The Sports Lounge

[maxwelldeux]

Kinda - I used to be a huge fan, but I'm finding the games increasingly unwatchable as I age, between truly terrible commentating (Romo aside; Aikman & Buck need to be fired and replaced by literally anyone else, even 2 teenage instagram "models" who have never seen football before), incomprehensible rules (personal foul, the defensive player gave a side-eyed glance at Tom Brady), slow-ass pace of play (oh look, the officials OBVIOUSLY made the wrong call, so let's grind the game to a halt for 30 min), the stupid ridiculous drama that qualifies as NFL news (OMG - Player A unfollowed Player B on Twitter, let's devote 3min of the broadcast to talking about how that's not important), and the fact that it's 2019 and the league seems more preoccupied with figuring out how to wring every single penny out of our cold dead hands than actually making the product available.

That said, go 'Hawks. Clowney FTW.

[GruesomeTwosome]

Kinda - I used to be a huge fan, but I'm finding the games increasingly unwatchable as I age, between truly terrible commentating (Romo aside; Aikman & Buck need to be fired and replaced by literally anyone else, even 2 teenage instagram "models" who have never seen football before), incomprehensible rules (personal foul, the defensive player gave a side-eyed glance at Tom Brady), slow-ass pace of play (oh look, the officials OBVIOUSLY made the wrong call, so let's grind the game to a halt for 30 min), the stupid ridiculous drama that qualifies as NFL news (OMG - Player A unfollowed Player B on Twitter, let's devote 3min of the broadcast to talking about how that's not important), and the fact that it's 2019 and the league seems more preoccupied with figuring out how to wring every single penny out of our cold dead hands than actually making the product available.

That said, go 'Hawks. Clowney FTW.

Gahhhhh, you bastard! The Eagles were apparently the other main suitor with the Seahawks, after Clowney declined going to the Dolphins. The Eagles should have pushed harder to get him, they really need another established defensive end! Oh well...

As for commentary, I'm with you, it's generally awful. I HATE Joe Buck; I actually don't mind Aikman. ESPN's carousel of Monday Night Football crews in recent years has by far been the worst...my God, is that a shitshow, and MNF back in the day used to be the crown jewel, often having the marquee matchup of the week with good broadcast teams, then that shifted to Sunday Night Football getting the better matchups and MNF games often being unwatchable, garbage teams. At least Jason Witten is out of the booth since he came out of retirement...it was rough listening to him.

[maxwelldeux]

I loved the headlines you'd see last season regarding Witten - "Jerry Jones in talks to improve MNF" when he was asking about signing him.

And I'm with you on MNF - used to be great, now I don't even bother checking to see who's playing. And it's not that Aikman is bad as a commentator (Witten was), it's just that he says nothing. I played football 6th- 9th grade and could probably give just as insightful comments as he does. I'm not sure you need to be an experienced NFL quarterback for comments like "you don't throw a pass into triple coverage."

But yo - Nov. 24 is our date: Seahawks vs. Eagles (in the NBC slot, no less).

[blocho]

I know this lounge seems to be more Euro-dominated, but any NFL fans here? The regular season kicks off tomorrow and I can't wait. Out of the 4 major US sports leagues, it's really the only one I care about anymore. Eagles fan, hoping that Carson Wentz has a true comeback season (mainly, JUST STAY HEALTHY all the way though, that alone would be a big win).

Not only am I an NFL fan, but I am also the part owner of an NFL team. Very excited for the season.

[GruesomeTwosome]

I loved the headlines you'd see last season regarding Witten - "Jerry Jones in talks to improve MNF" when he was asking about signing him.

And I'm with you on MNF - used to be great, now I don't even bother checking to see who's playing. And it's not that Aikman is bad as a commentator (Witten was), it's just that he says nothing. I played football 6th- 9th grade and could probably give just as insightful comments as he does. I'm not sure you need to be an experienced NFL quarterback for comments like "you don't throw a pass into triple coverage."

But yo - Nov. 24 is our date: Seahawks vs. Eagles (in the NBC slot, no less).

I’m happy to see that game is in Philly, thankfully. Should be a great one!

[GruesomeTwosome]

I know this lounge seems to be more Euro-dominated, but any NFL fans here? The regular season kicks off tomorrow and I can't wait. Out of the 4 major US sports leagues, it's really the only one I care about anymore. Eagles fan, hoping that Carson Wentz has a true comeback season (mainly, JUST STAY HEALTHY all the way though, that alone would be a big win).

Not only am I an NFL fan, but I am also the part owner of an NFL team. Very excited for the season.

Wow, really? If it’s any other team besides the publicly-owned Packers, then consider me impressed.

[funkybusiness]

blocho is Jerry Jones.

[GruesomeTwosome]

blocho is Jerry Jones.

Ho...ly shiiiiiiit!

But of course, how did I not know...

[Mario Gaborović]

can you believe the Philippines came 2nd for hosting the event? I mean, I know the country itself is a fine place to host an event, and China is no powerhouse but at least they're slightly competitive. and apparently the Philippines are co-hosting 2023. they better get their shit together.

I've read FIBA announced they won the bid, jointly with Japan/Indonesia, leaving Argentina/Uruguay bid behind.

[funkybusiness]

can you believe the Philippines came 2nd for hosting the event? I mean, I know the country itself is a fine place to host an event, and China is no powerhouse but at least they're slightly competitive. and apparently the Philippines are co-hosting 2023. they better get their shit together.

I've read FIBA announced they won the bid, jointly with Japan/Indonesia, leaving Argentina/Uruguay bid behind.

yep, Philippines came 2nd for 2019, but they're the main host for 2023, with Jakarta and Okinawa City hosting certain matches.

Philippines currently at -108 point differential and "move onto the next round". these 17th-32nd place match-ups are silly.

[blocho]

blocho is Jerry Jones.

Ho...ly shiiiiiiit!

But of course, how did I not know...

I don't think Jerry Jones is interested in movies. I also don't think he knows how to use the internet. But I do think he knows how to drink a ton of liquor. Last winter, I read " Big Game", which is not a good book, but there's a great scene where the author hangs out with Jerry Jones in Jerry's RV, tries to go drink for drink with him, and gets absolutely plastered while Jerry keeps knocking them back.

No, you can consider yourselves unimpressed. I own a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of the Packers.

[blocho]

I loved the headlines you'd see last season regarding Witten - "Jerry Jones in talks to improve MNF" when he was asking about signing him.

And I'm with you on MNF - used to be great, now I don't even bother checking to see who's playing. And it's not that Aikman is bad as a commentator (Witten was), it's just that he says nothing. I played football 6th- 9th grade and could probably give just as insightful comments as he does. I'm not sure you need to be an experienced NFL quarterback for comments like "you don't throw a pass into triple coverage."

NFL announcers have been trash for as long as I can remember. Back in the day, I had to suffer through the inanities of Joe Theismann, Dan Dierdorf, and the always wretched Phil Simms. That's why I loved it when Gruden went back to coaching--not only would he guarantee the continued awfulness of the Raiders, but his departure improved announcing as well. These days, we have to suffer from Witten (stay unretired!), Mcfarland, Nantz, Buck, etc. Sometimes I just turn the sound off. I miss the sound of the game, but it's not worth it if I also have to listen to idiocy.

The only announcer I actually enjoy hearing is Collinsworth because he's one of the few who explains things that are not immediately apparent to me even as a well-informed fan, though I admit he can be really smug and I understand why some people don't like him. I've come around a bit on Aikman, and I'll tell you why. Some of the announcers who are former NFL players/coaches understand and can explain a lot more about the game than they ever do on air. It's the networks that force them to keep it mundane and stupid and irrelevant. I've come to see Aikman is doing something similar to what Madden was doing, albeit not as well. Madden was deeply insightful about football, but he sort of his disguised his intelligence about the game within a glib, macho personality because fans loved that shtick. I used to think he was an idiot, and it took me years to realize how smart he was. Aikman does the same thing. He's constantly doing his Oklahoma twang and just narrating what happened on the last play and trotting out announcer inanities like "You wanna talk about a tough player ..." But that's a bit of an act, and occasionally he'll come through with a genuine insight.

Now Romo, on the other hand, doesn't do much for me. Predicting the next play is a parlor trick. It doesn't actually help me as a fan.

[maxwelldeux]

blocho is Jerry Jones.

Ho...ly shiiiiiiit!

But of course, how did I not know...

I don't think Jerry Jones is interested in movies. I also don't think he knows how to use the internet. But I do think he knows how to drink a ton of liquor. Last winter, I read " Big Game", which is not a good book, but there's a great scene where the author hangs out with Jerry Jones in Jerry's RV, tries to go drink for drink with him, and gets absolutely plastered while Jerry keeps knocking them back.

No, you can consider yourselves unimpressed. I own a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of the Packers.

Jerry Jones at least knows about the internet. He had an entire scene in The League where he had to buy the dallascowboys.com domain back from Taco because Jerry let the registration lapse. And as we all can agree, The League is pretty much a documentary series, so it has to be true.

But your story about Jerry's drinking ability is one of the least surprising things I've ever read.

[maxwelldeux]

I loved the headlines you'd see last season regarding Witten - "Jerry Jones in talks to improve MNF" when he was asking about signing him.

And I'm with you on MNF - used to be great, now I don't even bother checking to see who's playing. And it's not that Aikman is bad as a commentator (Witten was), it's just that he says nothing. I played football 6th- 9th grade and could probably give just as insightful comments as he does. I'm not sure you need to be an experienced NFL quarterback for comments like "you don't throw a pass into triple coverage."

NFL announcers have been trash for as long as I can remember. Back in the day, I had to suffer through the inanities of Joe Theismann, Dan Dierdorf, and the always wretched Phil Simms. That's why I loved it when Gruden went back to coaching--not only would he guarantee the continued awfulness of the Raiders, but his departure improved announcing as well. These days, we have to suffer from Witten (stay unretired!), Mcfarland, Nantz, Buck, etc. Sometimes I just turn the sound off. I miss the sound of the game, but it's not worth it if I also have to listen to idiocy.

The only announcer I actually enjoy hearing is Collinsworth because he's one of the few who explains things that are not immediately apparent to me even as a well-informed fan, though I admit he can be really smug and I understand why some people don't like him. I've come around a bit on Aikman, and I'll tell you why. Some of the announcers who are former NFL players/coaches understand and can explain a lot more about the game than they ever do on air. It's the networks that force them to keep it mundane and stupid and irrelevant. I've come to see Aikman is doing something similar to what Madden was doing, albeit not as well. Madden was deeply insightful about football, but he sort of his disguised his intelligence about the game within a glib, macho personality because fans loved that shtick. I used to think he was an idiot, and it took me years to realize how smart he was. Aikman does the same thing. He's constantly doing his Oklahoma twang and just narrating what happened on the last play and trotting out announcer inanities like "You wanna talk about a tough player ..." But that's a bit of an act, and occasionally he'll come through with a genuine insight.

Now Romo, on the other hand, doesn't do much for me. Predicting the next play is a parlor trick. It doesn't actually help me as a fan.

I don't mind Collinsworth at all - he's decent. And I'm much more forgiving on the play-by-play commentators, they have a specific job to do - say what they see, and queue up the color commentator. Joe Buck aside, I think they're all at least adequate, with Nantz and Michaels two of the better ones.

And I see your point a bit on Madden/Aikman. Madden was clearly brilliant, Aikman I'm less convinced of. And sure the network makes them say stupid stuff, but that's an entirely different level of stupid - if you're taking great talent and hamstringing them to the point where they can't say anything smarter than a 5th grader, hire a damned 5th grader. Aikman is getting something like $7million/year for that shit - fire him, hire a high school football coach to be the color commentator for the "basic" broadcast, and hire a separate broadcast team to do an "advanced" broadcast for those who want it. Fox/CBS/ESPN/NBC, I want 10% of the revenue for that idea.

But we'll have to disagree on Romo - his energy makes the game more fun and engaging, and given the pace-of-play issues, I think this is SORELY needed. Calling the next play is a bit of a parlor trick, but only slightly - I don't really care the name of the play, but I like hearing the insight of why it's a run vs. pass based on formation X, etc. Hearing that insight live is so new and refreshing. I'd argue they need 15 clones of Romo to be able to cover all the games each week.

[tirefeet]

Joe Buck is lot better at calling baseball. Btw, do ICM'ers have a take on the juiced balls debate? I know funkyb probably has Home runs are all over this season.

Also Antonio Brown drama apparently got to 11 with recent developments

[blocho]

Joe Buck is lot better at calling baseball. Btw, do ICM'ers have a take on the juiced balls debate? I know funkyb probably has Home runs are all over this season.

Also Antonio Brown drama apparently got to 11 with recent developments

It doesn't seem like much of a debate to me. The minor league evidence is very telling:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrymbloo ... b1e6376927

[funkybusiness]

FUCK THEM JUICED BALLS

[funkybusiness]

but yeah, 100% the balls are juiced and MLB has been tweaking them to varying degrees since the all-star break of 2015. what also happened at almost exactly the same time? MLB effectively became sole owner of Rawlings, the company that makes the fuckin' baseballs. but no, Rob Manfred has no clue what happened in the manufacturing process to lead to the uptick in home runs.

[blocho]

The MLB report on the balls is particularly insane. Have a look here: http://www.mlb.com/documents/7/9/4/2781 ... 052418.pdf

The report states that the "aerodynamic properties" of the ball has changed, but that this change is not "attributable to a change in a property of the baseball." In other words, the ball moves through air differently, but the ball has not changed. I don't know, maybe they think all the air in North America changed dramatically between 2015 and 2016.

[blocho]

Well as an owner of the Green Bay Packers, I'm pretty pleased with how that went.

I'm regretting a bit, though, yesterday's praise for Collinsworth. He's usually good for two stupid comments a game. Tonight I think he had seven or eight, and he didn't counter it with any of his usual insights.

[maxwelldeux]

So, I went out with an NFL owner tonight *coughpackerscough* to watch the first game of the NFL season. It was awful. The beer was nice, the game was not. A TERRIBLE first quarter, a quick touchdown early in the second, and the score is 7-3 less than 2 minutes into Q2. We left the bar in the 4th because nothing was happening. UGH. And I was interested in this game.

[maxwelldeux]

Well as an owner of the Green Bay Packers, I'm pretty pleased with how that went.

I'm regretting a bit, though, yesterday's praise for Collinsworth. He's usually good for two stupid comments a game. Tonight I think he had seven or eight, and he didn't counter it with any of his usual insights.

Bar was mostly too loud to hear him, but certainly didn't seem like I missed anything. Of course, the game itself was pretty boring, so there wasn't too much for him to comment on.

[GruesomeTwosome]

Expect a lot more sloppy, shitty football during week 1, since starters barely do anything during preseason anymore.

[maxwelldeux]

Expect a lot more sloppy, shitty football during week 1, since starters barely do anything during preseason anymore.

Well sure - it's that way for the first few weeks. It's just sad that THAT was the kickoff to the 100th season.

[GruesomeTwosome]

Hopefully there are a couple of decent games this weekend amongst the inevitable muck.

[blocho]

Expect a lot more sloppy, shitty football during week 1, since starters barely do anything during preseason anymore.

Well sure - it's that way for the first few weeks. It's just sad that THAT was the kickoff to the 100th season.

I don't know why the NFL decided to make Packers-Bears the kickoff game. The tradition is always to do the defending champion against a good team (or at least a team that's expected to be good, like last year's Eagles-Falcons). That being said, I'm happy with the decision.

[Traveller]

Formula 1 Qualifying was hilarious today. Absolute shitshow.

[Armoreska]

Kimi Räikkönen crashes and keeps fastest lap ever
But im not sure what that was about...

[Lilarcor]

It was really dumb and entertaining to watch, (Hulkenberg starting the whole thing by pretending to not be able to take the corner) but I am just glad nobody got airborne during that nonsense. Incredibly dangerous and there needs to be rule changes. The Formula 3 qualifying on Friday was red-flagged because it got too dangerous with slow cars. Been too many disturbing crashes in motorsport lately, while not related the F3 one today was horrific (and of course last weekend, rest in peace Anthoine).

[GruesomeTwosome]

Meanwhile, in the NFL, the Antonio Brown saga has been pretty insane.

[blocho]

Meanwhile, in the NFL, the Antonio Brown saga has been pretty insane.

Indeed. From what I've read, he won't be able to play tomorrow, which is a shame because I would have loved to see Brown vs. Steelers in a revenge game.

[GruesomeTwosome]

Meanwhile, in the NFL, the Antonio Brown saga has been pretty insane.

Indeed. From what I've read, he won't be able to play tomorrow, which is a shame because I would have loved to see Brown vs. Steelers in a revenge game.

Yeah that would have made this whole story even that much crazier if he faced the Steelers right out of the gate. But yeah, right after hearing about Brown’s release from the Raiders, my first thought was “He’s gonna be a Patriot”. And it’s crazy just how fast it all happened. Asks for his release, does get released, and then signed to another team within a span of hours? Wild stuff.

[Armoreska]

Medved is taking Nadal to 5 sets after 0:2
Tough hold for Nadal here at 0:1
Medved is dying Nadal breaks him at 2:2
That's it. It's been a marathon. But Big 3 must continue.

[maxwelldeux]

Medved is taking Nadal to 5 sets after 0:2
Tough hold for Nadal here at 0:1

Dude... that's way closer than I thought it would be.

[Armoreska]

Nadal breaks again, we done

[Armoreska]

Nadal double faults twice and Medved breaks back one

[Dolwphin]

Awesome final, fun to watch.

Big Titles: (54) Djokovic, Federer & Nadal

[blocho]

I created a separate lounge for American football. Join me there: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4527

[Armoreska]

Awesome final, fun to watch.

Big Titles: (54) Djokovic, Federer & Nadal

55
54/64 in 16 years
6/10 to Andy and Stan
the rest: Gaudio (epic v Coria), Safin (SF epic v Fed), Delpo (epic comeback v Fed), Cilic (also beat Fed in SF) - lots of these are on Fed, haha

[Armoreska]

quite a match (watching at 1.5x and skipping replays this should be 20mins)