Who will prevail in tonight’s gladiatorial contest — the Packers of Green Bay or the Chiefs of Kansas City?
The ESPN analysts are almost unanimously all-in for the Pack. So am I. Rodgers FTW.
Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 165 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Sports
Comments are closed.
different-church-lady
I hear they were cleaning up the end zone at Gillette Stadium today and found another three Brady touchdown passes.
Corner Stone
I actually like Alex Smith, fwiw. But so far the run game of the Pack is having its way.
Corner Stone
@different-church-lady: How out of it does Amendola have to be to not keep that 400th TD pass/catch?
Corner Stone
@different-church-lady: That’s one of your old hockey game jokes recycled, isn’t it?
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: Hardly matters — he can make another 400 this season.
redshirt
@Corner Stone: Pats don’t care about stats. Just W’s.
Feebog
T his should be a very good game. Packers by 7.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: No, the Bruins haven’t been that good since Espo scored on the rebound.
Corner Stone
I’d like to, uhh, score on the rebound sometime.
redshirt
I need James Jones to catch 3td’s with 100+ yards tia!
Corner Stone
@different-church-lady: Bring back Randy Moss and he just might have a shot.
Corner Stone
That is one big piece of beef. Damn.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: Mark my words, Brady is going to become the first quarterback in history to win two Super Bowls in a single season.
Omnes Omnibus
Damn it, Banjo, catch that.
Corner Stone
There goes Gruden. Player X is the best at “mumbles”, the absolute best!
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: Maybe it was a passive-aggressive swipe at Chin Dimple.
ThresherK
@Corner Stone: If whatever happened to Tim Couch didn’t teach anyone to not draft a QB first overall to start behind an expansion team’s O-line (a lesson David Carr wishes Houston paid heed to), Alex Smith is also an example of how to not develop a #1 pick QB: Hey, let’s start him, and change the O-coordinator for a rookie every year for four years!
Dang, the game is hard enough without stuff like that.
redshirt
@different-church-lady:
Explain please.
Denali
Hey Betty,
Since this is an open thread, what is all that monkey business in Sanford, Florida?
Betty Cracker
Man, it’s like they are trying to jinx Rodgers with that no-interceptions-at-home streak talk..
Germy Shoemangler
The Sport Parade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGiyTdUOIE
Harvard vs. Dartmouth
Leather helmets
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker:
I kind of think it has to be. It reminds me of the game Rich Gannon “forgot” to throw a pass at Jerry Rice and broke his consecutive games streak with a catch. You’re telling me you forgot the GOAT is on your team and maybe you should look at him once during the F’ng game? Bqwhatvr douche.
I think Amendola knew what he was doing. If not, what the hell does that say about respect for your teammates and future HoF QB?
different-church-lady
@redshirt: It’s Goodell. Goodell got him so pissed off he’s hyper-focused this year. The best revenge is going to be to win 50, and then skip right over the next season and win LI immediately. Probably before the third quarter of 50 is over.
Suezboo
I know absolutely nothing about American “football” and the jargon you lot use for it is totally opaque to me. Nevertheless. I am rooting for the Green Bay Packers because my brother who lives in California tells me I should because they are not owned by a foul billionaire. He feels this is a good enough reason – me too. So, Go Packers !
redshirt
@Suezboo:
It is a good enough reason. All Americans should support the Pack.
raven
And how did Sweetness not get a TD in the Superbowl and the Fridge did?
Corner Stone
@ThresherK: David Carr is a mental case but the Texans did not do him any favors. Taking him out of Fresno St for FSM’s sake? As the first pick for an expansion team? Poor kid.
But SanFran also F’d Alex Smith in their own way as you note. What people forget about Alex is that his straight line speed is, or was, about 4.5 out of Utah. And he had great arm strength and an understanding of how to throw the underneath ball.
He got a really raw deal and will forever be compared to Rodgers, unfortunately. And now to finish off his career he’s got to watch Reid mismanage the game clock for just about ever.
raven
@redshirt: Fuck the Packers.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: It is outright amazing how a community of 3500 people can support a modern NFL franchise, but support it they do!
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Because Ditka’s an asshole.
@raven: The Bears still suck.
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker:
And honestly? The more I see Brady in press events this year the more I think the court room sketch artist had his image down pretty close to perfect. The guy is totes creeping me the fuck out.
different-church-lady
Something is wrong with timespace: the Red Sox are playing the Yankees, the game is less than two hours old, and they’re already in the seventh.
FlyingToaster
I bear no ill will toward the Packers, but I did grow up in KC. Go Chiefs!
Corner Stone
Nice pick for the pack.
redshirt
@Corner Stone:
lol. You’re just jealous of the life of perfection that is Tom Brady. It’s OK, many people are at first. Just learn to understand and accept it.
Corner Stone
@redshirt: I used to think he was a really handsome man. But honestly he’s looking fucking skeevy the last few Q&A’s I saw him in. That last one where he was wearing the baseball cap? He looked fucking spooky and malnourished.
JPL
@redshirt: lol.. this…
redshirt
@Corner Stone: If it works. He’s playing better these first 3 games than he has in years. Which should be scary to the rest of y’all.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: Meh.
eldorado
@raven: that was unforgivable. payton carried that team for years with absolutely no help.
raven
@eldorado: Sure did.
Corner Stone
That’s just too easy.
Betty Cracker
@Suezboo: I admire that about the franchise too. Also, the GB fans who travel down to Tampa to watch their team wallop the Bucs are almost uniformly genial and willing to share food with the locals during tailgates. The traveling fan bases for other teams seem to include a much higher proportion of dickheads.
@Denali: I saw a picture of it sitting on a mailbox, but that’s all I know.
@Corner Stone: He’s still a handsome man, but he does look a bit more gaunt these days. Maybe his supermodel wife made him go vegan or something.
Cacti
@Corner Stone:
Brady has 2 facial expressions: smug and pouty.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yesterday’s Bears were mid-pack Division 1 NCAA at best. Considering the pasting the horrid ’49ers put on them earlier, one wonders how bad they can truly become.
redshirt
Brady is no doubt on some super diet that Oprah/ESPN will break shortly and discuss for weeks.
redshirt
PS I have no idea what anyone is talking about regarding Brady’s looks.
Corner Stone
FUUUUMMMMBBBBLLLE!!!
ETA
Wow.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: And not so much.
The Thin Black Duke
@Betty Cracker: Tom Brady is a great athlete because he’s just as obsessive as Michael Jordan was. There is no off-season for him. The lunatic is so methodical about his training regimen that he eats a sugar-free, non-dairy avocado ice cream for dessert so he won’t gain an extra molecule of fat. Yeah, the dirtbag is a Donald Trump supporter, but I reluctantly have to admire his dedication in spite of myself.
dedc79
There was just a brutal injury in the Cards-Pirates baseball game. Two outfielders collided, one kneeing the other in the head. Such a strange sight to see a player getting wheeled off like that in baseball. A seemingly weekly occurrence in football, of course.
raven
@The Thin Black Duke: He’s having second thoughts on that.
raven
@dedc79: Duh, they are sort of different games now aren’t they?
redshirt
@raven: The avocado iced cream?
Omnes Omnibus
@The Thin Black Duke:
That’s not ice cream.
redshirt
@efgoldman: That was a scrappy Pats team that deserved to be in the Superbowl. They just ran into an obviously superior team.
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: That’s fine. But a big round number like 400? That doesn’t come around all that damn often.
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: Yeah? Maybe Brady will indulge himself and have a truckload of Ben and Jerry’s “Cherry Garcia” after Goodell hands him the Lombardi Trophy in January?
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Intimating that he looks deflated?
Cacti
@dedc79:
I’m guessing that baseball pros are just fine with the relative lack of brain trauma in their sport.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: They’re all in on it.
The Thin Black Duke
@Omnes Omnibus: You are correct, sir. It’s an evil mockery.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: But they didn’t deserve to have a defensive lineman score an offensive touchdown on them. That was just rubbing it in. Not that I begrudge the Fridge.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
It barely qualifies as food.
redshirt
@NotMax:
I think this was the plot to Stephen King’s Thinner.
dedc79
@Cacti: and the guaranteed contracts.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: Look, he’s going to have 500 by week 13. What’s the big deal?
raven
Tom Brady Slowly Backing Away From That Donald Trump Endorsement
raven
@redshirt: Champaign Tony!
Cacti
@dedc79:
And the longer playing careers.
different-church-lady
@efgoldman: Was that after The Jacksons took the Sullivans to the cleaners?
The Thin Black Duke
@NotMax: Hey, does the job. Did you ever see the pictures of Brady when he was first drafted?
redshirt
@different-church-lady:
I enjoyed the Fridge scoring back in the day because it was so different and outrageous. Even as a Pats fan I liked that the other team was so cocky they were running vanity touchdown plays. I mean, once you’re beat, who cares what happens?
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: But Brady is still a Republican. Too many professional athletes are, unfortunately. The rich ones, anyway.
different-church-lady
@raven: I’m calling BS — he’ll vote for Trump alright, but he’s realizing he’s violating his own standards by allowing non-football things to interfere with the focus on football.
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: Around here we call that guacamole.
Corner Stone
@The Thin Black Duke:
Even after he proved like no one could that even he desperately needs a union.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: Yeah, I mean the carnage was so great that you couldn’t even get pissed off about it. “The Fridge runs the ball in? Nothing we can do to stop it? OK, take that medicine.”
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: After everything Payton did for that team, they should have given him the chance to score.
@beltane: With peas?
redshirt
@different-church-lady:
Yeah. But this is so anti-Brady. Keeping the hat in the locker is begging to be asked questions. That’s not the Tom I know.
raven
@The Thin Black Duke: White ones. I hate him because he p;aye at fucking Michigan.
dedc79
@efgoldman:
Deadspin has the video up already, because of course they do.
And from an SF Gate article re Mays’ greatest catches:
Debbie
@The Thin Black Duke:
Avocados have lots of fat. Heart and blood vessels aside, you gain just as much weight from plant-based fats as you would from animal fats.
different-church-lady
@redshirt:
Right, that’s my point: he realized he slipped up, now he’s trying to make up.
If only Schilling could figure that out.
Corner Stone
Green Bay is just having their way with this KC team.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: Peyton got a well deserved Super Bowl ring. Who cares if he scored or not?
Keith G
@Corner Stone: And he earns his $$$$ by working (as often as not) in the most expensive taxpayer-funded buildings in the world.
The Thin Black Duke
@redshirt: I think Peyton did.
redshirt
@different-church-lady:
You’re probably right, and it makes me sad. That Tom is such an idiot to support Trump. Like, one of the super dumb people! But how can this be when he’s such an obviously smart QB who must study and practice and diet and train and spend his entire life dedicated to this singular pursuit?
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt:
Payton might have.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: Vertical intelligence.
BruceFromOhio
@redshirt: It was still an ugly win. Seriously, McMahon, Ditka, Fridge, all the hype before and after, just an awful win, and it was like they did not even care.
different-church-lady
@BruceFromOhio: The damn Shuffle. I could forgive everything else, but not the damn Shuffle…
redshirt
@BruceFromOhio: Their super bowl shuffle was precious!
redshirt
Sox win! Sink the Yanks!
ThresherK (GPad)
@efgoldman: Were not the Pats the only team to have a lead on the 85 Bears in the playoffs, and the only team to score on those Bears?
The final margin was provided by a patently illegal pick play, my Pats fan buddies tell me. However, it’d taken something incredible to stop that team that year.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: Sox opponents: 1 run in the last four games.
Where the hell was this four months ago?
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman:
Isn’t Belichek always the bad guy in a Patriots related story?
And WTF? The Bears traded Jared Allen?
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus:
What? Belichek is Moses and he has led us out of the valley of darkness onto the plateau of prosperity and decades long excellence. Yay, Bill did say “DO YOUR JOB“, and all did their job and the world was good.
redshirt
@different-church-lady:
Right? They’re probably the best team in baseball right now.
I blame… I don’t even know. Farrel? Cherington? I think it’s actually Hanley Ramirez and Mike Napoli.
Omnes Omnibus
This is a monster performance by GB’s D so far.
redshirt
@efgoldman: This Red Sox team could beat any other team, easily. I’d take odds.
Keith G
@efgoldman: Hence the caveat
Corner Stone
KC just has no answer for any of this GB passing game.
Corner Stone
@efgoldman:
I’d take Alex Smith right now as starting QB for the Texans. And offer odds he starts for 8 or more NFL teams right now.
ETA, shit. Thinking about it, he starts for a dozen or more teams next Sunday.
redshirt
@efgoldman: We’re playing +600 ball, man, what do you expect?
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: There are maybe four elite QB’s in the league right now.
Brady
Rodgers
Wilson
Rivers??
The other teams are looking for someone who won’t lose the game for them more times than he will.
The evolution of the DE and the pass rushing LB over the last 10 years is just too much. Lawrence Taylor was a freak of his time, and I’m not saying there’s another LT around, but damn.
redshirt
@efgoldman:
Well, first, every game counts.
Second, you can’t ever quit, not never!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@NotMax: It’s avocado abuse.
Corner Stone
Sheesh. Looks like some on demand stuff to finish this night off. Come here, Netflix and/or Hulu.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Let me see, 8 goes into 19…. carry the 1… Is it 42?
burnspbesq
You’re demented. You think the Sox would win a series against Harvey/de Grom/Syndergaard? Kershaw/Greinke? Arietta/anyone?
redshirt
@efgoldman:
The new GM and staff are watching. Intently.
redshirt
@burnspbesq: Right now? Yep. This team just threw 1 run over 50 innings or so.
Corner Stone
It’s over! It’s over! It’s all over!
redshirt
Our long KC nightmare is finally over.
burnspbesq
@redshirt:
Best case, the Sox’ late-season push, if it lasts another week, will mean that they finish third, rather than fourth or fifth, in the division. If they win their six remaining games, they will finish a glorious two games over .500 (82-80).
Great stuff. Here’s a cookie. Enjoy it next week, when your team is one of the 20 playing golf instead of baseball.
Corner Stone
Ok, every one who believes Eddie Lacy only weighs 240LB please put your hand up.
redshirt
@burnspbesq: No doubt on the season they suck. They’re not going to the playoffs and that’s been known for a long time.
I’m talking about right now. The Red Sox might be the best team in baseball on 9/28/15.
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
Get your head out of your hindquarters long enough to face the reality that it’s Thursday, willya?
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: More? Less?
redshirt
I Believe in the new Boston Red Sox!
Betts! Bogarts! Bradley! The Killer B’s!
This ain’t your Daddie’s Red Sox
(insert John Fogerty music)
burnspbesq
“You are who your record says you are.”
— the last class act to coach the Patriots
burnspbesq
@redshirt:
Don’t Bogaert that joint, my friend.
Mike J
@redshirt: Come opening day, the loser Sox will return.
redshirt
@burnspbesq:
That’s a quality anti-Red Sox joke in my book.
redshirt
@Mike J:
Oh I think not, not with newly minted Ace Rick Porcello on the mound.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: He’s 260+ or I’ll eat someone’s trilby.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: The team stats have him at 234. I take no position on the accuracy of those stats.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Look at that fat bastard. He’s not fucking 230-anything. He’s Jerome Bettis on the hoof.
Corner Stone
I love KC fighting it out here.
redshirt
@efgoldman:
The Red Sox management seems to have faith in him. Who are we to second guess?
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Fat?
redshirt
@efgoldman: lol
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes.
burnspbesq
@redshirt:
efg is right. Bahstan sports fans live to second-guess. They second-guess Acacia Walker, for Crissakes.
Unlike the Sawx, you’re not even trying.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
Shorter Brady: “I’m rich and white.”
redshirt
@burnspbesq:
Are you kidding me? I’m the most hardcore Pats fan evah!
Not really. In truth, I don’t actually care at all. I go along with the tribe’s rituals, and try and fit in….
lamh36
Rooting for Trevor Noah…I haven’t watched TDS consistently in years
But I’ll admit, I really want him to do well, same as I did for Larry Wilmore.
I was a little anxious to watch it, but I went ahead and watched Trevor Noah’s first Daily Show broadcast. I think he did good. I especially enjoyed the Roy Wood Jr segments.
I’ll watch the rest of the week
marduk
@Steeplejack (phone):
So true. He didn’t endorse Trump in the first place, headlines to the contrary. It was “Oh, Donnie? Love that guy, always right there with the helicopter rides to richman-partytown. Might be president? Sweet!”. Do you agree with his politics? “His what now?”
SoupCatcher
Let’s see if the Giants can tag Greinke for a couple runs this inning.
eta: Well, that didn’t happen. And it didn’t happen quick enough for the edit window to still be open. To the 8th!
divF
Way OT, but worth noting: Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the 24 MacArthur foundation Fellows (aka “genius awards”) for 2015.
https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class/2015/
Mike J
@divF: THAT will certainly piss off all the right people.
divF
@Mike J:
Indeed.
@efgoldman:
It is a Big Fucking Deal (in the sense of Joe Biden)!
Omnes Omnibus
@divF: And Lin-Manuel Miranda
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: And another year where I say to myself, “Next year, we’ll get ’em next year.”
divF
@efgoldman:
But two historians (Rustow and Nakassis) of the classical / medieval world. Very nice.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@divF:
I bet Tom Levenson knows the MIT economist who won. Her name is strangely familiar.
divF
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
It’s likely he does, given her (and his) interests.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@divF:
The creator of one of our oddest local places won a MacArthur a few years ago:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Jurassic_Technology
There never seems to be any kind of rhyme or reason to who gets an award, which is why they’re cool.
Suzanne
@divF: That. Is. Awesome. Coates is brilliant and more than deserving.
DivF
I’m off to bed in lovely Illinois. Gnite all.
Gian
@different-church-lady:
it was great watching Harbuagh use the same style “trick” play in Baltimore that he whined and bitched and moaned was unfair last year when it was done to him.
I expect that Goodell is responding to a majority of owners who are just angry over new England. I mean I get why the Jets are still bitter. Nothing like having the coach you hired quit in less than a week and then go lead a division rival team to multiple championships to get the hate going.
Might be like having a Babe Ruth go to a rival and run off a ton of championships, or something similar.
So I get the Jets ownership has a serious grudge, and Baltimore whines about the play and then uses it…
I expect the other owners feel there was more to the spygate era stuff than made the papers and push RG for their pint of blood, and he works for the collective of the owners, and this whole federal case started with Baltimore telling Indy to try and do a sting which was then so badly botched by the league that they ended up getting tossed in court…
Tommy
@Gian: I was a Redskins ticket holder. I tell you what seeing a dude if this. Just nice.
SoupCatcher
And the Giants do not go gentle. It took 12 innings, but they stay alive for one more day. Dodgers magic number still at 2.
Omnes Omnibus
@SoupCatcher: Okay, stop trying to confuse people in a football thread by referring to baseball teams with football names.
Tommy
Happy thoughts. I was in this 9/11 like store today. Had this shirt on that says E=MC2. Guy was like do you remember me. I said yes, you were my teacher in 6th grade. I didn’t say to him that I recall, as a military brat, when I came to that school, you flipped a coin in front of me to see which homeroom I’d go to. Yeah that happened.
But he was just so amazed I had a shirt on that gave some shout out to Einstein. I am like you might now get it, but after your class I started to read a lot. And Einstein, hard to argue with him!
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: As the playoffs get near I am about to be the biggest homer on this site. Cardinals. Cardinals. Can I say again Cardinals.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: I am not a baseball person as a general rule. Do you want to pick a fight with me?
ETA: I am not try to start one.
J R in WV
@different-church-lady:
Sorry, but you are totally wrong about Green Bay, WI, which has the following population:
Population in 2013: 104,779 (99% urban, 1% rural). Population change since 2000: +2.4%
Now that isn’t huge, it is much smaller than any other pro franchise city, but it is way way more than 3500 people!! Plus there are many stock holders compared to a single magnate slime ball like all the other owners!
GO Packers!!
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: “trying” Damn it.
@J R in WV: As a rabid Packer fan, even I recognized her snark. Just saying.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t want to pick a fight with you.
Just baseball ….
My mom used to joke she put headphones on her belly so as a fetus I could hear Jack Buck call a Cardinal games. Yeah it is like that. We go deep with Cardinals. Parents over the last week and I don’t have cable, Fox Sports Midwest, so they couldn’t see the Cardinals games and just had to listen to them, as I do, and it freaked them out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: You do understand that I was originally making a joke about the fact that there are football and baseball Cardinals, yes? You stepped into the middle of it.
different-church-lady
@marduk:
Trump did endorse Brady, however.
different-church-lady
@J R in WV:
If I had said 14, or negative 37, would that have gotten the sarcasm through?