Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

In my day, never was longer.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

This fight is for everything.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

You are here: Home / Sports / NFL Open Thread

NFL Open Thread

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The NFL seems to have weathered the Ray Rice issue, and it appears that their main strategy was to put a ball gag in Roger Goodell and not allow him to speak in public.

Steelers are playing the Jets, which you think would be a gimme game, but other than the past two games, over the past couple years, the Steelers have been a very undisciplined team in which they seem perfectly content to play down to the level of their opponent and lose. At any rate, Go Steelers!

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84Comments

  2. 2.

    RobertDSC-iPhone 4

    My Pats have a bye this week.

    I’m keeping an eye on the Niners in NO for a friend who is a big Niners fan.

  3. 3.

    burnspbesq

    And Arsenal fcuk up another winning position.

    Whoever owns the domain name “sackwenger.co.uk” is sitting on a valuable asset.

  4. 4.

    hilts

    Cole,

    Jets owner Woody Johnson was chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign in New York in the 2012 race, so all I ask of your Steelers today is this: “RUN UP THE SCORE”. Here’s hoping that the Steelers give the Jets the biggest goddamn ass kicking of this NFL season in their own back yard and stick it to their buffoonish douchebag owner.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/video/jets-owner-woody-johnson-on-mark-sanchez-romney-BLlLPPFVRpaa9Vb7XpFATQ.html

    http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-election/romney-s-money-man-knocks-obama-s-fundraising-operation-20120830

    I’d like to see Roethlisberger throw 8 touchdown passes, but I’ll settle for 6.

  5. 5.

    Tree With Water

    Reading reports of the Rice-Goodell hearings last week led me to conclude Goodell is cooked. If true, the reports make clear Goodell flat-out lied to NFL fans and the media about his knowledge of what happened in that elevator. Whether or not he also lied to the owners is a moot point. The institutional arrogance of the NFL is its achilles heel. Like the republican party, the NFL powers that be seem to believe if they say it’s true, people will believe it.

    I’ll go further. If Goodell keeps his job, it will serve as a distinct marker in the decline of the game’s popularity with the American people.

  8. 8.

    Svensker

    Hey, an actual Jets sack. Have you guys seen this “what happens to a guy walking around NY for 5 hours in a Jets T-shirt” vid?

    It’s really depressing being a Jets fan AND a Dem.

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    @Tree With Water:
    But will there ever be any such decline, though? From what I see in these threads, the very people who denounce the sport for doing so little about violence on and off the field don’t seem any less supportive of their college and NFL teams once the season gets going.

  14. 14.

    Corner Stone

    Does anyone know why the teams in London have that red sticker or patch on their uniforms?

  15. 15.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @burnspbesq: Meanwhile, I might have to start saying nice things about Alan Pardew. I draw that line at doing anything but taking a steaming dump on Mike Ashley, though.

  19. 19.

    Hungry Joe

    “The NFL seems to have weathered the Ray Rice issue… “? Yeah, major surprise there. What did you think was going to happen — a lot of people stop watching pro football? Sponsors withdraw? A Goodell frog-march? Please.

  22. 22.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I follow the NFL because I’m a sports junkie and I’ll watch anything other than basketball. (And I even follow basketball even though I won’t watch it because there are a number of writers I enjoy reading who write about basketball, especially at Grantland.) On the other hand, the NFL makes next to no money off of me because I don’t go to their games, I don’t buy their merchandise, and I only watch their games at bars because I don’t own a TV.

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    @muddy: I thought they were playing in London, are they in Afghanistan?
    That red patch is driving me nuts. Not a word about it on the NFL.com, ESPN.com or any news report.

  24. 24.

    Mike J

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    and I only watch their games at bars because I don’t own a TV.

    Public display of televised games requires license from the NFL, which your local sports bar is making back from the price of your beer.

  25. 25.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Mike J: Yeah, but I’d probably be here anyway. I’m here about four days a week regardless of the sports schedule.

  26. 26.

    Schlemazel

    @Tree With Water:
    HA! I love how you think there is some connection between Goodells honesty/behavior and his continued employment as the $50million a year figurehead of a nonprofit sausage factory.

    The fans do not care, they want to be lied to (minor caveat, some are only fussy when it is a player on their favorite team must understand there criminals and scum on their team so its best to be OK with other teams also). The wners sure as hell do not care. FOr Rog to lose his job would take something bigger

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    @KG: Thanks for the helpful response.
    It’s amusing that just now they explained why in the TV broadcast.
    I couldn’t tell they were supposed to be flowers. Guess I need a bigger TV.

  32. 32.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    How much brain damage do NFL players do to themselves slapping their own heads after big plays?

  36. 36.

    burnspbesq

    @Tree With Water:

    If Goodell keeps his job, it will serve as a distinct marker in the decline of the game’s popularity with the American people.

    Dream on. The only thing that will kill the NFL is when the player pipeline dries up because parents refuse to allow their sons to start playing because of the risk of brain damage.

    The poster child for the ultimate demise of the NFL? His name is Jake Seau. He plays midfield for Duke.

  37. 37.

    burnspbesq

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Go Ukraine, crush the fascist legions of Putin the asswipe.

    Every time the people of Donetsk have to watch their hometown team play a “home” Champions League match in a stadium that’s closer to Berlin than to Donetsk because the separatists shelled the stadium, the support for the separatists erodes a little. If they make it to the knockout round, the separatists have a problem.

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    Dez Bryant is playing like a boss. And I don’t mean he’s standing around yelling at others and asking why his coffee is cold.

  40. 40.

    shelley

    Just got my grocery order and Shop Rite seems determined to give me free stuff. Last week was a big bottle of Tide I never ordered. This week it was a whole bag of somebody’s deli order. Cheese for tacos, chipolte ranch sauce, shrimp. Looks like they’re planning on having a Mexican night! Sad when somebody else’s groceries look more exciting than yours.
    (And yes, I called the store.)

    Switching to Braeburn apples from Honeycrisp. Damn, they’re getting expensive.

  41. 41.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    Fucking Lions need to do something about all of these personal fouls. Even when they start winning it’s painful to be a fan of this team.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    @shelley:

    Switching to Braeburn apples from Honeycrisp. Damn, they’re getting expensive.

    What are you paying per lb for Honeycrisp? Those are my favorite and I eat as many as I can get while they’re in season (stocked at my grocers I mean).

  43. 43.

    max

    Steelers are playing the Jets, which you think would be a gimme game, but other than the past two games, over the past couple years, the Steelers have been a very undisciplined team in which they seem perfectly content to play down to the level of their opponent and lose.

    Jets 17, Steelers 3.

    OW.

    max
    [‘OK, back to digging a hole.’]

  48. 48.

    Tree With Water

    @Amir Khalid: I can only answer for myself. I’m pushing 60, and have been a hard core NFL fan my entire life. The truth about concussions did alter how I look at the game, and I figure that must hold true with others. That’s for starters. A recent beef of mine is the fact the games are increasingly fractured by TV time-outs. It’s like watching a string of commercials when a football game suddenly breaks out, and as suddenly disappears.

  49. 49.

    Corner Stone

    @shelley: Ok, I’m getting them on a weekly promo for $1.58 per lb.
    But I’ll buy them til they get into Rainier cherry territory. Which, down here, are like virgin sex prices for old men.

    ETA, JEEBUS cracker. Did you mean per apple?!
    Holy shit.

  50. 50.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    Steelers have 4th and 1 inside the Jets 5 yard line down 17 points at the start of the 4th quarter. They’re kicking a field goal.

    Game over.

    Edit: And they miss the field goal. You get what you deserve.

  51. 51.

    Tree With Water

    @Schlemazel: I don’t think the game will disappear. Let me put it this way. I think the leagues TV ratings will suffer a pronounced decline in viewership over the next decade.

  53. 53.

    shelley

    Another entry in the ‘Irony is truly dead’ column”

    George W. Bush Shrugs Off Family Dynasty: ‘You Have To Earn Your Way Into Politics’
    **************************

    What does Dubya paint in, oils or acrylics? If oils, maybe he’s been inhaling too much turpentine fumes.

  54. 54.

    Tree With Water

    @burnspbesq: Seau’s suicide was the event that changed things for me. It took that story about his cracking his helmet wide open during a scrimmage to wake me up. The poor guy played for years afterward, when he should have been long retired.

  57. 57.

    Mike J

    Anybody else getting a letterboxed HD signal on the SFNO game? HD aspect ratio picture shrunk with a border on all sides. Some commercials looked fine, some screwed in the same manner.

    Weird. Hope they fix it before the real game starts.

  60. 60.

    PsiFighter37

    Knowing the Jets, this will be the start of a winning streak that will convince Woody Johnson to keep Sexy Rexy and that incompetent clown Idzik. Ugh.

  63. 63.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Anybody got eyes on Cole? Today’s performance by the Steelers is apt to send him up the nearest tower with a sackful of weaponry.

  64. 64.

    max

    @Quaker in a Basement: Anybody got eyes on Cole? Today’s performance by the Steelers is apt to send him up the nearest tower with a sackful of weaponry.

    Or start drinkin’ again. Which would be bad.

    max
    [‘Yay. New apple tree planted. Hope it makes it.’]

  66. 66.

    Howard Beale IV

    OMG-Lions TD to Theo Riddick with 29 seconds left. Cardiac KIttehs pull it off again-maybe.

  69. 69.

    burnspbesq

    @Tree With Water:

    FWIW, Jake is the real deal: 99th-percentile athleticism and a motor that never stops. He may play at short-stick defensive midfield as a freshman, and if he does, he and senior Will Haus have a chance to be the best pair of SSDMs that college lacrosse has ever seen (yes, better than Josh Hawkins and Pat Laconi of the 2012 Loyola championship team).

  70. 70.

    hilts

    Cole,

    I was all psyched to see the Steelers rub the Jets’ faces in shit today, so I don’t appreciate this piss poor performance.

  72. 72.

    KG

    @Tree With Water: the commercial thing drives me crazy in football and basketball, baseball isn’t much better either. it’s funny, everyone complains about length of games but nobody says “hey, maybe we should cut down on a couple of tv time outs.” wonder why that would be

  76. 76.

    Tree With Water

    @KG: The big difference being in baseball there’s no time clock. I watched every pitch (or nearly) of that 18 inning Giants vs. Nats playoff game, and it ebbed and flowed in its natural way, immune to dictates a running clock imposes..

  77. 77.

    JPL

    OT a few days ago dopealope recommended Dean Spanley on netflix streaming. When I googled Balloon Juice and dean spanley, several commentors including Mom Sense mentioned it before. Just wanted to say thanks. I watched it last night and will probably watch it again.

  78. 78.

    p.a.

    If the pipeline from pee wee on up dries up it will affect the game but it will take a generation. I just don’t see the MFL (Manning Football League; whenever he gets his ass kicked they change the rules to make passing easier) going the way of boxing.

  79. 79.

    hilts

    @JPL:

    Any film, with the rare exception of Supergirl, which includes Peter O’Toole in the cast is worth checking out.

  80. 80.

    Steve from Antioch

    They had everybody wear pink to cure tit cancer so it’s all good.

    No matter how many women get beaten or how many dogs get tortured or killed or how many people end up with swiss cheese for brains, the NFL will keep chugging along as long as mouth breathing idiots continue to watch it.

    “Murica!

  82. 82.

    Bonnie

    America has other sports that are even more violent than the NFL. In particular, any kind of one-on-one fighting, e.g., boxing, UFC stuff, are essentially two people who go in a ring to beat the living daylights out of the other person. Football has a lot of variety in how to score that includes also a lot of strategy. I personally would prefer there wasn’t the attitude from the defensive players that they have to maim/kill the opponents. But, they certainly aren’t going to listen to me. When it comes to college football, there is nothing available to women that will get them a college education. Additionally, I don’t see men saying, “gee, I don’t think I will play football because I might get hurt.” I have been watching football since I was about nine; and, I am pushing 70. I still remember some of those old games and teams and wish we could go back; but, we can’t. Ray Rice probably would have cold-cocked his girlfriend no matter what profession he worked in. It just might not have been in an elevator of a very expensive hotel. Men who beat up women come from all walks of life–not only football. And, it is too bad that every woman who gets beat up by her spouse/boyfriend/S.O. doesn’t get this amount of attention.

  83. 83.

    gian

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
    If suh played in the NHL he’d spend a lot of time eating through a straw. Didn’t watch this game but his fuck the rules I’m going to send you to the hospital style… well I’m surprised he hasn’t been career ended via a dirty play

  84. 84.

    mr_gravity

    @shelley: After he heard the election results W put down the paintbrush and climbed out of his spiderhole. “Finally! It looks like the coast is clear. He, he, he.”

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