Football Talk

fac said:
I've been to see the Royals at Kaufman Stadium years ago and of course saw Arrowhead next to it - it did strike me as feeling isolated/distanced in some ways, and wondered why the parking area directly between the two stadia wasn't developed with event space, food, etc., to provide a pre and post game experience. Very much felt like, drive in, game, drive out, hit the Interstate and go home.
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That is exactly correct. The stadiums are in the middle of nowhere of fuckin' Missouri. That translates into a 12-dimensional tesseract of BFE. The middlest middle of nowhere.
 
fac said:
I've been to see the Royals at Kaufman Stadium years ago and of course saw Arrowhead next to it - it did strike me as feeling isolated/distanced in some ways, and wondered why the parking area directly between the two stadia wasn't developed with event space, food, etc., to provide a pre and post game experience. Very much felt like, drive in, game, drive out, hit the Interstate and go home.
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Without stepping all the way up on my soapbox, city planners only develop things that revolve around cars.

When I drove out west, we stopped in KC. I almost laughed at Arrowhead's location. Soldier Field it is not. The planners are so preoccupied with parking that they don't consider anything else. More and more American stadiums are moving to the suburbs. It's a joke.
 
One of the things Robert Kraft did well with the Patriots was he financed his own stadium and then built around it. Old Foxborough Stadium was a piece of junk in the middle of nowhere, now it's basically a big shopping center surrounding the new stadium and an actual destination for people even when there's no game. There's a concert venue nearby (Gillette is also used for the same, but only for the biggest of the big acts which I'm never into) in Mansfield that I go to semi-frequently and we always go to Patriot Place first for some grub then head over to the venue for the show. Not that Kraft deserves any credit for not taking public funds. He tried his darndest and flirted with nearby Connecticut, but they had no interest in paying for a stadium either. The NFL is such a behemoth that they should not ever need public money for their stadiums, but no one wants to be the governor who let a popular sports team leave town so they often get their way.

Last weekend was pretty wild with a lot of upsets and more injuries across the league. Imagine how bad it's going to be when the owners eventually get their 18th game? You know it's only a matter of time. I penciled the Patriots in for a loss at Baltimore because their interior players on defense are banged up and I expected Dereck Henry to have his way, and he did. Harbaugh stupidly iced out his running back in the 4th quarter and it allowed the Patriots to steal one. If any other coach did that in a must win game I think they'd certainly be fired after the season, but Harbaugh could skate. Or he could get the axe. That team has become synonymous with underperforming in the Jackson era. This year they have injuries as an excuse, but who knows with these owners?
 
TheSameIdiot said:
When I drove out west, we stopped in KC. I almost laughed at Arrowhead's location. Soldier Field it is not. The planners are so preoccupied with parking that they don't consider anything else. More and more American stadiums are moving to the suburbs. It's a joke.
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I'll slightly defend the location as in the early 1970's when this and Kaufman were built the trend was multipurpose stadiums built on the city edges which would not impact inner city traffic, be accessible to many, and also not require demolishing existing property. Veterans stadium in Philly, Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Kingdome in Seattle, San Diego Stadium etc. The expectation that business and nightlife might fill in around it was not a focus, it was more practical in terms of access and types of events that could be held. It wasn't until Baltimore moved the Orioles downtown and helped it revitalize the Harbor area that there was more of a discussion about ballparks (mainly baseball) being economic drivers/multipliers, and you saw either new ballparks moved closer to the city (San Diego for instance) or the city expanding towards the stadium (Seattle, Pittsburgh).
 
Misfit said:
The NFL is such a behemoth that they should not ever need public money for their stadiums, but no one wants to be the governor who let a popular sports team leave town so they often get their way.
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This has really become a terrible use of public funds given the money the leagues make - one of the reasons the cookie cutter multi-use stadiums were popular was the lower cost. Now the football stadiums are costing billions to host maybe a thousand events over 20 years (games, concerts).

Misfit said:
Imagine how bad it's going to be when the owners eventually get their 18th game?
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I admit, I liked the 16 game schedule better and the season over mid-January...and there is no way to spin that the league cares about player health while adding games.
 
As much as I enjoy having football to watch this time of year (and I hate that part of the calendar when it goes away and we're left with the cruel winter weather), I also agree that it was better as a 16 game schedule. I hate the current odd number of games, but also this is a sport that just isn't meant to be played for such a long duration. I pretty much haven't liked any of the changes over the past two decades when it comes to games (Thursday night, expanded playoffs, expanded schedule). 18 is going to happen, I just hope the players demand a second bye week as part of it. And they should devote 2-4 weeks on the calendar to get all of the byes in so every team gets it relatively close to the midpoint of the season. These teams that had to wait until week 14 for a bye is cruel. And ditto for the teams that had their bye week absurdly early.
 
The Thursday night games are annoying to me - can't be enough time to recover from a Sunday game.

I liked the idea of each division off the same bye week, and then they came back and played Thursday. Like this -

Everyone plays weeks 1 to 4
First division doesn't play the weekend of week 5, but then 2 intra-division games on Thursday to start week 6
Second division doesn't play the weekend of week 6, but then 2 intra-division games on Thursday to start week 7
etc, so eight weeks of Thursday night games, and teams have a game Sunday, then 10 days of to the Thurs game, then 9 games off to next Sunday.
Culminates with Thanksgiving games, drop the stupid Cowboys from that and have it always be the NFC North...

It also makes all the Thursday games division matchups and rivalries.
 
Looks like Missourians should be glad they didn't offer funding for the stadium. Kansas is doing so at its own peril:

https://bsky.app/profile/jlazarus.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3mamx3flqvc2q
Misfit said:
He tried his darndest and flirted with nearby Connecticut, but they had no interest in paying for a stadium either. The NFL is such a behemoth that they should not ever need public money for their stadiums, but no one wants to be the governor who let a popular sports team leave town so they often get their way.
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They all flirt now. The Capitals/Wizards threatened to move out to bumfuck Virginia. Their current arena is in the heart of DC. Honestly, it hurts the teams far more than the cities. The Commanders play in the middle of nowhere in Maryland. It's no surprise that the city stopped caring when the team moved out of RFK Stadium.
Misfit said:
Last weekend was pretty wild with a lot of upsets and more injuries across the league. Imagine how bad it's going to be when the owners eventually get their 18th game? You know it's only a matter of time. I penciled the Patriots in for a loss at Baltimore because their interior players on defense are banged up and I expected Dereck Henry to have his way, and he did. Harbaugh stupidly iced out his running back in the 4th quarter and it allowed the Patriots to steal one. If any other coach did that in a must win game I think they'd certainly be fired after the season, but Harbaugh could skate. Or he could get the axe. That team has become synonymous with underperforming in the Jackson era. This year they have injuries as an excuse, but who knows with these owners?
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My hot take is that Harbaugh should be fired. The Ravens haven't sniffed the Super Bowl with Lamar at QB.
fac said:
or the city expanding towards the stadium (Seattle, Pittsburgh).
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Yep, we're going through a big zoning battle here. We're finally developing the industrial/shipping area around the two major stadiums. It's been obvious for decades.

The only real argument against it is that if a big earthquake hits, those people are in deep shit. That's not the argument the NIMBYs are making, though.
Misfit said:
(Thursday night, expanded playoffs, expanded schedule).
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Thursdays are awful. They should only happen coming off a bye week. The product isn't the same, and I would bet player injuries increase in those games.
 
Heading to the Bills Eagles game on Sunday. Should hopefully be a good time. It's only my second NFL game and it's one of the last games at Highmark before they move next season. Looks like we'll get lucky with the weather too and it'll be a high of 50 that day instead of the 3° I was thinking it would be when we got these tickets back in August.

A little nervous over being a visiting team fan in an away stadium, but hopefully they'll see that I'm a chill Ohio Eagles fan instead of an angry Philadelphia Eagles fan, lol.

Although I'm curious if either team will be playing many starters. I think Bills at least maybe have a higher seed to try and play for, but also wouldn't be surprised to see Mitch Trubisky vs Tanner McKee all afternoon.
 
Not NFL, but I recommend looking for the highlights from the Pop Tart Bowl - mainly the off the field antics and the trophy presentation.

The trophy looks like the Lombardi trophy, except it is a working toaster so has two slots in the football... 🤣

They do ritually sacrifice three pop tarts, but one escaped before being toasted.
 
Man... as the father of a Panther's fan that game with the Seahawks was brutal to watch. The final score is a tad misleading as it was 3 to 3 in the third quarter when Darnold threw an interception in the end zone. Seahawks should have been in trouble. It was ridiculous that Carolina fumbled on the next play, gave the Seahawks an 18 yard field to score their first touchdown. Then literally the next offensive play for the Panthers Young tries to fit a ball in a tight window and gets picked off. Another short field, another sudden change and another 'hawks touchdown.

Seattle did not look like the best team in the conference for most of that game, so hopefully my Niners can win tonight and then beat the Seahawks next Sunday to take the #1 seed in the NFC. If they could do that it would take 3 more home wins to be Super Bowl Champs.

Gotta take care of the Bears first though...

At least my nephew got his first interception of the season today and helped his cousin's Panthers by beating the Bucs.
 
LETS GO!!!!

That game against Seattle next Saturday is a playoff game. Winner gets the next week off and home field advantage. Loser is the 5 or 6 seed.

Whew... i need a cigarette (not really, I don't smoke, but you get the idea)
 
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