Have I lost the Love

Originally posted by TheHYDE49er:
And it's annoying because I remember hearing about 5 years ago when all these new rules where being put in place, and refs were just throwing flags every other play. That defensive players will change and will learn to tackle properly or cover properly, and we won't see so many flags...what a bunch of bull s**t.

Yeah, cover like the seapukes secondary and hold and get NO flags.

The NFL is trying to curb violence. The sport that I followed as a kid has changed. What I'm seeing is that it's entertainment. The closer, and higher the score, seems to be the equation. Defense has one hand tied behind their backs and receivers want a call on every incomplete pass. Dick Butkus, Ronnie Lott and many others would be suspended for violent hits. To watch games you have to spend $60 a month. You can get them for free online if you want to put up with ads, viruses and stop action. Yes, I never thought I'd ever say this but I'm not as interested as the past.

The game isn't as intense as it once was.

After every big hit you are just looking for a flag. After lots of catches, you are trying to figure out what the f**k a catch is. Its embarrassing when the former head of referees comes on your TV and can't give you a definitive answer, gives a wrong answer or just plum doesn't know the rules.

Goodell and co. added way too many rules in a short period of time to the point where the referees are forgetting the basics of the game. Plus, the refs weren't even full time so they couldn't catch up to the ridiculous new subjective rules.

NFL under the Goodell era has become an inferior product to years past, no doubt about that. Rules to curb violence in a game designed to be violent is not going to work very well. Each new rule they implement does not achieve what was originally intended. Teams/players don't follow these stupid rule changes, they find a way around it.

Take the new touchback rule this season as an example. They moved the starting field position of a touchback up from the 20 to the 25 yard line. The thinking was that this would decrease the amount of kickoffs, the NFLs most dangerous play, by giving more incentive to the receiving team not to return the kick. What happened instead was that now the kicking team had greater incentive to kick the ball short of the EZ and force a return, because most of the time they can stop them before the 25 yard line. The rule change actually increased the number of kickoff returns instead of decreasing. Brilliant.

This is just one of many examples over the years where the NFL doesn't understand how a new rule will actually impact the game. There's always unintended consequences.

NBA>NFL

Ok, here's a scenario. None of ur fav teams are in it, but you don't hate the teams involved, you can only watch one. What do you watch?


Superbowl
NBA Finals Game 7
World Series Game 7
Stanley Cup Game whatever the f**k they play to
World Cup championship game


Football wins everytime, all the time, forever and ever. stop crying.

This is actually a cool, intelligent thread.

I don't necessarily want the "Jacked Up!" days to come back, or the days when DBs could literally tackle wideouts before the ball was thrown, or the days when spearing and paralyzing people midair was generally encouraged. I'm not a BAN FOOTBALL guy, but I don't think it's reasonable to ignore that playing this game a certain way can scramble people's brains. I do agree with the sentiment that some of the non-safety officiating emphases are a little overdone right now. I also agree that the style of play and encouraging of/emphasis on spread, air-raid offense is a little "meh."

For a second, forget whether anyone is currently falling out of love. I think we need to all be prepared to eventually fall out of love. Football may end up going the way of boxing - not dead, but a shadow of its former self. If you read an old article about the beginning of boxing's decline, just replace "1982" with "2016" and "boxing" with "football" and the similarities are striking. The on-field play quality is going to really decline over the next couple of decades. More good, young athletes are going to pick other sports either of their own free will or because mom and dad never let them on the football field. Eventually, we're going to see lots of high schools drop their programs for liability reasons. Once the high school game dries up, college and pro will follow within a decade.

I'd love to see the best of both worlds, but I just don't know that it's possible to address the safety stuff and then also maintain a great on-field product.

"Don't you want to be loved?"

I blame fantasy football. It has ruined NFL interest.

Originally posted by TheHYDE49er:

Ya, I miss s**t like this

I miss Jacked Up

Originally posted by pdizo916:
NBA>NFL

this

I really don't like moving the extra point back. Changes the amount of points kickers score throughout their careers and cannot be compared to kickers of years past.