Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Second rate reporter says what?

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

People are weird.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Everybody saw this coming.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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100Comments

  1. 1.

    Crashman

    While I’m no fan of his, I’m mildly concerned that Favre might get hit so many times tonight that he literally falls apart at the seams.

  3. 3.

    Violet

    What’s this weird singer-songwriter-y Star Spangled Banner? Sing it right or shut up.

    /curmudgeon

  4. 4.

    Crashman

    Thanks players, for reminding us there’s a 100% chance of a lockout next year. Better make this year count.

  5. 5.

    The Dangerman

    @Violet:

    What’s this weird singer-songwriter-y Star Spangled Banner?

    Fastest mute on record (not including any Palin speech).

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    @Crashman:

    Thanks players, for reminding us there’s a 100% chance of a lockout next year.

    Millionaires against the Billionaires. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  11. 11.

    Crashman

    @Violet: The collective bargaining agreement is up; the players want more money and benefits, and the owners want to give them less, so they’ll both sulk and pout, and there won’t be a season next year.

    As The Dangerman said: :

    Millionaires against the Billionaires. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

    Sure is a good way to risk killing the golden goose though.

  14. 14.

    lamh32

    I am so over the Kayne West/Taylor Swift crapfest from last year, but if there is one thing I can’t forgive. Before Kanye’s assholery, I only had to here Taylor Swift, oh about 100 X a day on the pop radio stations (which thankfully, I realy listened to) I at least had some small respite from the sugary-sweet off-key pretty blond pseudo-talent that is Taylor Swift on my hip/hop urban radio station, but now thanks to Kanye, I can’t even escape these stories on urban radio.

    Damn you Kanye West!!!!

    Anyway, GEAUX SAINTS!!!

  16. 16.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Lord will you have mercy for us Browns Fans? Ok how about having us beating the Ratbirds, Squealers AND the Bungles twice?
    Whose the real UT?

  17. 17.

    The Dangerman

    Sure is a good way to risk killing the golden goose though.

    If the National Economy remains in the shitter, or even kind of in the shitter, that Goose will be cooked.

  20. 20.

    Crashman

    @Violet: You’re right, there’s still lots of time for them to figure something out. However, both sides are being extremely stubborn, and early signs are not promising at all, so many people are speculating that it’s a foregone conclusion at this point. I’m not optimistic, but what do I know. We’ll see.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    @Crashman:
    Seems really stupid if they can’t come to an agreement. Whatever they agree, it’ll probably mean raising ticket prices or concession prices or both. And with the economy in the toilet, people can’t afford to spend the kind of money it takes to see a game live. I wonder if it’ll end up biting the owners in the rear.

  26. 26.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Never cared for Al Michaels either and I hear he’s a wingnut of the first order but I recognize he’s one of the best at what he does.

    Disclaimer: I always loved John Madden even though he was the Raiders coach.

  27. 27.

    Corner Stone

    Shit. The owners get publicly financed mansions built and refuse to disclose funding and financials to the people who actually produce the entertainment.
    Anyone who has one iota of anything related to the word “understanding” or “sympathy” for the owner side is out of their damned mind.

  28. 28.

    Crashman

    @Violet:

    I wonder if it’ll end up biting the owners in the rear.

    I would love to see that. At this point, though, they’ve pretty much priced average people out of live games anyway. Sports writers are saying that there’s no crowd-noise homefield advantage anymore because all the stands are full of corporate suits and clients.

  30. 30.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @South of I-10: Did you ever see the HBO Inside the NFL episode where CC had to perform with Little Kiss? That was crying funny and may have been the beginning of the thaw.

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    @Crashman: Shoosh yeah. $75 plus for any kind of seat, plus parking, plus food, plus the hassle factor.
    Or sit at home and grill up some burgers and flip through 3 games on your HDTV.
    The owners are idiots and I hope they choke on it.

  32. 32.

    geg6

    @Brian S (formerly Incertus):

    Word. Gawd, it’s been eons since I loathed him as a player and the loathing only has grown over time.

    That said, I have to go OT and highly recommend “My Trip to al Qaeda” to all who haven’t seen it. I thought Wright’s book “The Looming Tower” was awesome (and it was), but this film is just, to me, more personal and just totally excellent.

  35. 35.

    The Dangerman

    The owners get publicly financed mansions built…

    True, but I don’t see how a bunch of independent contractors should have the backing of a Union.

    I understand that League average career is very short, but go get a real job (or buy some insurance against a career ending injury).

  36. 36.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Crashman:

    Man, I always hate finding that out about people whose work I enjoy.

    That’s the way of the world, unfortunately. Success breeds contempt for the less successful.

  37. 37.

    PTirebiter

    Favre is my starting QB for the North Texas Tirebiters. I should be able to pull for the Saints and pull for for Favre to have a big game in a losing effort. It’s too weird. I think I’ll have to consider starting my back-up for match-ups like this. Maybe Jake Delhomme will get his groove back in Cleveland and it’ll become a quality problem.

  40. 40.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @ColleenSTL: I just introduced him to my 10 year old as the greatest football player that ever played the game. A bit of hyperbole that will be common wisdom in 20 years.

  44. 44.

    Violet

    @Crashman:
    What’s a Personal Seat License?

    I wish some owner would go against the rest of them and offer $5 seats if you show a local drivers license, or something like that. Talk about getting a home field advantage!

  46. 46.

    ColleenSTL

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I agree with your assessment but am afraid he may have cost himself that spot with all the drama. That’s been the saddest part for me, feeling like the antics of the last few years would be the salient feature of his narrative rather than his guts and his heart and his talent.

  48. 48.

    KG

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I particularly enjoy watching him play when he’s picking himself off the turf every other play. I never thought much of him until a few years ago when the retirement bullshit began.

    @Crashman: I’ve always wondered why people care about what entertainers of any sort think of politics. I definitely don’t agree with the politics of, say, Rage Against the Machine, but I love their sound. Same goes for most musicians/actors/whomever that I enjoy. The “I’m not giving him another dime because he’s a [DFH/wingnut]” mentality just seems like a sad way to go through life.

  49. 49.

    Crashman

    @Violet: Personal Seat License = You pay several thousand dollars for the mere opportunity to pay several thousand more dollars in order to buy season tickets.

  51. 51.

    The Dangerman

    You’re arguing against collective bargaining for these guys?

    Yup. They don’t bargain collectively; they are independent contractors…

    …who often don’t honor their contracts. Have a good year and it’s time to renegotiate.

    I’m no fan of the owners (yeah, personal seat licenses are a crock of shit), but players complaining about the amount of money they are paid is kinda sick.

  52. 52.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @Corner Stone:
    From Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports

    The NFL is blaming the economy for a third straight dip in season-ticket sales.

    I’m sure the economy plays a role. But, as I mentioned in my Boise State column on Tuesday, HD flat-screen TVs are playing a larger role. Watching at home is a better experience.

    The next wave of new stadiums in non-Super Bowl cities need to be smaller, not bigger. A 60,000-seat stadium with an emphasis on suites will be ideal.

    Smart, working-class sports fans will spend their discretionary cash on better TVs and cable packages. You can get better, cheaper food and beer at home and follow the Twitter conversation.

    Aint that the truth, besides the beer isn’t watered down, and no worries about getting busted for DUI.

  53. 53.

    mr. whipple

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    I heard on the Rome show one day the avg cost for a family of 4 to attend a game(4 tix, parking, a hot dog and drink each) is $480.

    Fucking insane.

  54. 54.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    @The Dangerman: That’s a really simplistic way of looking at it, and more than a little one-sided. Player contracts aren’t guaranteed either, you know–the only money guaranteed is the bonuses. The owners have the right to tear up those contracts as well. In fact, they have way more power to dump a contract than any player does.

  55. 55.

    Crashman

    @The Dangerman: I don’t know. It’s hard to have sympathy for players who get paid millions a year, but this game chews these guys up and spits them out. Running backs average four years in the league before their bodies are too destroyed to continue, and they can’t make a living otherwise. Then they’re left with jelly for brains and horrible health coverage because the NFLPA doesn’t care about it’s retired players. They need to maximize their revenue before they’re wheelchair bound.

  56. 56.

    Violet

    @Crashman:
    Seriously? I had no idea. What a crock.

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    I’m sure the economy plays a role. But, as I mentioned in my Boise State column on Tuesday, HD flat-screen TVs are playing a larger role. Watching at home is a better experience.

    Agreed. The only thing you don’t get at home is the “being there” atmosphere. And if the place is empty or packed with corporate folks who don’t care, then the atmosphere doesn’t matter much.

  57. 57.

    KG

    @The Dangerman: If it wasn’t for collective bargaining in sports, the players would be screwed (as they were in the old days). As for seeking to renegotiate in the event of a good season, part of that is because they can also be cut at pretty much any time, there’s really no such thing as a guaranteed contract in the NFL (signing bonuses aside, which can only be a certain percentage of the deal). So, I don’t really blame guys for wanting more after a good season, considering they could be history after a bad season.

  58. 58.

    The Dangerman

    “Player contracts aren’t guaranteed either, you know—the only money guaranteed is the bonuses.”

    Which is why the bonuses are insane (see Russell, Jamarcus).

    I’d be in favor of contracts being honored bilaterally; players can’t sit out and owners can’t cut (unless players do something stupid/illegal/stupid and illegal).

  59. 59.

    The Dangerman

    If it wasn’t for collective bargaining in sports, the players would be screwed (as they were in the old days).

    I don’t want to go back to the pre-Flood days; if it wasn’t for Curt Flood, the players would be screwed.

    Players deserve to be paid well and a fair cut of the pie; at the end of the day, however, they are each independent agents.

  61. 61.

    mr. whipple

    @lamh32:

    “[D]efendants called no witnesses, put on no affirmative case, and only entered into evidence the legislative history of the act,” she wrote.

    Heh.

  65. 65.

    lamh32

    @mr. whipple:

    So who are the defendents in this case is the military/DOJ right?

    So does that mean that the DOJ didn’t bother to put up much of a fight?

  67. 67.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    Watching at home is a better experience.

    It always has been, even on a crappy 12″ black & white that made you get up to wiggle the rabbit ears every once in awhile. Turn the sound down, kick on a cd, no wait for the head, plenty of cheap booze and the only assholes in the parking lot were the people from next door.

    When the “seat license” scam killed the season ticket deals, it was all over. An NFL Sunday at the Dawg Pound for four runs a tab of over $170, and that’s with no goodies. I enjoy the game, but not that much.

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    Do my eyes deceive me, or does NO have a player named Bushrod.

    Also, too, I have to give Al M a pass on his…whatever after his work following the Loma Prieta quake. Had the game on, rocked my way through it, and he did a yeoman’s job reporting it, specially for a sports guy.

    Also also too, huge urban fire in San Bruno, south of SFO. Possibly triggered by a plane crash.

  70. 70.

    Corner Stone

    @The Dangerman: This is kind of a shocking revelation that you don’t understand anything about the game.
    May I politely suggest you take a step back and reconsider your position?

  71. 71.

    handy

    Re: sitting at home and watching in person, my only contribution to this is when my team is involved, I am a freaking nervous wreck when I’m watching a sporting event that I’m basically driven to much whiskey just to cope. The bigger the game, the more booze.

    On the contrary, going to a sporting event, even a World Series or NBA play-off game, is a whole different experience and often find myself enjoying the whole experience far better.

  72. 72.

    KG

    Watching games at home or at a local watering hole has always been more fun for me. But then I live in the LA/OC market, so it’s been more than a decade since I could go to a stadium for a game that didn’t involve a lot of time.

  73. 73.

    PTirebiter

    @Brian S (formerly Incertus): First time I’ve played FF, maybe I’ll get used to it, but I hear you. I enjoy watching all kinds of other sports, but they don’t dictate my schedule. The NFL is different and I’m very protective of my free time during the season. My wife is pretty philosophical about it because, God knows, I’ve had worse habits.

  74. 74.

    Corner Stone

    @The Dangerman:

    Players deserve to be paid well and a fair cut of the pie; at the end of the day, however, they are each independent agents.

    The standout stars are. The other 50+ per team are not. They give it everything for however long they can to produce a product that’s one of the most lucrative in the world.
    But quick, tell me a special team member on your favorite team.
    Tell me 2 of the O line from the last two years of that team.
    The fan who tunes it up on TV or pays for the PSL can’t do that.
    But they can tell you who Peyton is, or Reggie Bush or Darren Sharper, or Andre Johnson or Randy Moss is.

  75. 75.

    fucen tarmal

    you have to go to a game every so often, i am not even saying once a year, but often enough to keep the perspective of how much hd cameras distort how fast things really happen.

    of course i advocate going to college, high school, even lower division college games,even if you are primarily an nfl fan.

  76. 76.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @fucen tarmal: Time works differently at actual games. I missed the entire third quarter in the toilet last time I went to a game. That never happens at home.

  78. 78.

    ColleenSTL

    @The Dangerman: Why is that? The negotiation between labor and capital is about a division of profits. Yet only the players’ demands make you sick. I say if you’re in a profession in which your natural lifespan is 3-5 years you demand everything you can get!

  79. 79.

    Corner Stone

    @mr. whipple: I can tell you that sometimes I get a colleagues season tix in the upper decks for the Texans and they are $65 per.
    Think about that. $260 for four people, plus $20 parking. Before any drinks or popcorn or pretzels.
    Who can do that any more?

  81. 81.

    Violet

    @Corner Stone:

    Think about that. $260 for four people, plus $20 parking. Before any drinks or popcorn or pretzels. Who can do that any more?

    The rich.

    Gosh, I’d forgotten how little actual action there is in football. So much wandering around on the field before the play. So many replays. So much clock stopping. After watching the World Cup this summer, this is just so different.

    I live in a rugby household. It’s a lot like football used to be decades ago. Players play both offense and defense and they don’t wear pads or helmets. And the play doesn’t stop unless someone really gets hurt.

  82. 82.

    The Dangerman

    Yet only the players’ demands make you sick.

    You misrepresent me; the owners are assholes, too.

    I say if you’re in a profession in which your natural lifespan is 3-5 years you demand everything you can get!

    I’d say if my natural lifespan is 3 to 5 years, I better have a second career in mind….

    …and, yes, I’d want everything I could get, but there is disproportionate power when you have the labor situation as currently exists. I don’t have the answer; I’ll leave that to the JD’s. I just know that the present labor arrangement is insane.

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    Dammit, used the P word. MODERATION
    JSF – both teams went 9 – 7. You guys were just in a soft division. Tough guy.

  85. 85.

    Mark S.

    @Violet:

    I went to a college game last year, and the most important guy on the field is the ref who tells them when the commercials are over. There is only so much watching the cheerleaders hold up signs one can stand before one starts to wonder what the hell they are doing there.

  88. 88.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: Nope. Those guys and gals in the end zone seats, and all the way round that stadium aren’t rich. They’re regular schmoes that no one gives a damn about. Like Just Some Fuckhead, et al.
    But somehow they spend $75 to $110 per ticket, plus beer plus extras.
    It can’t be sustained seeing where we all are.
    Yet the owners want to change it to an 18 game season, renegotiate the TV contracts and somehow not give the players a damn dime more for it.

  91. 91.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: Oh, I agree. The last probably 8 to 10 Texans games I have been to were free for me due to business connections.
    The last game I think I paid for was when I was married.
    Two mistakes I will not make again.

  93. 93.

    morzer

    Well, all I can say is that the Vikings looked underwhelming, and the Saints should have won by more. Favre looked like a man who is counting down the hours until he can be elsewhere.

  95. 95.

    Corner Stone

    I see that Gillete “ProGlide” ad behind the announcer guys and I’m like “AstroGlide”??

  96. 96.

    Corner Stone

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Well, admittedly, none yet that we know of.
    But he’s fucking young! Give the dude a damn break. He’ll watch while some people get what’s coming to them eventually.
    We’re all counting on it.

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