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[Marvel14]

First off, I enjoy the sport. I follow the Minnesota Vikings.

But I can't help but be bugged by a few things. Do these things bug die hard fans too? They are for me:

1. In the regular NFL season every team plays a different set of adversaries. How can teams be judged on their overall performance and playoff ranking fairly against one another if they each play different teams? Similarly in College Football- a bunch of wonks decides team rankings which sets who plays in which bowl. WtF?

2. Home games are ridiculously one sided (in attendance terms). I rarely see fans of the away team in a stadium in any meaningful numbers. Means all home teams have an even bigger home field advantage and the atmosphere is unsalvageable if the home team is getting wupped.

3.The rule set is complex and somewhat arbitrary. Knee needs to not be down for a fumble and interception to count, both feet need to be in bounds when a catch is made and the player has 'control' of the ball, hitting the corner cone in the endzone with the ball counts as a td as long as the player is still in bounds, pass interference can vary in severity, exact ball placement at the end of a play can be quite approximate . You could have very different results with tiny rule tweaks. Also makes it harder for casual fans to get invested as these minutiae are not self evident (on this last point AF is not alone but I think its worse than other sports).

4. The constant and prolonged stoppages interrupt the flow of excitement.

5. Team manoeuvres like taking the knee to run down time are shitty and cowardly ways to end tight games where you're currently in the lead.

6. Failing upwards. The worst performing teams get the best new recruits. That's the opposite of meritocracy and its worse than America's dreaded socialism.

7. You can win a game without 1scoring properly (ie a td). Don't know another sport that does that.

8. Pass and catch TDs look spectacular. Running evade, spin and dive TDs also. But the walk in or pile in ones look like shite and feel far less "celebratable" (not a word).

Do any of these annoy true fans too? Are there any others?

 

[Halo is Back]

I don't understand the appeal of football.

 

[SJRB]

I swear to god this whole sport is invented to push advertisements on viewers. Which is why this isn't taking off anywhere else in the world.

Insane amounts of downtime.

 

[AJUMP23]

Football is won in the trenches. That is where the strategy is. They never get the recognition, but they make or break the game.

It is the idiosyncrasies of the game that make it fun.

 

[Soodanim]

6. Failing upwards. The worst performing teams get the best new recruits. That's the opposite of meritocracy and its worse than America's dreaded socialism.

It's sport, it should be kept competitive. I like this idea, it's a shame more sports don't do it. It's boring having the same teams be the best forever until some bored Saudi throws millions at it and adopts the pay to win model.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

It's sport, it should be kept competitive. I like this idea, shame more sports don't do it. It's boring having the same teams be the best forever until some bored Saudi throws millions at it and adopts the pay to win model.

It's also because North American sports leagues don't follow the promotion and relegation model, so it's always the same teams every year. Giving the worst performing teams the best draft picks helps ensure that the worst teams have a chance to improve by getting exciting new young players and keeps the entire league viable because sports is fundamentally a business and the fans are the customers and 1 team winning the league every year forever would just kill the customer base for the other teams which don't ever win.

 

[StueyDuck]

it's rugby except you take all the fun and excitement out of it and add hours of marketing and ads.

 

[Lunarorbit]

Several teams have great fan bases that travel to away games. Travel on a Friday or Saturday and you'll see a ton of steelers fans. It happens all the time where a home team is woefully under represented.

All American sports benefit teams who did shifty the previous year during the draft. That's just the way it is. As a pats fan it's exciting this year to see them lose. They missed a fg to tie the giants at th3 end of regulation and those gave themselves a cushion if they beat the jets.

 

[Lunarorbit]

As for how to rank teams... you can look at offensive and defensive rankings for each team and see how many yards they gave up. Look for teams that have a positive turnover number.

You can calculate a teams strength of schedule and see how they do against weak and strong opponents. Usually good teams have good division records. The first goal all teams have is to win their division cause it guarantees a playoff spot. If you do well against your division opponents that bodes well cause these are the teams that know you the best.

 

[JBat]

1 - The league is broken up into conferences which are broken up into divisions. You play everyone in your division then the division leaders play to find the best in the conference then the conference leaders play to find the best in the league. At least that's the theory. Rarely works out that way especially for college. Otherwise a season would be a year long. Football's a rough sport I doubt many players would physically survive that many games lol.

2 - that's part of the fun. Especially college ball. All the traditions and rivalries. Makes it even better to go into your rivals house and beat them

3 - you're mostly right. A lot of stuff comes down to how the officials feel that day. you can see basically the same play on the same day from two different teams (hell, during the same game) and it could be called completely different. Guess it adds to the drama but can also lend credence to the conspiracy theory that it's all scripted

4 - you're 100% right. Drives me crazy that they change rules to "speed up the game" but just fill that extra time with commercials. Even worse going to a game in person and everyone just stands around for a minute while the televised ads play.

6 - you want to talk about failing upward just look into big time college coaches. Their contracts are insane. College football is the only profession where someone will pay you to STOP doing the job then let you go do that job for your competition where they too are going to pay you millions of dollars to do the same thing

 

[Spyxos]

Sorry a bit offtopic, but can someone explain to me why so many people watch college football? I've seen that there are huge stadiums. They look very well packed. Is it because the teams are from smaller local towns where nothing else happens? Or because people want to see the talents of tomorrow on their way up?

Where I come from, nobody is interested in collage sports. I don't think I've ever seen more than 100 spectators and that was a final game.

 

[Mossybrew]

extra time with commercials.

Yeah I really don't miss this and it's one of the reasons I don't follow football anymore. So. Many. Commercials. It's one thing if you're at a gathering and can fill that time with socializing, but when I moved out of state and left my fan group behind, watching a game by yourself just isn't the same and those extended amount of commercials just become excruciating. Then I dropped cable in 2015 and haven't followed the sport since. I still watch maybe one game a year when the local team is on a Thursday night Amazon broadcast, more for kind of a nostalgia hit than anything else.

 

[Dural]

First off, I enjoy the sport. I follow the Minnesota Vikings.

But I can't help but be bugged by a few things. Do these things bug die hard fans too? They are for me:

1. In the regular NFL season every team plays a different set of adversaries. How can teams be judged on their overall performance and playoff ranking fairly against one another if they each play different teams? Similarly in College Football- a bunch of wonks decides team rankings which sets who plays in which bowl. WtF?

Teams play each team in their division twice (6 games), 4 games against another division in their conference, 4 games against a division from the other conference, and the rest of the games are against teams that finished with a similar record as them. Therefore, teams that didn't have a good season will have an easier schedule than teams that were good the previous season

2. Home games are ridiculously one sided. I rarely see fans of the away team in a stadium in any meaningful numbers. Means all home teams have an even bigger home field advantage and the atmosphere is unsalvageable if the home team is getting wupped.

This isn't true for all teams, certain teams travel better than others and certain teams don't have great attendance. It is well known that the LA teams will have 50/50 mixes of home and away crowds and sometimes even more. There is a reason it's called home team advantage though.

3.The rule set is complex and somewhat arbitrary. Knee needs to not be down for a fumble and interception to count, both feet need to be in bounds when a catch is made and the player has 'control' of the ball, hitting the corner cone in the endzone with the ball counts as a td as long as the player is still in bounds, pass interference can vary in severity, exact ball placement at the end of a play can be quite approximate . You could have very different results with tiny rule tweaks. Also makes it harder for casual fans to get invested as these minutiae are not self evident (on this last point AF is not alone but I think its worse than other sports).

4. The constant and prolonged stoppages interrupt the flow of excitement.

Makes for better viewing from home than live, live games kinda suck because of the down time compared to other sports.

5. Team manoeuvres like taking the knee to run down time are shitty and cowardly ways to end tight games where you're currently in the lead.

Same thing happens in other sports like European Football where the ball is passed around at the end to run the clock down, also happens in basketball and hockey.

6. Failing upwards. The worst performing teams get the best new recruits. That's the opposite of meritocracy and its worse than America's dreaded socialism.

Draft position based off your previous seasons record is what allows NFL teams to go from worst to first so often, it allows a team to improve quickly.

7. You can win a game without scoring properly (ie a td). Don't know another sport that does that.

There are multiple ways to score points (basketball has 3 pointers, 2 pointers, and free throws), doesn't matter how you score all that matters is the final score.

8. Pass and catch TDs look spectacular. Running evade, spin and dive TDs also. But the walk in or pile in ones look like shite and feel far less "celebratable" (not a word).

Do any of these annoy true fans too? Are there any others?

 

[diffusionx]

I feel like NFL has gone too far up its own ass. The refs are out of control and the replays are horrible. I'll take a few more blown calls over this garbage they're putting out. The actual game on the field is also way more haphazard and sloppy than it used to be. Line play is worse than ever. They need to go back to the CBA and fix this so guys can get the practice time they need.

This just hasn't been a fun season to watch and it's the first time I've said that maybe ever.

 

[Dural]

Sorry a bit offtopic, but can someone explain to me why so many people watch college football? I've seen that there are huge stadiums. They look very well packed. Is it because the teams are from smaller local towns where nothing else happens? Or because people want to see the talents of tomorrow on their way up?

Where I come from, nobody is interested in collage sports. I don't think I've ever seen more than 100 spectators and that was a final game.

There are a lot of cities and states without a professional team where a lot of the people watch college over pro sports. Then you also have to think about that you have alumni and current students. College basketball is similar, though their stadiums aren't nearly as big.

 

[Spyxos]

Alumni?

 

[Dural]

I feel like NFL has gone too far up its own ass. The refs are out of control and the replays are horrible. I'll take a few more blown calls over this garbage they're putting out. The actual game on the field is also way more haphazard and sloppy than it used to be. Line play is worse than ever. They need to go back to the CBA and fix this so guys can get the practice time they need.

This just hasn't been a fun season to watch and it's the first time I've said that maybe ever.

They've gone so far to protect the QB that they're ruining the game. Tom Brady was recently talking about this and how players skills have diminished because of it.

 

[Dural]

Alumni?

Former students that have graduated.

 

[JBat]

Sorry a bit offtopic, but can someone explain to me why so many people watch college football? I've seen that there are huge stadiums. They look very well packed. Is it because the teams are from smaller local towns where nothing else happens? Or because people want to see the talents of tomorrow on their way up?

Where I come from, nobody is interested in collage sports. I don't think I've ever seen more than 100 spectators and that was a final game.

I feel more connection to the school than I do the pro team I'm my region. My alma mater is on tv every once in a while and it's fun to watch. I also keep track of the teams from schools my family has graduated from. Also it just feels like there's more passion from the players when they aren't getting payed (directly at least) millions of dollars to play the game

 

[diffusionx]

They've gone so far to protect the QB that they're ruining the game. Tom Brady was recently talking about this and how players skills have diminished because of it.

it's not just the rules although they are bad enough (and don't help). The real problem is that teams really cannot run true practices anymore, thanks to the CBA. There are hard limits on how often teams can work with players. The thing this affects the most is the offensive line, and of course the O-Line is all that is standing between the QB and the void. OL positions are highly technical and rely on repetition and practice, two things they can't do like they used to, and colleges are training them. So yea, it's bad. Also, it used to be that the first 2-3 weeks were pretty rough as players were sort of playing themselves into shape, but now it's more like the first 7 weeks.

 

[Dural]

it's not just the rules although they are bad enough (and don't help). The real problem is that teams really cannot run true practices anymore, thanks to the CBA. There are hard limits on how often teams can work with players. The thing this affects the most is the offensive line, and of course the O-Line is all that is standing between the QB and the void. OL positions are highly technical and rely on repetition and practice, two things they can't do like they used to, and colleges are training them. So yea, it's bad. Also, it used to be that the first 2-3 weeks were pretty rough as players were sort of playing themselves into shape, but now it's more like the first 7 weeks.

Yeah, I remember the talk about two a days going away during training camp because the pansys couldn't handle it anymore. Same with going to 3 pre season games. The first few weeks of the season have suffered because of it. I listen to sports radio that has a former NFL defensive lineman and he talked about it and if I'm remembering correctly even said more injuries were going to happen because of it and it seems to be true.

 

[12Goblins]

Don't really agree with most of what is said in the OP.

The way the drafting in the NFL is structured is actually quite brilliant and maintains the integrity and fairness of the sport. You only have to look at the MLS, the premier League, and teams like PSG to see how bad the alternative is.

The NFL was doing video reviews long before FIFA, and the reffing in football is really top notch. Some calls are naturally subjective, but even then the NFL does an excellent job considering how many moving parts there sre

Football is a clock management game, and I don't see a problem in running down the clock to secure a victory, especially when there is such a high risk of player injury in every play

I don't blame the NFL for trying to protect their QBs. There's like 3-4 good QBs at all times and they are the face of the sport. They are in an extremely vulnerable position when throwing the ball and a rib contusion can decide the fate of an entire franchise (unless youre mahomes sucka$)

Quick google search shows home advantage is negligible

 

[BennyBlanco]

The rules of football are pretty straightforward imo. Baseball is way weirder.

 

[DeafTourette]

Sorry a bit offtopic, but can someone explain to me why so many people watch college football? I've seen that there are huge stadiums. They look very well packed. Is it because the teams are from smaller local towns where nothing else happens? Or because people want to see the talents of tomorrow on their way up?

Where I come from, nobody is interested in collage sports. I don't think I've ever seen more than 100 spectators and that was a final game.

Are you speaking about High School, college/University or NFL teams?

If the team is always losing in HS or college/university, few will come to watch the games, much less the away games. It's the flip side if they win A LOT!

But NFL games are ALWAYS packed. Even if the team in question loses more than they win.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

The rules of football are pretty straightforward imo. Baseball is way weirder.

The basic rules are very simple, but the actual rulebook with millions of specific situations is stupefying in it's volume

 

[Spyxos]

Are you speaking about High School, college/University or NFL teams?

If the team is always losing in HS or college/university, few will come to watch the games, much less the away games. It's the flip side if they win A LOT!

But NFL games are ALWAYS packed. Even if the team in question loses more than they win.

College/University Teams.

 

[Marvel14]

Ok so in response to some of the comments.

1. I understand that there is an algorithm that makes the schedule rules at least equally applied but you can't get away from the fact that some teams have an easier route to the playoffs. How is that fair?

2. So I exaggerated about the lack of away fans but it's still partly true. I was talking less about the "result advantage" and more about the atmosphere in the stadium when the home team is losing. In other sports with more away fans, they can keep a high energy atmosphere when the home team is losing badly.

3. Sorry guys but this "taking. Knee" defence doesn't hold water. "The game has a high risk of injury so better to let a winning team win than be challenged in open play" is a terrible rationale- why are they playing at all if it's so dangerous? Oh and other sports are NOT the same. In European football the ball is in play and the opposing team can get at it. When an AF team takes the knee the ball is never in play and is not accessible to the other team- the game is effectively over.

Football is a clock management game, and I don't see a problem in running down the clock to secure a victory, especially when there is such a high risk of player injury in every play

Same thing happens in other sports like European Football where the ball is passed around at the end to run the clock down, also happens in basketball and hockey.

4. Sure the draft has a lot of positives and cycles champions more equitably than in other sports. And yes other sports become driven by who can spend most and fewer teams consistently compete for the championship. But this draft system also creates the perverse incentive that worse performing teams are better off being as bad as possible to get better draft picks next year. The lack of promotion/relegation means this IS rewarding and promoting failure- not a good incentive in any sport.

5. TDs are proper scoring. Field goals are "extra points". You can win a game without scoring a TD. No other sport (except rugby if memory serves) has this.

Just my two cents.

 

[Happosai]

I swear to god this whole sport is invented to push advertisements on viewers. Which is why this isn't taking off anywhere else in the world.

Insane amounts of downtime.

UFC boxing and Nascar races are the same. 4...5-minutes of game and 4-5-minutes of adverts. I quit watching these sports long ago.

 

[Days like these...]

The only eggsplanation you need is hand egg, beer commercials and rabid fans

 

[Pagusas]

First off, I enjoy the sport. I follow the Minnesota Vikings.

But I can't help but be bugged by a few things. Do these things bug die hard fans too? They are for me:

1. In the regular NFL season every team plays a different set of adversaries. How can teams be judged on their overall performance and playoff ranking fairly against one another if they each play different teams? Similarly in College Football- a bunch of wonks decides team rankings which sets who plays in which bowl. WtF?

2. Home games are ridiculously one sided. I rarely see fans of the away team in a stadium in any meaningful numbers. Means all home teams have an even bigger home field advantage and the atmosphere is unsalvageable if the home team is getting wupped.

3.The rule set is complex and somewhat arbitrary. Knee needs to not be down for a fumble and interception to count, both feet need to be in bounds when a catch is made and the player has 'control' of the ball, hitting the corner cone in the endzone with the ball counts as a td as long as the player is still in bounds, pass interference can vary in severity, exact ball placement at the end of a play can be quite approximate . You could have very different results with tiny rule tweaks. Also makes it harder for casual fans to get invested as these minutiae are not self evident (on this last point AF is not alone but I think its worse than other sports).

4. The constant and prolonged stoppages interrupt the flow of excitement.

5. Team manoeuvres like taking the knee to run down time are shitty and cowardly ways to end tight games where you're currently in the lead.

6. Failing upwards. The worst performing teams get the best new recruits. That's the opposite of meritocracy and its worse than America's dreaded socialism.

7. You can win a game without scoring properly (ie a td). Don't know another sport that does that.

8. Pass and catch TDs look spectacular. Running evade, spin and dive TDs also. But the walk in or pile in ones look like shite and feel far less "celebratable" (not a word).

Do any of these annoy true fans too? Are there any others?

You are a semi-Vikings fan, so try just reading this really slow or asking your mommy for help

1. It would be impossible for all 32 teams to play each other in the year, the season cant be that long (players would be dead by the end) and the whole reason we have Divisions like the NFC North is to keep teams playing similar opponents, developing rivalries and make it fair.

2. Nope, Home games are not "ridiculously one sided", sense 2002 the home vs away record aggregate is .57 in favor of the home team. Advantage? yes. but not "ridiculous" and several years have seen the home teams on average having a below .500 record. Again this is why Divisions are so important, each teach gets an away and a home game, so its even. Its also why your division record is so important.

3. Lol true, can't really argue it.

4. Agreed, but Ad's keep the game money flowing and penalties are sadly over officiated right now. Makes me miss the 90s

5. Disagree, clock management is part of the game. Nothing sweeter than victory formation.

6. Its needed, otherwise you'll get dynasties over and over again, and no one but the Patriots wants that. But also, 1st round draft picks are VERY hit and miss, and just looking at the leagues winers and losers over the last 30 years should make it clear bad teams dont turn good over night from low draft picks, and good teams dont disapear over night from high draft picks. Well managed organizations (like the patriots, packers, 49ers and Steelers) all stay consistently good thanks to being well managed, not because of high draft picks (in fact all the teams I just listed have rarely ever had a top 5 pick)

7. ....what. All scores are proper. A safety, a field goal, a td, all proper ways to score.

8. That can be true of any sport, they all have their flashy plays and their not so flashy ones. Soccer, baseball, bowling, golf, all have cool flash stuff, but also lots of "well that was just ugly".

 

[MastAndo]

6. Failing upwards. The worst performing teams get the best new recruits. That's the opposite of meritocracy and its worse than America's dreaded socialism.

How do you propose draft pick order is decided then? If it's random, you create a scenario where the rich get richer. Most (American) sports do the same thing. It seems fair to me, though it unfortunately does lead to intentional tanking.

I enjoy American football, but I definitely see it as a flawed sport. For starters, there's holding on basically every single play. You can't stop a rushing linesman consistently without getting a little dirty. That gives the refs an opportunity to control a game by deciding when to call it, which is something no one wants to see. Also, the whole NFL = No Fun League is true. Lighten up, it's supposed to be entertaining.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

We need AI refs that measure body mass and can calculate penalties on the fly by using crazy algorithms. First few years will cause a few mistakes so keep a human ref up in the booth to "electoral college" all the calls.

Or ESports should just improve to the point where traditional sports crash and burn.

 

[DKehoe]

Yeah I really don't miss this and it's one of the reasons I don't follow football anymore. So. Many. Commercials. It's one thing if you're at a gathering and can fill that time with socializing, but when I moved out of state and left my fan group behind, watching a game by yourself just isn't the same and those extended amount of commercials just become excruciating. Then I dropped cable in 2015 and haven't followed the sport since. I still watch maybe one game a year when the local team is on a Thursday night Amazon broadcast, more for kind of a nostalgia hit than anything else.

I'm from the U.K. and I remember a while back the BBC had the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl here. So I thought I'd check it out. Because the BBC has no commercial breaks, anytime the US broadcast went to commercial the BBC broadcast went back to their in-studio pundits. You could tell that the pundits they got for it were not used to having to talk about the game that often.

 

[12Goblins]

3. Sorry guys but this "taking. Knee" defence doesn't hold water. "The game has a high risk of injury so better to let a winning team win than be challenged in open play" is a terrible rationale- why are they playing at all if it's so dangerous? Oh and other sports are NOT the same. In European football the ball is in play and the opposing team can get at it. When an AF team takes the knee the ball is never in play and is not accessible to the other team- the game is effectively over.

it's more complicated than you think. you are only able to run down the clock if your opponent has used all their time outs, which makes for some interesting strategic and crucial decision making by the coach earlier in the game

If your opponent "wasted" all their time outs earlier in the game, and you manage to have possession of the ball in the last two minutes, only then are you afforded the luxury to burn the last 2 minutes of the game by executing QB kneels. This is why its a crucial part of the sport and coaching to manage the clock and using your timeouts carefully. If you were able to save two timeouts, the other team can now only burn the last 40 seconds of the game. this is something in coaches minds 100% of the time

I understand that for a casual viewer who might not understand all the rules and nuances of the game, it looks like one team is effectively able stop the game with 2 minutes left on the clock, but that privilege has to be earned earlier in the game where certain risks have to be taken. I would also argue in soccer "parking the bus" and flopping to buy time (which I realize is also part of clock mgmt) makes for a lot more boring games that sometimes takes up the ENTIRE second half




bonus

 

[Mr Reasonable]

I swear to god this whole sport is invented to push advertisements on viewers. Which is why this isn't taking off anywhere else in the world.

Insane amounts of downtime.

I think the NFL IS taking off elsewhere now though, there are games in London every year and Germany had two games this year too. Crazy as it sounds, I think that the NFL are going to set up a team in Europe at some point, when that happens every game involving that team will involve a team flying to another continent, but the NFL loves money and so that's what's going to happen.

 

[Marvel14]

How do you propose draft pick order is decided then? If it's random, you create a scenario where the rich get richer. Most (American) sports do the same thing. It seems fair to me, though it unfortunately does lead to intentional tanking.

I enjoy American football, but I definitely see it as a flawed sport. For starters, there's holding on basically every single play. You can't stop a rushing linesman consistently without getting a little dirty. That gives the refs an opportunity to control a game by deciding when to call it, which is something no one wants to see. Also, the whole NFL = No Fun League is true. Lighten up, it's supposed to be entertaining.

I would split the league into two so there is relegation and promotion and twin NFL teams with local/regional colleges so that local talent has the opportunity to be developed, deployed and professionalised locally before it gets traded out of state.

it's more complicated than you think. you are only able to run down the clock if your opponent has used all their time outs, which makes for some interesting strategic and crucial decision making by the coach earlier in the game

If your opponent "wasted" all their time outs earlier in the game, and you manage to have possession of the ball in the last two minutes, only then are you afforded the luxury to burn the last 2 minutes of the game by executing QB kneels. This is why its a crucial part of the sport and coaching to manage the clock and using your timeouts carefully. If you were able to save two timeouts, the other team can now only burn the last 40 seconds of the game. this is something in coaches minds 100% of the time

I understand that for a casual viewer who might not understand all the rules and nuances of the game, it looks like one team is effectively able stop the game with 2 minutes left on the clock, but that privilege has to be earned earlier in the game where certain risks have to be taken. I would also argue in soccer "parking the bus" and flopping to buy time (which I realize is also part of clock mgmt) makes for a lot more boring games that sometimes takes up the ENTIRE second half bonus

WTF.
Yes I know there is strategy behind time out deployment. But I am willing to bet that the number of NFL fans that watch and get excited about time out deployment strategy wins is in the teens percentage wise. And it doesn't change the fact that the game ends prematurely because one team (to use an American phrase ) "is too pussy" to put the ball in play.

And yes in European football you can get an entire half one team just trying to stop the other team scoring but the ball is still in play, and there is skill in both defending resolutely and in creative attacking to break it down.

What skill is on display when taking the knee? One legged squats? I can go to my local gym if I want to watch repetitive exercise routines....

 

[GymWolf]

I don't understand the appeal of football.

Still more fun than fucking baseball

 

[FunkMiller]

’football’.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

bonus

Completely bungles the importance of being 'set' on that final spike. While it's true that given Mason Crosby at 300 years of age had basically zero chance of a 56 yard-field goal, in general that's not what would completely kill a team in that situation. It's the 10 second runoff that goes along with that type of penalty inside of 2 minutes left in a half

 

[Dural]

You are a semi-Vikings fan, so try just reading this really slow or asking your mommy for help

1. It would be impossible for all 32 teams to play each other in the year, the season cant be that long (players would be dead by the end) and the whole reason we have Divisions like the NFC North is to keep teams playing similar opponents, developing rivalries and make it fair.

2. Nope, Home games are not "ridiculously one sided", sense 2002 the home vs away record aggregate is .57 in favor of the home team. Advantage? yes. but not "ridiculous" and several years have seen the home teams on average having a below .500 record. Again this is why Divisions are so important, each teach gets an away and a home game, so its even. Its also why your division record is so important.

3. Lol true, can't really argue it.

4. Agreed, but Ad's keep the game money flowing and penalties are sadly over officiated right now. Makes me miss the 90s

5. Disagree, clock management is part of the game. Nothing sweeter than victory formation.

6. Its needed, otherwise you'll get dynasties over and over again, and no one but the Patriots wants that. But also, 1st round draft picks are VERY hit and miss, and just looking at the leagues winers and losers over the last 30 years should make it clear bad teams dont turn good over night from low draft picks, and good teams dont disapear over night from high draft picks. Well managed organizations (like the patriots, packers, 49ers and Steelers) all stay consistently good thanks to being well managed, not because of high draft picks (in fact all the teams I just listed have rarely ever had a top 5 pick)

7. ....what. All scores are proper. A safety, a field goal, a td, all proper ways to score.

8. That can be true of any sport, they all have their flashy plays and their not so flashy ones. Soccer, baseball, bowling, golf, all have cool flash stuff, but also lots of "well that was just ugly".

As a Bears fan that lives 5 miles from the Wisconsin border, and married someone from Wisconsin, it pains me to say agreed (about both the Vikings fan and your responses).

 

[Catphish]

The NFL of today is nothing like it was when I was a fan in the 80s and 90s.

It's far too punitive now, penalties for every little thing, and the players seem to have very little class or sportsmanship.

I used to be a huge fan, but now, well, I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I watched a complete game. It's probably been more than a decade.