NFL

[jim5cents]

If a FB coach says, "ok, lets go out, put a hurting on these guys, smash them in the mouth, bust them up" to me, that is ok.

But naming names and targeting specifics, definately over the line.

[D.B. Cooper]

The World's Billionaires - Forbes_

Paul Allen is #48 while Mikhail Prokhorov is #58 but less than a billion separate them so I guess on any given day the rankings could change. Anyway, having a uber rich owner definetly doesn't ensure success but it does have it's perks. I was just reading an article about how the Blazers can afford to pay Callipari more than any other team and how he hired his last GM on a yacht trip to Helsinki. He buys draft picks with cash and he can afford to build super nice stadiums like the Rose Garden and wherever it is the Seahawks play (the smiley is because I don't know what it's called either)

I've enjoyed our discussion and I apologize if I wrongly accused you of being from NY. It's just that it seems whenever I hear someone cracking on Seattle the are almost always from there. The Mariners are going to be lucky to not lose 100 games this year and I don't expect the Seahawks to be much better so it's not likely Seattle is going to be moving up your rankings of great sports cities anytime soon.

[CrispyChicken]

I'm a Yankee fan but for some reason I love the Mariners

[ZedIsDead]

Originally Posted by jim5cents

Sure a bunch of people go to Seahawk games...guess what, every single NFL game, everyweek, regardless of where you are sellsout. But you never hear about the rabid Seattle sportsfan. You never hear about a great Seattle sports tradition.

The Seahawks have some of the loudest fans in the NFL. The 12th Man is a factor in every game. As for the Mariners, the fact that they even still have a fanbase despite a decade of irrelevance and terrible management should say something.

Originally Posted by jim5cents

Every player that is there is a great player just waiting to get out or a past their prime that goes there to die.

You could say that about nearly every mid to small market team.

Originally Posted by jim5cents

1 championship in the entire history of city.

Argh.

Originally Posted by jim5cents

What do you expect when the NFL team in Seattle is owned by the guy that was the president of the AV Club in high school?

Who cares, he's rich, willing to spend on the team and is hands-off.

Originally Posted by jim5cents

As far as Cleveland goes, great sports tradition. Passionate fans. They held riots when a popular player left town. If that were to happen in Seattle, no one would notice as they sipped the grande mocca latte and played with their sliderulers. When the original Browns left, the NFL felt compelled to give them another team simply based on the concept of tradition. If the Seahawks left, who outside of Washington State (or inside of Washington State for that matter) would notice?

Let's make one thing clear. I put Cleveland's name out because of their sports team's futility, not their fanbase.

You claim Seattle fans don't care about their teams? Are you serious? When A-Rod skipped town after being given a quarter of a million dollars, he had Monopoly money thrown at him and he was consistently booed at Safeco for years. Seattle may have lost the Sonics, but that was due to an Okie interloper that realized that the Sonics had a terrible lease situation, that the public had paid for two new stadiums in the past 10 years(KeyArena was renovated in 1995, to boot), and that the commissioner(which he was friends with) had no problem with letting him essentially steal a team. It didn't help that the Washington state and Seattle politicians didn't put forth much of an effort, but Bennett was being unreasonable.

This is getting way off topic, though.

[Dudebro]

This whole thing seems ridiculous from an outside perspective. From my experience most people just root for the home team regardless of how bad they suck. Some areas have more sports fans than others, that's it.

Of course where I live you have to be a fan of the home teams or people will act like you're a terrorist. Try being a die hard Yankee fan at Fenway or vice versa.

[samejamesbond]

I remember when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, my die hard Red Sox
fan teacher got his car egged, keyed, and slashed. As a die hard Yankees
fan, sometimes I'm amazed by what fellow fans do to Red Sox fans.

[Dudebro]

Yankee fans are bad. I've heard plenty of horror stories of people being harassed and even beat up just for wearing something that shows they like the red sox. A friend of mine was recently harassed in NY for walking down the street wearing a red sox hat, that's it. Of course some red sox fans are bad too but it doesn't seem to be on the same level, and it's only around times when a big game is happening.

[CrispyChicken]

Not all Yankee fans are bad. Most of them are stupid though lol.

During a field trip to Boston, my friends and I wore our Yankee gear and we got some bad words thrown at us by Red Sox fans

[samejamesbond]

Nah, it goes both ways unfortunately, my friend went to Boston and had a
Yankees sticker on the back. The car got broken into and the only things
that were taken were the Yankee's clothes, which were burned next to the car.

There's a reason it's called the most intense rivalry.

[CrispyChicken]

Too bad the games itself haven't been really that competitive in the recent years. Hopefully it heats up again. 2003-2007 were great years for the rivalry, probably the best.

[samejamesbond]

That's because the Red Sox aren't as good as the used to be.
Not that that's a bad thing.

[Kugyince]

The NFL does not maintain records on people within a team's fanbase, not that the accurately could anyways. It does keep track of merchandise sales and I don't remember Seattle cracking the top ten, even the year after their only Superbowl appearance.

Season 11-12 stats have not been released yet to my knowledge. 10-11 was:
1. Steelers
2. Cowboys
3. Saints
4. Eagles
5. Patriots
6. Bears
7. Giants
8. Packers
9. Colts
10. Jets

Steelers, Cowboys, Eagles, Patriots, Bears, Giants, and Packers are perennial favorites.

Originally Posted by D.B. Cooper

I've enjoyed our discussion and I apologize if I wrongly accused you of being from NY. It's just that it seems whenever I hear someone cracking on Seattle the are almost always from there.

There's something wrong with being from NY?

Originally Posted by ninjatiamat

The Seahawks have some of the loudest fans in the NFL. The 12th Man is a factor in every game. As for the Mariners, the fact that they even still have a fanbase despite a decade of irrelevance and terrible management should say something.


You could say that about nearly every mid to small market team.

That's more the design of the stadium than anything else. The Seattle fanbase doesn't travel well at all.

Pittsburgh? Green Bay?

Originally Posted by Dudebro

This whole thing seems ridiculous from an outside perspective. From my experience most people just root for the home team regardless of how bad they suck. Some areas have more sports fans than others, that's it.

I think it only seems that way because you're viewing it from an uncaring outside perspective. If someone watches the NFL and what team do they like is not something you would normally bring up. I would say that from a New York perspective, about 25% of people that I know who watch football cheer for one of the three New York NFL teams.

[Dudebro]

It must be different around here then. It's rare to see someone supporting away teams openly. When it comes up in conversation(and it does ) people are almost always home team fans. I think part of my hostility towards sports comes from how obsessed the locals are with it. It's on the local news, newspapers, commercials, store ads, people cars/clothes and politicians pander about it in speeches. It's mostly red sox, Pats of course but the amount of coverage it gets is just ridiculous.

And I'm not totally uncaring about it. I appreciate how happy it can make people and I know the money it makes helps communities. I'm just sick of the emphasis people put on it.

[ZedIsDead]

Originally Posted by Tenser

That's more the design of the stadium than anything else. The Seattle fanbase doesn't travel well at all.

Maybe so, but you do have to give credit to the fans for realizing this and taking advantage of it.

San Francisco is the closest NFL city and it's about 800 miles to the south of Seattle. It's harder for them to travel than fans of other teams.

Originally Posted by Tenser

Pittsburgh? Green Bay?

I said nearly every smaller market team. Those are exceptions to the rule, not the norm.

[Kugyince]

Originally Posted by ninjatiamat

San Francisco is the closest NFL city and it's about 800 miles to the south of Seattle. It's harder for them to travel than fans of other teams.

Pardon the confusion. Usually when someone says a team's fanbase travels well they mean they have an extensive fanbase in all the markets.

Also distance should not really be a factor. Forgive another Steelers reference but these are the ones I know the best.

Anytime that San Diego hosts Pittsburgh they enforce a rule. If you want to buy tickets to a Steelers @ Chargers game you have to buy tickets to two other Chargers games as well. 2,410 miles.

Denver will not sell tickets to anyone living in the 412 area code (Pittsburgh). 1,451 miles.

These actions were taken because Pittsburgh was turning away games into basically home games.

Steelers owner Art Rooney II has brought up these grievances to the commissioner's but it was met with a deaf ear.

[ZedIsDead]

Ah, I see what you're getting at. Well, the Seahawks unfortunately lack the six Super Bowl victories and consistent success the Steelers have enjoyed.

[jim5cents]

The Richest Owners In Sports - Forbes.com

Yeah, it is an issue of what list you get it from. I think this list was published two days post the one that DB Coop brought up from the same site. Microsoft must have had a bad day or two at the stock market.

I'm originally from CT, which is NY lite.

I remember when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, my die hard Red Sox
fan teacher got his car egged, keyed, and slashed. As a die hard Yankees
fan, sometimes I'm amazed by what fellow fans do to Red Sox fans.

Nah, it goes both ways unfortunately, my friend went to Boston and had a
Yankees sticker on the back. The car got broken into and the only things
that were taken were the Yankee's clothes, which were burned next to the car.

There's a reason it's called the most intense rivalry.

No, that is just stupidity. I'm sure alcohol wasn't involved.

Of course, not all Yankees fans are bad.
Muammar Gaddafi Killed by New York Yankee Fan | FTRsports.com | For The Record Sports

The exceptions of the rule that ninjatiamat mentioned everything to do with star power. Same for the jersey sales. GB, Pitt, NO, PHX, SD, until last year, INDY, they are all mid to small markets with stars on their team and that drives the popularlity and sales. It is the fan bases that drives the ownership to pursue stars for their franchises. Can you imagine the backlash if the Rooney family or Jerry Jones, or the Steinbrienners would have from the public if they decided to mail it in for a couple of seasons?

[Kugyince]

I think Pitt is an exception to that 'star power' rule. We're an odd fanbase that favors 3-0 smashmouth football.

Like you pointed out before Jim, Pitt is the only team in the league that sells more defensive player jerseys than offensive.

[jim5cents]

Well, that is what happens in your best player is a defensive guy (Polamalu). Same thing in Baltimore.

[StarfoxFan2009]

Regarding the Saints' bounty program scandal, i believe that Gregg Williams should be permanently blacklisted from football. He purposely put hits on star players to try and ruin their careers (Favre's he successfully ended). True, what the Pats did with Spygate was wrong, but deliberately injuring players for your own gain is ten times worse.

[CrispyChicken]

NFL Draft 1st round is over.

Luck went first, RG3 second, as expected.

Giants selected RB David Wilson with the 32nd pick. Pretty good pick imo.

I thought that the Browns and Patriots had impressive draft days.

[warghoul]

Thought this was funny comedian Nick Swardson said "NFL Draft today. With the Vikings luck they'll probably draft Adelle and the cast of Glee."

[bearhawk72]

NFL suspended 4 current and former Saints for their roles in the bounty system:

Jonathan Vilma- Gone for the season
Will Smith- 4 games
Anthony Hargrove(now in GB): 8 games
Scott Fujita(now in Cleveland): 3 games

Vilma twice put up $10k of his own money to anyone who took out Favre and Warner during the playoffs. Hargrove signed paperwork saying he knew of and participated in the bounty system and the NFL gave him 8 games for obstructing the investigation in 2010.

Smith an Fujita put in mony to the system, though no amount was given.

[CrispyChicken]

lol Goodell is going off on the Saints

[StarfoxFan2009]

Former Browns and Ravens owner Art Modell passed away last night at 87

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/sp...pagewanted=all