being applied to playoff teams as well. As for this year's Steelers, few expected them to go to the Superbowl and/or beat Indy, even though the same team was 15-1 last year, 11-5 this year despite injuries and the fact their division got a whole lot tougher. This year's team is probably just as good as last year's, but they were still perceived to be on the same level as the other 3-6 seeds and weren't given any credit for possibly being the best team in football in the 2004 season.

except that this is largely true (lawrence kansas aside). what was the spread? it's a little different than steve smith bitching.

Off topic, but one day somebody should sit down with a stopwatch and keep track of the total time that there is action on the football field. A play lasts five seconds, followed by 40 seconds were everybody stands around ... certainly under 10 minutes of actual play during a three hour game, and I'm betting that if you did the same for baseball that it would come out ahead.

I can sorta tolerate these statements when hockey or basketball people say them, but not football people and deffo not the commish.

If it had been the 15-1 Steelers vs the 14-2 Colts, the spread wouldn't have been 9.5 ... but essentially those were the 15-1 Steelers we saw out there, it's the same team and they weren't given any credit for it. In another (non-parity) time, people would have said "this team went 15-1 last year, you can't ignore them in the playoffs!" rather than assuming their 11-5 record meant they'd reverted back to the mean as expected in a parity-driven league.

The spread may have been around 9 but I didn't bet that game so I can't say for sure.

xpost

xp perhaps, but nevertheless, very few people thought the steelers would win that game. particularly since it was in indy, where they'd been killed two months ago.

Anyway, I think its different with Porter. The guy is a motivator of men and is one of the best leaders on that team.

WR is the prima-donna position of football and I think it all started with Michael Irvine getting jealous of Neon Deon.

Joey Porter has taken bullets outside a sports bar in Denver and has been thrown out of a game while warming up, a unique combination.

Eli Manning has done a couple of interviews on ESPN. I think the guy knows that it is probably best playing for the NYG's that he just shut up and play QB. There is something kind of Wally and the Beaver about Peyton and Eli.

I wish the Dolphins good luck with T.O., as they seem to be the team most interested in getting him. I'm sure Sage Rosenfeld (sp?) and headbutt king Frerotte will be exactly the kind of upgrade T.O. wanted over McNabb.

"kind of!!"

!!!!!!!!

ihttp://timstvshowcase.com/beaver1.jpg

"Jeepers, were grounded out of the playoffs"

I totally understand and agree with the trying not to be bored thing, I mean why not just invent a feud and stick with it. Unless you're T.O., then shit costs you lots of money but it ain't like you weren't rolling in it anyway.

Also please do not take this thread as hatin on my part, yo. I am not hatin on these people, except for Shockey cos he's a fucking douchebag. I am someone who will defend Neon Deion and Michael Irvin to the death and I hate the Cowboys. I mean, do you see the way those men dress? I just wanna know the mechanics of why everyone in the NFL has turned into paranoid schizos and why there aren't more Rofflesberger/"It's all good" types rollin these days.

The boredom thing might be part of it, yeah but OTOH I mean why not just run for Senate like Steve Largent if you're this bored.

Of course we lost, but not because of that. We lost because our quarterback threw a horrible pick that got returned, and because our DB coach choked and put in another dude for me on the goal line because the other dude was on the basketball team and wanted to be prepared for a jump-ball pass. Of course, dude jumped wrong and they scored. Coach = idiot.

*Erik W1lh3lm, who set records at Oregon State and later backed up Boomer Esiason and got cursed out by Howie Long.

WE SHOCKED THE WORLD!! (courtesy here of Hines Ward)

I guess everyone just likes to be the underdog but fuck it I prefer more Namathesque constant confidence.

When you're sober.