NFL and NCAA Season 2016 (newcomers and salty veterans welcome!)

[JohnnyNolan]

Big mistake by the Cowboys WR. Get out of bounds dumb ass.

[TehStu]

Yeah, that was end game tactics 101. Oh well, so many games with the Giants go to the last few seconds that I'm burned out getting annoyed with it. More importantly, Bailey is awesome and equalled a career long of 56 yards. Also, Prescott looks solid. Regular reason debut, at home to the Giants, and he looked pretty cool and in control. Better defence in the middle of the game and we'd have been looking decent.

 

Holy shit, a positive bit of reflection after a Cowboys loss. Beats sulking about the house for the rest of the night.

[JohnnyNolan]

I think Cowboys fans have much to be positive about last nights game, despite the result. Even with the loss of Romo that team looks more than capable of putting up a good few W's this season.

[p1nseeker]

How great was the finish to the Raiders game? Brave stuff from Del Rio to go for a winning 2pt conversion, or no faith his defence could stop Brees in OT?

[thesnwmn]

Fantasy:

 

* Picking up Baily (the Cowboys kicker) worked out exactly how I intended. New QB on a good offence led to lots of progress but quite a few stopping near enough for field goals. 17pt kicker!

 

* Won my week 1 match wth Gurly to play tonight! Although he had best score at least 15pts so I feel like I properly beat my opponent's team and not his awful starting line up choices (his bench was stacked with wasted points) 

 

* Very close to being out of Survivor week one with my KC pick! Thank god for massive comebacks.

[wullie]

Squeaky Seahawks win, but it's better than the 0-2 start last year. Once the Dolphins receiver dropped that pass while in the clear it felt like it would be a good day in the end.

[kiroquai]

My Fantasy season started rather well!

[Baring]

I don't really have a clue about America football but the other night i watched the sky sports mix channel for an hour mesmerised at each play and if they would pull off. It was flicking between all the games, so it was constant action. Pretty cool, I enjoyed it.

 

One guy threw the ball nearly the full length clean through for the receiver to catch for a certain TD and he dropped it!! He had no pressure on him or anything. (it might have been the Dolphins)

 

I will watch again. Is it on every Sat night?

[p1nseeker]

Sunday night. That program is called 'Redzone' and is normally on the red button but it looks like they are showing it on Sky Sports Mix now so it's in HD which is nice.

 

I think american football can seem quite complex and intimidating if you're not familiar with it but if you give it a chance it's a really great sport.

[Baring]

How do transfers work? I was having a google for the highest paid transfer and it kept coming up with wages.

 

Like Pogba was 89 mil for Man Utd do the NFL players transfer in the same way?

 

I see they earn mega bucks 100 mil over 5 years or something with massive signing on fees. (i've watched Ballers)

[p1nseeker]

Rather than a fee they normally agree to a salary over a period of time with various bonuses. Each team has a salary cap, so have an overall limit on how much they can spend in wages so it becomes a case of trying to balance ability with how much a player will be paid.

[Baring]

What about the selling team, how do they benefit? Or do these players actually honor contracts?

[p1nseeker]

They seem to yeah. The selling team might want to let go of a player that is costing them a lot of money (but not really performing to a level of a player that expensive should be), to free up room in their salary cap so they would benefit in that way.

 

Players can have clauses in their contract that if they don't perform to a certain standard they could be traded.

[wullie]

Redzone's great, it's like Soccer Saturday without a load of ex-pros shouting at tellies you're not allowed to see.

[Scribblor]

I'm actually feeling really positive after the Cowboys loss. Prescott did far better then I've learned to expect from a Cowboys backup QB. Since Romo got injured I've been assuming they'd have another awful season, but even if that's the case, I feel like they've finally got a QB for the future which is something I've been wanting them to do for years.

[Trigg]

Red Zone on Sky Sports Mix is only in September I think. So back to standard def after that

[Mallet]

I wasn't planning on buying the game pass this year but after that opening weekend I simply had to.

 

I don't want to turn this political but does anyone else find the way the military, all the flag waving and the national anthem are incorporated into the NFL disturbing? 

[Oracle]

Its the national sport, for a country that loves the flag its hardly unexpected.

 

Look at the furore over that gymnast having her hand in the wrong place during the national anthem, or the burn the jersey thing that is going round after Kaepernick took the knee.

[Trigg]

42 minutes ago, Mallet said:

I wasn't planning on buying the game pass this year but after that opening weekend I simply had to.

 

I don't want to turn this political but does anyone else find the way the military, all the flag waving and the national anthem are incorporated into the NFL disturbing? 

 

I find it weird more than anything. But the Military is big thing over there, as is the National Anthem - just ask Kaepernick. Poor bastard got lambasted for bringing a serious issue to the forefront. I don't even like him due to him running all the Packers defence. Twice.

 

I do like it when the jets fly over the stadium though.

 

Anyone watched the BBC Highlight show yet, think it was on last night? Going to download it and give it a whirl on my commute this evening.

[kiroquai]

Brandon Marshall of the Broncos took a knee before the Panthers game and one of his personal sponsors promptly severed their commercial ties with him, which I thought was a little much. 

 

EDIT: seems like he's lost two deals over it, not just one.

[JohnnyNolan]

The military worship is disturbing and has been growing over the years, particularly since 9/11. Although unquestioning patriotism is a disease that flows through American society in general and the military worship has just become an extension of that.

[Baring]

Wouldn't it be nice if we supported our troops in a similar way though, instead of chavs wanting to fight them on a night out.

[JohnnyNolan]

Going wildly off topic, but no I already think the UK is already heading down a dangerous path were the military are unquestionably glorified and that is never healthy.

[RadgyAdgy]

Back to NFL talk!

 

My fantasy team is looking kinda so-so if im honest! I had Keenan Allen which didn't help. Thankfully I managed to pick up Travis Benjamin and Will Fuller off the waivers this morning. I'll end up dumping Paxton and Terence West on the week 2 waivers I'd have thought. 

 

[p1nseeker]

Don't forget to make your picks on the pick 'em this week!  (although if some people could forget it might help me catch up, I had an absolute shocker last week!)

[JohnnyNolan]

Well reminded. Nearly forgot about that.

[RadgyAdgy]

Pretty happy with Matt Forte again this week! Nearly 30 points! I just hope the Jets don't burn him out too early with the number of snaps he's playing. 

[Scribblor]

I'm really enjoying the American adverts on NFL Network for some reason.

[the_debaser]

Is it true that Penn State University is honouring Joe Paterno today? What the hell is that about?

[TehStu]

He coached them for 45 years. We just built a bronze statue to honour Hayden Fry, who was ours for 25 years.