NFL (pronounced Niffle) Thread.

[polity4life]

Bad news KuReshtin. Deion Branch was just released.

And more bad news that someone died after the Houston - Kansas City game. Very unfortunate and sad.

[TheEmerged]

Eagles: Andy Reid is officially on the hot seat. At the annual team meeting, the owner essentially said an 8-8 season would not end with Reid keeping his job.

[McStabbington]

I'm officially "meh" on that. Andy Reid has been on the hot seat for years in Philly. Fans love to blame the guy for not having a Super Bowl, but he's also the reason the team gets into the playoffs so often.

I have a lot of Eagles fans for friends, and they love to talk about how terrible it is to lose year after year in the divisionals. I always respond that I used to think the exact same thing about Steve Mariucci. And then I watched what Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary did to the Niners. . .

[Gnoman]

Pittsburgh or Baltimore will take AFC North. The one that doesn't will claim one of the AFC wild card slots. I'd not ne surprised if Cincinattii took the other, as the formerly nigh-impossible situation of three teams from one division in the playoffs has now become barely worth noting, due entirely to repeats of the situation I just described. The only AFC team that I can see dethroning either the Ravens or the Steelers (barring interference by the Zebras) is New England. With Pittsburgh losing a couple of major starters, I'm predicting Baltimore as AFC champion.

[polity4life]

Pittsburgh or Baltimore will take AFC North. The one that doesn't will claim one of the AFC wild card slots. I'd not ne surprised if Cincinattii took the other, as the formerly nigh-impossible situation of three teams from one division in the playoffs has now become barely worth noting, due entirely to repeats of the situation I just described. The only AFC team that I can see dethroning either the Ravens or the Steelers (barring interference by the Zebras) is New England. With Pittsburgh losing a couple of major starters, I'm predicting Baltimore as AFC champion.

What about Tebow's J.E.T.S Jets Jets Jets? They just scored their first touchdown! They're totally warming up for tearing it up next week.

[Gnoman]

The Jets always seem to do fine in the regular season, but fall apart in the playoffs. They're in a pretty weak division overall, which really hurts decent teams due to the lack of pressure situations during the playoff hunt

Generally, the one decent team in a weak division has it clinched with ease, so the games during the last third or quarter of the season don't matter. It's incredibly difficult to fight complacency in such cases, and even harder not to choke when thrown into a single-elimination tournament. If you're in a tougher division, the last game of the season can determine whether you even make it to the postseason.

[polity4life]

The Jets always seem to do fine in the regular season, but fall apart in the playoffs. They're in a pretty weak division overall, which really hurts decent teams due to the lack of pressure situations during the playoff hunt

Generally, the one decent team in a weak division has it clinched with ease, so the games during the last third or quarter of the season don't matter. It's incredibly difficult to fight complacency in such cases, and even harder not to choke when thrown into a single-elimination tournament. If you're in a tougher division, the last game of the season can determine whether you even make it to the postseason.

Oh I was being facetious. The Jets won't win more than six games this year and are in a crummy division.

Cincy is my darkhorse in all things AFC. Don't be too surprised if they knock Pittsburgh out of the wildcard. In fact, it would give me extreme elation for the Bengals to do so.

[McStabbington]

I don't follow the AFC East, but it was my understanding that if anyone had a dark horse shot at knocking off the Pats, it would be Buffalo with their revamped, Mario-Williams-toting defense to go with an offense that wasn't bad until it was decimated by injuries. Sanchez' best receiver is . . . Santanio Holmes, IIRC, which isn't saying much, although their defense was underrated last season at 5th in yardage.

[grimbold]

Holmes is actually pretty good... if a bit old... this might be his last decent season

[polity4life]

Cowboys and Giants...man, that was a tough one to watch. From the refs missing very obvious calls to the teams looking as though they didn't want to win until the second half started, this game was quintessentially dull.

I'm glad DeMarco did well but Hakeem Nicks let me down.

[Trobby]

Both teams looked like they weren't really prepared after the preseason. Especially the Giants defense after the first half, which just started falling apart on itself. And I feel like their new running back, David Wilson, failed to deliver at all on his first day out.

I do have to give credit to Tony Romo though. He showed some great flexibility on the field, especially in that second half.

[polity4life]

Both teams looked like they weren't really prepared after the preseason. Especially the Giants defense after the first half, which just started falling apart on itself. And I feel like their new running back, David Wilson, failed to deliver at all on his first day out.

I do have to give credit to Tony Romo though. He showed some great flexibility on the field, especially in that second half.

This did have the feel of a preseason game. I expected the Giants to leave the Cowboys with only field goal opportunities but alas, this armchair NFL guru was wrong for the first time ever.

I'll give Romo his due this game, though my overall opinion of him remains unchanged. He made good decisions, and in the second he did pull off a finesse roll out that left Keith Rivers holding onto his jock strap.

[grimbold]

Eagles: Andy Reid is officially on the hot seat. At the annual team meeting, the owner essentially said an 8-8 season would not end with Reid keeping his job.

how now?
could i have a link please?

[grimbold]

Eagles: Andy Reid is officially on the hot seat. At the annual team meeting, the owner essentially said an 8-8 season would not end with Reid keeping his job.

how now?
could i have a link please?

[KuReshtin]

Cowboys and Giants...man, that was a tough one to watch. From the refs missing very obvious calls to the teams looking as though they didn't want to win until the second half started, this game was quintessentially dull.

Just finshed watching the game (the joys of having a late night game kick off at 1:30am), I only saw two, maybe three potential flags that could have been thrown by the officials, and only one that showed up on replay as really big (the defensive holding/DPI at the Dallas goal line).
Other than that, it was a well officiated game. There was virtually no way it would have been caught by the official in real time on the field, though, as it was facing away from the official who should have called it.

Cruz didn't play well, and dropped a few relatively easy passes that would have sustained drives for the Giants, while Romo made some big things happen on a whole bunch of 3rd and long plays, not least the 3rd and 30 from the NYG 34, where Miles Austin got his TD.

The Dallas O-line struggles at first, especially when they needd to swich to their backup center, but later in the game, they stepped up and kept the really good D-line of New York off Romo's back.

Personally, I think it was a fair result.

[TheEmerged]

I swear, anymore I think the game is played in court as much as on the field...

Bounty players get to play, suspensions not completely removed.

NEW ORLEANS – The suspensions of Jonathan Vilma and three other players in the NFL's bounty investigation were lifted Friday by a three-member appeals panel and the league reinstated those players a few minutes later.

While the ruling allows Saints linebacker Vilma, banned for the 2012 season, Saints defensive end Will Smith, Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita and free agent defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove to play immediately, it does not permanently void their suspensions.

[McStabbington]

Ah, another year in the NFL, another year of listening to lazy commentators explain how one team will beat another team without understanding how either team works. I'm really starting to wonder how these commentators get their jobs, because it sure isn't on the basis of accurate analysis.

[Elyssian]

Okay so why no love for the Texans people?! All you Dallas haters should send some love our way. I for one am glad Fantasy football season is here to keep me amused on Sunday's and Monday's, this year I'm in 3 different leagues so now I get to spend way too much time during working hours crunching numbers that are not work related.

[grimbold]

Ah, another year in the NFL, another year of listening to lazy commentators explain how one team will beat another team without understanding how either team works. I'm really starting to wonder how these commentators get their jobs, because it sure isn't on the basis of accurate analysis.

it happens
its sad
but it happens

[McStabbington]

Good news: the Niners won an upset victory over the Packers.

Bad news: The NFL should be terrified of what they saw this weekend with the backup officiating. The Niners got away with quite a bit (Carlos Rogers needs to cure his wandering hands), but that missed block in the back could have theoretically cost San Francisco a victory in a game with huge playoff implications. Between the botched calls and all the extra time taken to make those calls, the pace of the games was way off. NFL, you owe it to the fans to offer a quality product, which means you should pay your workers. We know you've got the cash.

[TheEmerged]

Well, if the Eagles can't play any better than that, they're in trouble. That was early game here and boy, I could smell that through the set. Vick seems to be back to his "I'm not a pocket passer, but I like to throw to the other team" ways.

[Scarlet Knight]

Today's paper repeated the fact that more women watch the Superbowl than the Oscars.

I believe women do not care for football, but tolerate it for the parties that come either weekly or in the middle of January.

Am I wrong? Am I just showing NY bias?

[McStabbington]

NY bias. There's a huge subset of women NFL fans.

[TheEmerged]

Gotta second McStabbington here: I know almost as many female fans as I do male fans that follow the sport closely. In fact, you can tell its Fall when I call one particular male friend & his wife spends 10 minutes talking football with me before she hands him the phone The last fantasy league I was in had 4 females & 6 males.

[polity4life]

More on women viewership of NFL games:

There has been, as of the past decade or so, a monumental effort by the NFL to grab more female viewers. The ploy was to bring it under a more general, "entertainment" umbrella rather than sport. This was done by playing the same game that celebrity magazines play; report on relationships, who-was-seen-with-who, what they were doing while out shopping, raising their star status by reporting on social media happenings, etc. Also, having NFL players go on shows with high female viewership, like dancing with the stars, helped tremendously. Treating key games like the first game of the year, the Superbowl, and Thanksgiving games like events rather than football games by adding the pomp and circumstance we see today was also a boon.

So now both men and women have a stake in watching a football game since both have something that entertains them. Compare this to the Oscars, which I'm sure has a comparatively low male viewership, and this article shouldn't be terribly surprising.

[Rockphed]

Here I thought women were the natural viewership for a sport whose players wear tight pants.

[An Enemy Spy]

Today's paper repeated the fact that more women watch the Superbowl than the Oscars.

I believe women do not care for football, but tolerate it for the parties that come either weekly or in the middle of January.

Am I wrong? Am I just showing NY bias?

Actually look at the crowds during games. There's a fairly even mix of men and women. Interest in football is fairly universal in the US.

[grimbold]

Here I thought women were the natural viewership for a sport whose players wear tight pants.

this made my day

[An Enemy Spy]

Now that the NFC West seems to have finally ditched its pushover status, who is the new cupcake division? I'm think AFC South or AFC West.

[KuReshtin]

Now that the NFC West seems to have finally ditched its pushover status, who is the new cupcake division? I'm think AFC South or AFC West.

Qwest Field (or whatever it's called nowadays) is the bane of the Cowboys.
The NFC west seems to have become quite a bit stronger, but it's still early in the season.

I'm not sure if the AFC West will be a pushover, though. Chargers have started well and depending on how Manning keeps things going in denver, they can also make it an interesting division. Raiders and Chiefs will struggle, though. As usual.

AFC South is a bit the same as well, but has the potential to be more of a cupcake division than AFC west, I think.
Houston looks pretty good, but I think both Jacksonville, Indy and Tennessee will struggle this season, making that division a one cow race.

I'll also throw in the AFC East as a possible sub-par division this season. Sure, they're all 1-1 so far, but the Dolphins win came against the Raiders, and well.. it's the Raiders.
Same with Buffalo's win yesterday. It was against the Chiefs.
Jets got dominated by the Steelers, and last week beat up on the Bills, so they're not looking goo good either.
That would only leave the Patriots in that division, and they lost to the cards last night, with Brady looking very average in his play.

All teams in all divisions so far have looked kind of unimpressive, with the possible exception of, and it pains me to say it, the San Francisco 49ers.
eagles may be 2-0, but they've just barely got both their wins, and could just as well have been 0-2.