OT Steelers vs Patriots

[rwsaunders]

Good game if you're a Steelers fan...

[wc1934]

Betting on the Pats the week after a bye used to be a sure thing( Bill B. has an outstanding record when he has an additional week to prepare) - not so this year - new rules limit the number of practice days during the bye week- I think I read somewhere teams coming back after the bye week have lost more than they won.
That said, the Steeler defense rose to the occasion - all but took away the Pats passing game with their double teaming schemes and their pass rush.

[rice rocket]

I'm a Pats fans in Pittsburgh.

Pats D is hurting this year, but I'd like to see a rematch. Belichick rarely loses twice to the same opponent in the same season.

[johnnymossville]

Monday is always better when the Steelers win and just a little bit better still when the Patriots lose.

Win Win all around tonight. Way to go Steelers!!!

[bikerboy337]

crap

will not be fun to listen to sports radio tomorrow in Boston

[merlinmurph]

Steelers had the ball almost 40 minutes. That pretty much sums it all up.

Tough game to watch for this Pats fan. The game wasn't nearly as close as the score suggests.

[Louis]

Even the Rams won today, so they are no longer winless. Defeating the Saints, of all teams. Must be something in the water/beer in St Louis this weekend.

[CarlosContreros]

Go Raiders!

was tired of your management at the end Mr. Davis...but
surely didnt want you to pass!

[maunahaole]

crap

will not be fun to listen to sports radio tomorrow in Boston

At least they won't be talking about Popeye's chicken.

[sailorboy]

well at least their supermodel quarterback looked dapper in his suit at the post-game interview....aren't NE fans tired of Brady yet?

gahead, flame on! I'm from Pgh I can take it.

[Ray]

I'm not that big a football fan anymore and don't care much whether the Eagles are good or not, but I grew up hating the Cowboys and Jerry Jones didn't make me hate 'em any less and what the Eagles did to the boyz last night was just fun on every level. Tossed mud in the face of another obnoxious Ryan boy, get the whole Dallas team bickering on the sidelines - oooooohhhh, JUST what the doctor ordered after a disappointing Phillies ending...

I like the Mavs well enough but I can't think of another Dallas team I don't take a LOT of pleasure from watching lose - the more painfully the better...

-Ray

[rwsaunders]

Wouldn't it be great if the world's common dislike of the Cowboys brought us all together...

[frisbie]

Love this thread...can I please be included in the anti Cowboys club? Tomlin is the key to Pittsburghs success, great leader. Go Browns!

[Aaron O]

I feel like something went wrong in the universe and I was meant to be a Steelers fan, but ended up born in Philadelphia. I'm an Eagles fan genetically, but I hate the kind of football they typically play and am much more a Steelers football fan at heart...or even the Giants.

That being said, you don't need to be a Steelers fan to enjoy watching games like that.

[Ray]

I feel like something went wrong in the universe and I was meant to be a Steelers fan, but ended up born in Philadelphia. I'm an Eagles fan genetically, but I hate the kind of football they typically play and am much more a Steelers football fan at heart...or even the Giants.

That being said, you don't need to be a Steelers fan to enjoy watching games like that.
A lot of people in the Philly area don't seem to understand that its possible to MOVE, to CHANGE LOCATIONS, to actually someday LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE. We're imports, not natives - we've been here about 20 years and it feels pretty rooted by now. But when we first moved here, people would give us REALLY funny looks - like, 'you actually LEFT somewhere and CAME here? Such a foreign concept. We were talking with some new neighbors who were shocked that just a month or so earlier we had lived in Seattle. Then we asked if they were "from around here", only to be told, "Oh NO, we're not from around here - we're from Downingtown". Downingtown is the next borough over, about 8 miles up the road, the last stop on a few of my regular bike routes.

So, I know its a strange concept, but it is possible to go somewhere else if you'd rather be there for whatever combination of reasons. And once you're in a new place for a while, you can even start to become a fan of the local teams. You can't do it right away - took me a good five years to fully transfer my loyalties from the Mariners to the Phils, the Sonics (who?) to the Sixers, and the Seahawks to the Eagles. It takes about that long for a franchise to fully turn over so that you've been here longer than nearly any of the players or coaches and then you can call them your own.

This is a public service announcement I feel obligated to provide periodically. Because nearly everyone we know in the Philly area still live within about 3 miles of their place of birth and didn't know you could ever live somewhere else. But you can. You really can - I've seen it done!!!

Of course, you ARE required to take your lifelong hatred of the Cowboys along with you. THAT is both universal and non-transferrable!

-Ray

[Dave B]

Love the Pats and was bummed to see them lose. I think Brady is great, but he is beginning to turn into Marino. Complaining and getting after everyone esle really bugs. He has some weapons, but am surprised he hasn't asked for a better line. Waaaay to many sacks and pressure. Pats dominance might be a thingk of the past, but I still love em! Plus seeing the Colts implode is freaking hilarious. I have never had so much fun watching a team upended by one guy's absence.


As for the Cowboys, who cares. Their quarterback isn't half as good as Jerry wants him to be and he isn't going to win the big one...with him leading the team. he isn't bad, but he isn't great either.

Now, for my other team...Detroit. Holy cow, what a blast to watch these guys play. My grandfather played for them back in the 40's and it is awesome to see them do well. Thanksgiving day just got that much better.

[johnnymossville]

Mr Pres. I agree it's great seeing Detroit finally winning. Those poor long suffering fans.

Your Grandfather played for Detroit? How cool is that!!!!

[tiretrax]

I'm not that big a football fan anymore and don't care much whether the Eagles are good or not, but I grew up hating the Cowboys and Jerry Jones didn't make me hate 'em any less and what the Eagles did to the boyz last night was just fun on every level. Tossed mud in the face of another obnoxious Ryan boy, get the whole Dallas team bickering on the sidelines - oooooohhhh, JUST what the doctor ordered after a disappointing Phillies ending...

I like the Mavs well enough but I can't think of another Dallas team I don't take a LOT of pleasure from watching lose - the more painfully the better...

-Ray

Even Dallasites are rooting against the Cowboys. Jones, Romo, Ryan, Dez and the cavalcade of idiot ex-players (Irvin, Sanders, the list is so long) - send 'em all away!

But the hatred - I don't understand that. I thought you lived in the City of Brotherly Love?

[Ray]

But the hatred - I don't understand that. I thought you lived in the City of Brotherly Love?
Yeah, I do. Which has as much to do with Philly as "America's Team" has to do with the Cowboys...

Actually, Philly doesn't have anything to do with it. I grew up in the desert Southwest when the Cowboys WERE sort of America's Team. Everyone I knew loved them (AZ didn't have any major pro sports teams in those days - I guess the Suns were just getting started). But I couldn't stand them. Landry and Staubach and the entire holier than thou act. I respected them, liked some of the players (Calvin Hill, Drew Pearson, Merideth in the REAL old days, etc), but couldn't stand the organization as a whole. Then Jerry Jones and Jimmy stepped in and a VERY strong dislike turned much much worse. I can't justify any of it. But I can't deny it either. Everyone needs something inconsequential to hate, so we don't get carried away and act badly when it comes to real people in our real lives. I guess hating the Cowboys is my hate-vice...

-Ray

[Aaron O]

A lot of people in the Philly area don't seem to understand that its possible to MOVE, to CHANGE LOCATIONS, to actually someday LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE. We're imports, not natives - we've been here about 20 years and it feels pretty rooted by now. But when we first moved here, people would give us REALLY funny looks - like, 'you actually LEFT somewhere and CAME here? Such a foreign concept. We were talking with some new neighbors who were shocked that just a month or so earlier we had lived in Seattle. Then we asked if they were "from around here", only to be told, "Oh NO, we're not from around here - we're from Downingtown". Downingtown is the next borough over, about 8 miles up the road, the last stop on a few of my regular bike routes.

So, I know its a strange concept, but it is possible to go somewhere else if you'd rather be there for whatever combination of reasons. And once you're in a new place for a while, you can even start to become a fan of the local teams. You can't do it right away - took me a good five years to fully transfer my loyalties from the Mariners to the Phils, the Sonics (who?) to the Sixers, and the Seahawks to the Eagles. It takes about that long for a franchise to fully turn over so that you've been here longer than nearly any of the players or coaches and then you can call them your own.

This is a public service announcement I feel obligated to provide periodically. Because nearly everyone we know in the Philly area still live within about 3 miles of their place of birth and didn't know you could ever live somewhere else. But you can. You really can - I've seen it done!!!

Of course, you ARE required to take your lifelong hatred of the Cowboys along with you. THAT is both universal and non-transferrable!

-Ray

Ha! Great post!

I've lived in several other areas, including Pitt., and always come back because:

a. my family and closest friends are here
b. it's the perfect combo of affordability, size and culture
c. great for cycling and commuting

I have no interest in moving else where and my wife owns a business here. We're rooted. Even if I did want to leave, it certainly wouldn't be because of football. I enjoy a football game as much as the next guy, but I'm also sane. No - I won't mortgage my house for a bowl ticket. I won't prioritize season tickets over retirement (or bikes). I won't get drunk every Sunday.

Truthfuly, the things I love about football are disappearing anyway and the product they are putting out doesn't appeal to me. I watch less and less football each year.

As far as hating Dallas - I think it's hard for people from Dallas to understand some of this. It's not Dallas fans we hate, it's people in Philadelphia trying to annoy their neighbors by rooting for Dallas. A guy who grew up in Dallas is the same to me as any other fan - a guy in South philly rooting for Dallas is just trying to antagonize folks - they also tend to be loud and obnoxious people looking for attention. Because the Eagles have been SO historically awful, it pisses us off when some jerk tries putting us down screaming for a much better franchise.

As my dad says - rooting for one sports franchise over another is rooting for GM against Ford. I'm an Eagles fan - but I just don't care much anymore.

[tiretrax]

Most long for the Cowboys of old. The players were respectable, and many still live in the area and have successful post-football careers. Most of the Jones era players are broke, have been in trouble with the law, and not good citizens. The holier than thou was a small price to pay for players to admire on and off the field. The Rangers and Mavs exemplify that without the holy roler attitude, and, thus, are loved and respected.

[roydyates]

A lot of people in the Philly area don't seem to understand that its possible to MOVE, to CHANGE LOCATIONS, to actually someday LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE. We're imports, not natives - we've been here about 20 years and it feels pretty rooted by now. But when we first moved here, people would give us REALLY funny looks - like, 'you actually LEFT somewhere and CAME here? Such a foreign concept. We were talking with some new neighbors who were shocked that just a month or so earlier we had lived in Seattle. Then we asked if they were "from around here", only to be told, "Oh NO, we're not from around here - we're from Downingtown". Downingtown is the next borough over, about 8 miles up the road, the last stop on a few of my regular bike routes.

So, I know its a strange concept, but it is possible to go somewhere else if you'd rather be there for whatever combination of reasons. And once you're in a new place for a while, you can even start to become a fan of the local teams. You can't do it right away - took me a good five years to fully transfer my loyalties from the Mariners to the Phils, the Sonics (who?) to the Sixers, and the Seahawks to the Eagles. It takes about that long for a franchise to fully turn over so that you've been here longer than nearly any of the players or coaches and then you can call them your own.

This is a public service announcement I feel obligated to provide periodically. Because nearly everyone we know in the Philly area still live within about 3 miles of their place of birth and didn't know you could ever live somewhere else. But you can. You really can - I've seen it done!!!

Of course, you ARE required to take your lifelong hatred of the Cowboys along with you. THAT is both universal and non-transferrable!

-Ray
Philly has had a declining population for the last 3 or 4 decades. The reason it seems like everyone has been there forever is that relatively few people move to Philly.

[Aaron O]

Philly has had a declining population for the last 3 or 4 decades. The reason it seems like everyone has been there forever is that relatively few people move to Philly.

Philly's population trends reversed and grew for the past few years AND the past decade. I meet people who moved here for a variety of reasons, frequently the plethora of schools, on a daily basis. It's a terrific city, and people come here and are realizing it.

[roydyates]

Truthfuly, the things I love about football are disappearing anyway and the product they are putting out doesn't appeal to me. I watch less and less football each year.

As far as hating Dallas - I think it's hard for people from Dallas to understand some of this. It's not Dallas fans we hate, it's people in Philadelphia trying to annoy their neighbors by rooting for Dallas. A guy who grew up in Dallas is the same to me as any other fan - a guy in South philly rooting for Dallas is just trying to antagonize folks - they also tend to be loud and obnoxious people looking for attention. Because the Eagles have been SO historically awful, it pisses us off when some jerk tries putting us down screaming for a much better franchise.

As my dad says - rooting for one sports franchise over another is rooting for GM against Ford. I'm an Eagles fan - but I just don't care much anymore.
I think it depends on your social circle. I was a casual Eagles fan from the mid 80's through the 90's. However, it makes a big difference if you have a few kids who happen to become hardcore Eagles fans. Now we all wear our Eagles jerseys around the house on gameday. In the old days, families identified with car brands. Some families bought Fords, others bought Chevys. Now that cars have gotten blander and more similar, car allegiances have withered. Sports allegiances, via TV marketing, have become more powerful.

What this thread shows is that strong feelings about the cowboys are universal. TV is the source of it. At a formative moment, you see them on TV and either your hooked or you hate them.

[Ray]

I played football in high school, like probably a lot of us did. Growing up in Arizona, it was almost a requirement for graduation.. I loved the game for a long time, but sometime over the past 10-15 years I've been geting more and more disillusioned with it, particularly at the higher levels where the combinations of speed, size, and power of the people involved is really just calamity waiting to happen. Both the immediate kind (paralysis, etc) and the long term implications for knees and bodies and minds. I think the game has evolved to a level of brutality that's just far too dangerous to be getting our kids into it as schoolboys. Its probably been that bad for longer than that and part of it is probably just me getting older and less tolerant of sanctioned violence. I came through high school ball pretty whole, but when I think back on a few of the times I had my bell rung, I can't imagine I didn't have a concussion or two along the way. There's a lot of tradition tied up with watching football on Sundays and I won't claim I never watch anymore, but I don't make a habit of it like I used to and I fundamentally dislike it - sort of like an addiction I've learned to live with but fundamentally don't like anymore...

The Cowboys in part of the '70s may have been the upstanding citizens that Landry and Staubach wanted to represent, but what I've read indicates it was mostly facade and many of the players in those days were degenerate crazies like an awful lot of NFL players on probably every team. Its not a particularly civilized game and we can't ask the people who play it to be civilized off the field - at least most of them. On some level, I prefer the Raiders mentality - not pretending to be anything other than what they were - to the Cowboys image, which I never liked OR believed.

And, yeah, Philly is gaining population again. Having lived in newer cities and older cities and small towns and flat out rural areas, I've come to love the place. I think its a great city, and I've spent time in a lot of great cities. I'm sure Dallas is similarly wonderful to the people who've chosen to live there, as it should be. But its one of my least favorite places in the US (not all of Texas by a long shot - mostly Dallas). Which is probably part of why I can't work up any positive feelings toward the Cowboys. No offense intended - we all have our likes and dislikes and I'm sure a lot of people from Dallas would hate Philly too. This is the stuff of rivalries - its not serious 'hatred', more 'hatred' at the level of entertainment... But what they're both doing in the NFC "EAST" I'll never understand...

-Ray

[Aaron O]

I played football in high school, like probably a lot of us did. Growing up in Arizona, it was almost a requirement for graduation.. I loved the game for a long time, but sometime over the past 10-15 years I've been geting more and more disillusioned with it, particularly at the higher levels where the combinations of speed, size, and power of the people involved is really just calamity waiting to happen. Both the immediate kind (paralysis, etc) and the long term implications for knees and bodies and minds. I think the game has evolved to a level of brutality that's just far too dangerous to be getting our kids into it as schoolboys. Its probably been that bad for longer than that and part of it is probably just me getting older and less tolerant of sanctioned violence. I came through high school ball pretty whole, but when I think back on a few of the times I had my bell rung, I can't imagine I didn't have a concussion or two along the way. There's a lot of tradition tied up with watching football on Sundays and I won't claim I never watch anymore, but I don't make a habit of it like I used to and I fundamentally dislike it - sort of like an addiction I've learned to live with but fundamentally don't like anymore...

The Cowboys in part of the '70s may have been the upstanding citizens that Landry and Staubach wanted to represent, but what I've read indicates it was mostly facade and many of the players in those days were degenerate crazies like an awful lot of NFL players on probably every team. Its not a particularly civilized game and we can't ask the people who play it to be civilized off the field - at least most of them. On some level, I prefer the Raiders mentality - not pretending to be anything other than what they were - to the Cowboys image, which I never liked OR believed.

And, yeah, Philly is gaining population again. Having lived in newer cities and older cities and small towns and flat out rural areas, I've come to love the place. I think its a great city, and I've spent time in a lot of great cities. I'm sure Dallas is similarly wonderful to the people who've chosen to live there, as it should be. But its one of my least favorite places in the US (not all of Texas by a long shot - mostly Dallas). Which is probably part of why I can't work up any positive feelings toward the Cowboys. No offense intended - we all have our likes and dislikes and I'm sure a lot of people from Dallas would hate Philly too. This is the stuff of rivalries - its not serious 'hatred', more 'hatred' at the level of entertainment... But what they're both doing in the NFC "EAST" I'll never understand...

-Ray

Ray - you're really touching on one of my biggest problems with football..the players keep getting bigger and faster, which I think is clearly chemical, but the supporting body tissue is still the same size. I think that's why we see so many acl tears, sprains, etc. They're putting more stress on their bodies than they can really support. That results in more injuries, which I think makes it less interesting for everyone.

My other problem is that they keep changing the rules to favor the passing game and scoring. I like watching defense and balanced teams; every team looks like the Warren Moon Oilers now...and I just find that kind of football dull.

The Eagles-Dallas thing is based on their franchise being so much more successful than our's AND the out of Dallas fans they have...who are mostly looking to annoy their neighbors. I personally dislike the Washington Native Americans far more.