I'm ready for some football.
- Thread starter Greg_L
- Start date
robgreen
no face
I think that's pretty funny. If the Dolphins were being so precious that they couldn't take a contentious call, then they deserved everything they got. Those kind of decisions always even themselves up over the course of a season in any sport.
Ha, I always struggle a bit with the 'we' thing when talking about supporting teams as well, given that I make no contribution nor have any influence over the outcome of any result ever. Seeing Everton lose used to put a real dampener on my weekend, until I kind of came to terms with the sheer futility of allowing your mood to be defined by the actions of something I had no control whatsoever over. Nowadays I just tend to shrug when I hear a bad result and get on with something else.
Regarding NFL I've always backed the Giants, but given that I'm not American and have no actual connection with New York, I feel like a bit of a fraud using "we" referring to them at all. I just stick to "they" and make no attempt to take credit for their successes
I'm a "we" guy. Obviously I don't play for the New Orleans Saints or LSU Tigers, but I have a very strong emotional connection to my teams. I was born and spent most of my early/mid childhood in New Orleans, and the Saints and LSU football are all that matters. That's all there is over there. There was no basketball at the time, no baseball, no hockey, no nothing. Just football. That's all we played as kids too. Football, all year long. My dad took me to Saints and LSU games all the time. I was in the dome during the paper bag Aints days. I was little, but I remember it. Later, when we moved to Texas, I was already a die-hard-never-gonna-change Louisiana guy. It took me a long long time, well into adulthood, to accept Texas as my new home, but I'll NEVER be a fan of any Texas teams. I'll never be a fan of any other teams. I'm a we/us Saints and Tigers guy. It's in my blood. I've been there from the beginning.
robgreen
no face
Yeah, that's cool - I'm not down on anyone who uses "we", I just think it's inappropriate for me to use it with the Giants. I do still use the term every now and again when referring to Everton as like you I have connections with Liverpool and used to go to games pretty regularly (before mortgages, bills etc put paid to that).
I tend to baulk a bit when people project their team's successes onto themselves...and football (soccer) is just the worst sport for it. I've come across so many people over the years who take instant personal dislikes to anyone they meet supporting rival teams and become genuinely nasty towards them, purely on this basis - and even in purely professional workplace type settings.
Yeah that's pretty messed up when people take it to that level. Love your team, cheer for them wildly, feel pain when they lose, but never forget that it's just a game and not real life.
Being a Saints fan, our all-time most hated rival is the atlanta falcons. I won't even capitalize their fucking name. They hate us, we hate them. True hate. Even the players seem to hate each other at times. It doesn't get much national attention because we're two small-market teams, but the rivalry is old, deep, and very real. I was in atlanta last year, and I made a point of marching around in Saints gear. It seems childish and silly, and it is, but I swear that I got some nasty looks and they probably wouldn't have even pissed on me if I was on fire. On the flip side, there's a music shop here in Houston that I visit pretty regularly and one of the salesmen is a falcons fan. He's always wearing a falcons cap. I'm always wearing a Saints cap. We always recognize each other and make a point to not do any business together. He won't give me a good deal, I won't give him my money, so that's just how it is. But we are friendly because we are just people after all. We rib each other and talk shit. Nothing serious. I own his ass this year though.
robgreen
no face
Yeah that's pretty messed up when people take it to that level. Love your team, cheer for them wildly, feel pain when they lose, but never forget that it's just a game and not real life.
Being a Saints fan, our all-time most hated rival is the atlanta falcons. I won't even capitalize their fucking name. They hate us, we hate them. True hate. Even the players seem to hate each other at times. It doesn't get much national attention because we're two small-market teams, but the rivalry is old, deep, and very real. I was in atlanta last year, and I made a point of marching around in Saints gear. It seems childish and silly, and it is, but I swear that I got some nasty looks and they probably wouldn't have even pissed on me if I was on fire. On the flip side, there's a music shop here in Houston that I visit pretty regularly and one of the salesmen is a falcons fan. He's always wearing a falcons cap. I'm always wearing a Saints cap. We always recognize each other and make a point to not do any business together. He won't give me a good deal, I won't give him my money, so that's just how it is. But we are friendly because we are just people after all. We rib each other and talk shit. Nothing serious. I own his ass this year though.
True dat!
I remember an ex-girlfriend of mine working who used to work in a pub in the centre of town. It was around world cup time, and they had decked the pub out in all kinds of football themed tat and all the bar staff were wearing any replica shirts they had. She was wearing a Bolton Wanderers shirt and within a couple of hours someone waiting to be served had told her that it was a good job that she was a girl, or he'd have glassed her. Nice!
guitaristic
prophet of Dave
I use "we" for Virginia Tech football, but I divert to "we" when talking about the Redskins like "we the fanbase" for some reason. Perhaps I am ashamed to be associated with them too directly
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
Speaking of Texas, maybe they'll finally start winning again since they finally got rid of Mac! Now if LSU will get rid of Les maybe the Tigers can go all the way! LOL! Greg of course thinks Les is a good head coach. He's not. The only time LSU went all the way with Les at the helm was with a Sabian built team. Get rid of Les Greg and maybe you won't be crying in your beer and writing sad songs at the end of the year! LOL! And the Saints need to go ahead and do something pretty quick because Drew isn't getting any younger!
People always wanna get rid of Les Miles. It's really knee-jerk and myopic. Okay, who you gonna get? Who's available out there that can recruit and put up consistent 10-win seasons in the SEC like Lester does? No one besides Urban Meyer and Saban. They're not leaving their jobs, so unless someone super awesome becomes available, or is worth buying out their current contract with another team, I wanna stand pat with Miles. Are you gonna be okay with firing Miles and going back to 7-5 seasons? That sound good? Hey you'll be rid of Miles, so that's okay, right? No one wins it all every year, and LSU plays in the best conference in football. Just about every LSU game is on national TV. The NFL is flooded with LSU players. Is Miles perfect? Hell no, not even close, but you gotta keep it perspective. For the time being, he's the right guy.
Chili
Site Moderator
That's the true 12th man spirit. Oh, um, sorry.. that's a Texas team.
We can only hope. There were only two places Texas was weak last season; Offense and Defense.
Well, really QB and defense. So this new guy has a name for being a good defense coach and that is where we really struggled. I mean, what was that blow-out from BYU; 41-xx?? Couldn't stop their QB from running. Pathetic. It was like Texas was playing flag football.There are rumors Texas and Texas A&M will start playing against each other again. That'll be fun. I will pay whatever price for 2 tickets to that game.
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
LOL! I knew that'd get a rise out of you! You're right though. Who are they going to get? It just irks me that every year they'll have a good season, but won't go all the way. But what are they going to do? A weird situation for a team to be in.
It doesn't get a rise out of me, I'd just like for once to hear a Miles hater provide a valid option.
Saban was great and terrible for LSU.
He was great because he rebuilt the program and got us our first national championship in 45 years.
He was terrible because now no coach will ever live up to the expectations of LSU fans.
Not winning the national championship is not a valid reason for alarm or to have the coach fired. Winning the national championship every single year is not a realistic goal. That's like playing golf and expecting to get a hole-in-one on every hole. LSU went 45 years between winning national championships, and now the peanut gallery thinks we should win it every year or fire Les Miles? WTF? This is why I laugh at most Miles haters. I get it, yall hate Miles. That's cool. Just come up with someone better and I'll listen.
Saban was great and terrible for LSU.
He was great because he rebuilt the program and got us our first national championship in 45 years.
He was terrible because now no coach will ever live up to the expectations of LSU fans.
Not winning the national championship is not a valid reason for alarm or to have the coach fired. Winning the national championship every single year is not a realistic goal. That's like playing golf and expecting to get a hole-in-one on every hole. LSU went 45 years between winning national championships, and now the peanut gallery thinks we should win it every year or fire Les Miles? WTF? This is why I laugh at most Miles haters. I get it, yall hate Miles. That's cool. Just come up with someone better and I'll listen.
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
LOL! You have a point. I still don't think Les is a good Head Coach. Good coach? Yes. Good head coach? No. He's kind of like Switzer was with the Cowboys: He inherited Johnson's team. But what are you going to do? You can't fire a guy who wins nine or ten regular season games every year.
I think he's a good, not great, good head coach and here's why: He's adaptable. He usually tries to use the teams strength to it's fullest whether it be offense or defense. Running or passing, pass defense or blitzing, he coaches to the team's strength. He uses what they have. I do fault him for many things, especially at QB and clock management, over the years, but he's made some really slick moves to maximize the players lately. He gave up control and brought in Cam Cameron to coach up Mettenberger, and look what happened. The kid exceeded all expectations. On the outside he seems like a stubborn jackass, and he is sometimes, but look at his overall body of work. When he has a slinger QB, we throw the ball all over the place. When we have bad ass running backs, we run all over you. And the defense is almost always stout as hell. He coaches old school, hard nose, punch you in the face football. And the players and media love the shit out of him. That's good for recruiting. So yeah, I think hes'a good coach.
What I don't buy is "he won it with Saban's players". That doesn't hold water. He still coached those kids. They don't just run out there on their own and play sandlot football. Look at Florida. Didn't Will Muschamp inherit a bunch of Urban Meyer players? Look where Florida is now. They're a disgrace. How did Lane Kiffin do with all of Pete Carroll's recruits at USC? USC took a shit. So taking over someone else's players doesn't mean you win. They still have to be put in a position to succeed. Miles did that. Many others do not.
That's kind of the way I look at it. I had to wait 30 years for an LSU championship. 36 years for a Saints Super Bowl. I'm glad I'm not a Yankees or Cowboys fan. Those idiots think they're supposed to win it all every year.
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
You've made some good points, and unlike some assholes that will never admit that perhaps they're wrong and continue to argue against solid logic, I won't. LOL! But if I'm not mistaken, hadn't Carrol's team been sanctioned by the NCAA when Kiffin took over? I think I'm right, but I might not be.
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
And the championship that LSU won 45 years ago shouldn't really count since Ole Miss beat them in the Sugar Bowl, but back then the championship was decided before the bowl games.
If it wasn't right when he took over, it got sanctioned soon afterwards. And that's a fair point. But he still had the players. No one got kicked off the team. They're paying for those sanctions right now, not 4 years ago.
The National championship has always been an inexact science. Any time voters are involved, it's not the best scenario.
The 1958 LSU national champion team went undefeated. They had Billy Cannon and the "Chinese Bandits" on defense. That was probably the best single season team LSU ever had. They did not lose to Ole Miss that year.
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
I screwed that one up. I confused the 1958 and 1959 seasons up. Jake Gibbs, the guy that punted that ball to Cannon in 59 went on to play catcher for the Yankees the following year. That was a split championship in 1958. It was LSU and either Idaho or Iowa. Can't remember.