NFL and what a joke It is

[dad4aa]

So indulge me...how can a person that likes football enough to post here and not like the better version of football that is played on Sundays?

Don't know what the reason is for me, but I watch college football all day Saturday and rarely watch the NFL. I do watch once the playoffs begin but I much prefer college over NFL. For me, it is not a better version.

 

[irishff1014]

I have said for a long time they should start fining these officials for bad calls and they will start doing better. I actually think that replay in the nfl is going backwards. There are obvious calls that the replay booth hasn't done the right thing.

 

[Classic Irish]

So indulge me...how can a person that likes football enough to post here and not like the better version of football that is played on Sundays?

I spent four years of my life at ND and made some great friendships and wonderful, lasting memories there. Two of my brothers and two of my sisters went to ND before me. I love ND and what it stand for. It's greater than the football team, but the team is a representative of what my school stands for and what it means to me. What allegiance do I have to a team of millionaires who only care about getting a paycheck? Because we happen to live in the same city? If these players have no real allegiance to the team they play for other than who writes their paycheck, why should I? I used to be an avid baseball fan. But when I saw players leaving one team to play with a rival team, I asked myself, "If they don't have any allegiance, why should I"? I now think professional sports is one of the most contrived things I can imagine and utterly lacks the traditions and pageantry that the college game has. Just my opinion.

 

[GoldenDomer]

So indulge me...how can a person that likes football enough to post here and not like the better version of football that is played on Sundays?

Explain the word better, besides the players being more talented.

 

[ginman]

So indulge me...how can a person that likes football enough to post here and not like the better version of football that is played on Sundays?

For me , I have become less interested in a number of sports over time. Baseball takes forever and gets boring. NBA has always been terrible, for me. Maybe it is the money in the games. The only professional sport I can watch is hockey (playoffs generally are the best in sports ). The other thing is that where I used to watch games in which I had no interest in the teams playing, I can't do it anymore with the exception of some college football. I'm pretty much down to ND football and Habs hockey. I'd rather watch team USA soccer over NFL- gasp. It saves me a lot of time to do other things, like post here.
It's just sports - relationships with my children, family and friends just way more important!

 

[woolybug25]

I guess I don't get how someone could love college football so much that they spend time on a Notre Dame forum, but absolutely hate the NFL.

They both play the same game of football. Sure there are rule differences, etc... But it's the same freaking game. They aren't so different that I understand the mindset. I get not liking it as much as college, but actually disliking to the point that you would rather watch no football than NFL football is bizarre to me.

 

[Classic Irish]

I guess I don't get how someone could love college football so much that they spend time on a Notre Dame forum, but absolutely hate the NFL.

They both play the same game of football. Sure there are rule differences, etc... But it's the same freaking game. They aren't so different that I understand the mindset. I get not liking it as much as college, but actually disliking to the point that you would rather watch no football than NFL football is bizarre to me.

And I fail to see what anyone could find appealing in watching the NFL. Again, just differences in opinion.

 

[NDRock]

I guess I don't get how someone could love college football so much that they spend time on a Notre Dame forum, but absolutely hate the NFL.

They both play the same game of football. Sure there are rule differences, etc... But it's the same freaking game. They aren't so different that I understand the mindset. I get not liking it as much as college, but actually disliking to the point that you would rather watch no football than NFL football is bizarre to me.

I agree with this. It's one thing to say you like college more but to totally hate the NFL seems strange. To each his own.

 

[Rhode Irish]

I guess I understand if you don't really love football but just love ND so much you root for the football team. So, OK, that is one acceptable answer.

But if you like football, there is no question that the NFL is a better product than CFB (I obviously love both, so not denigrating CFB). The talent and athleticism are obviously better to start, and the players are in their athletic primes. The coaching is better. The players are full-time professionals so the play is crisper, the schemes are more dynamic and the game is more of a chess match (for a number of reasons, not least of which are there are fewer teams and the rosters have more stability over the long-term, so there is a better foundation of familiarity). The facts that there are fewer teams and fewer players and less turnover year over year (both for teams and league-wide) also make it better to follow over a period of time.

I don't really get how the fact that the players get paid could ruin the experience for people, but the fact that the college players don't get any of the tremendous revenue they generate bothers me much more and is a negative for CFB.

 

[woolybug25]

And I fail to see what anyone could find appealing in watching the NFL. Again, just differences in opinion.

You don't get how someone could stand to watch the same game played, albeit by paid athletes, as you are passionate about on the college level?

Fail to see how anyone might like the same freaking game?

 

[Circa]

I agree with this. It's one thing to say you like college more but to totally hate the NFL seems strange. To each his own.

Hate seems to be a bit much...

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[NDRock]

Hate seems to be a bit much...

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Well someone called the NFL "garbage" and another said they would "rather watch grass grow".

 

[Rhode Irish]

To even not love it would put you in the super minority of American sports fans. The NFL is the best thing going, and 97%* of the sports watching public agrees.


*approximate

 

[ginman]

To even not love it would put you in the super minority of American sports fans. The NFL is the best thing going, and 97%* of the sports watching public agrees.


*approximate

Seems like it is probably not even 97% on this board, which i do find interesting. I don't hate the NFL, but I'm indifferent and feel like I'm wasting 4 hours when I do watch. I would never miss a ND game and I am not an alum (and I am miserable when they lose), so there is something about the college game and the tradition that I prefer.

 

[phork]

I find the NFL like the NHL. Don't really care until the playoffs. College football I could watch all year long.

 

[Rhode Irish]

Weirdest group of people ever. I've met like 3 adult males in my life that don't like the NFL, and they were probably into ballet or some other nonsense. I get that the part of the country I grew up in is much more focused on pro sports but I didn't realize there were people that don't like the NFL. Still doesn't make sense to me that a fan of football wouldn't like the game played at its highest level, but to each his own I guess.

 

[stlnd01]

To even not love it would put you in the super minority of American sports fans. The NFL is the best thing going, and 97%* of the sports watching public agrees.

Because they're told to. The NFL hype machine is like no other. The reality is that the typical regular NFL season game is a relatively meaningless and conservative slog that everyone involved treats like it's the Battle of Iwo Jima.

You asked earlier how someone could like college football but not the NFL. To me, that's a big part of it. I completely agree the quality of play on the field is better in the NFL. No doubt. But I'm not really watching to admire technical expertise. I'm watching for excitement.

The NFL has become so regimented that a lot of times it's frankly not very exciting. Run on first down. Punt on fourth. Throw it away if no one's open. Etc, etc.. And it's a sport where 8-8 teams can still win the Super Bowl, so it's hard to get that worked up about an upset in October.

Compare that with college football, where there are dozens of different approaches to the game, where a flawed but brilliant individual player (like Johnny Manziel or Everett Golson) can take over a game and make plays you never thought you'd see, where 19-year-olds will be 19-year-olds, sometimes rising to transcendence and sometimes shitting the bed entirely, making for all manner of upsets, and where those upsets matter because, for most teams, even with the playoff, losing one game knocks you out of the title hunt and losing two means you're playing just for pride (and a lot of teams that are just playing for pride do a lot of amazing things).
Throw in the pageantry and the rivalries and the tribalism and college football's just a lot more fun.

So I don't hate the NFL (though I do have serious problems with the way the sport is run). But I have two little kids and really only time to watch one. No question I choose to watch college.

 

[Rhode Irish]

To me the NFL is about the chess match. That the players are so good is most important for the reliability it provides: you scheme a guy open and he will make the throw, hit the hole, catch the pass, etc. I like the game plan aspect, the adjustments, the cat-and-mouse part of it. I don't really watch to be excited by an individual play, but to think along with the game and guess strategy and see if I can figure out what teams are trying to attack and counterattack. To me, the beauty of football is that it can be understood on several different levels. Not that that doesn't exist at the college level, but the players and coaches being so much better at the pro level and being able to be familiar with every team's personnel (because it is a much smaller and more stable universe of players and teams) make the game both more aesthetically pleasing and more fun to follow as a strategy contest.

I think maybe this board, and maybe other college football boards (I don't know because this is the only one I've ever been to) might attract a certain kind of fan, but I definitely think the portion of people here who say they don't like the NFL is wildly disproportionate to the portion of sports fans that feel that way overall.

 

[irishtrain]

Seems like it is probably not even 97% on this board, which i do find interesting. I don't hate the NFL, but I'm indifferent and feel like I'm wasting 4 hours when I do watch. I would never miss a ND game and I am not an alum (and I am miserable when they lose), so there is something about the college game and the tradition that I prefer.

Couldn't have said it better about the Irish and this year I did not watch 1 nfl game the whole way thru. Old movies or Oliver North war stories golfchannel mlb channel, for me the nfl has crept into the same slot as the nba. I watch when there is absolutely nothing else on. By the way when did they make the new rule pass reception rule that the ball has to be taken back to the locker room showered with the receiver and not ruled a complete catch until he boards the team bus -all while never letting the ground come in contact with the ball.

 

[NDPhilly]

I find the NFL like the NHL. Don't really care until the playoffs. College football I could watch all year long.

Sorry I found this hilarious coming from a lions fan

 

[Irish Insanity]

Sorry I found this hilarious coming from a lions fan

Dammit I'm a Lions fan and feel the same.

Maybe it's because usually it's the only time we don't expect to lose. Because we typically aren't there. Lol

 

[NDohio]

For me , I have become less interested in a number of sports over time. Baseball takes forever and gets boring. NBA has always been terrible, for me. Maybe it is the money in the games. The only professional sport I can watch is hockey (playoffs generally are the best in sports ). The other thing is that where I used to watch games in which I had no interest in the teams playing, I can't do it anymore with the exception of some college football. I'm pretty much down to ND football and Habs hockey. I'd rather watch team USA soccer over NFL- gasp. It saves me a lot of time to do other things, like post here.
It's just sports - relationships with my children, family and friends just way more important!

There are a lot of thoughts similar to mine in this post. It's strange, as a kid I watched every sporting event that was on TV and wanted more. Maybe we have gotten too much at this point? Are sports over-saturated?

Because they're told to. The NFL hype machine is like no other. The reality is that the typical regular NFL season game is a relatively meaningless and conservative slog that everyone involved treats like it's the Battle of Iwo Jima.

You asked earlier how someone could like college football but not the NFL. To me, that's a big part of it. I completely agree the quality of play on the field is better in the NFL. No doubt. But I'm not really watching to admire technical expertise. I'm watching for excitement.

The NFL has become so regimented that a lot of times it's frankly not very exciting. Run on first down. Punt on fourth. Throw it away if no one's open. Etc, etc.. And it's a sport where 8-8 teams can still win the Super Bowl, so it's hard to get that worked up about an upset in October.

Compare that with college football, where there are dozens of different approaches to the game, where a flawed but brilliant individual player (like Johnny Manziel or Everett Golson) can take over a game and make plays you never thought you'd see, where 19-year-olds will be 19-year-olds, sometimes rising to transcendence and sometimes shitting the bed entirely, making for all manner of upsets, and where those upsets matter because, for most teams, even with the playoff, losing one game knocks you out of the title hunt and losing two means you're playing just for pride (and a lot of teams that are just playing for pride do a lot of amazing things).
Throw in the pageantry and the rivalries and the tribalism and college football's just a lot more fun.

So I don't hate the NFL (though I do have serious problems with the way the sport is run). But I have two little kids and really only time to watch one. No question I choose to watch college.

Yep - good stuff here. I like the college game because of the pageantry and the flaws in the game add intrigue and excitement.

To me the NFL is about the chess match. That the players are so good is most important for the reliability it provides: you scheme a guy open and he will make the throw, hit the hole, catch the pass, etc. I like the game plan aspect, the adjustments, the cat-and-mouse part of it. I don't really watch to be excited by an individual play, but to think along with the game and guess strategy and see if I can figure out what teams are trying to attack and counterattack. To me, the beauty of football is that it can be understood on several different levels. Not that that doesn't exist at the college level, but the players and coaches being so much better at the pro level and being able to be familiar with every team's personnel (because it is a much smaller and more stable universe of players and teams) make the game both more aesthetically pleasing and more fun to follow as a strategy contest.

I think maybe this board, and maybe other college football boards (I don't know because this is the only one I've ever been to) might attract a certain kind of fan, but I definitely think the portion of people here who say they don't like the NFL is wildly disproportionate to the portion of sports fans that feel that way overall.

Are you a coach? Is that part of why you enjoy the strategy part of the game so much? That is one of the things I dislike about NFL football. Coaches have too much control on how the game is going to be decided. I love soccer for the exact opposite reason. The coaches prepare their players during instructional time and come up with a game plan and then it is almost completely up to the player to perform that game plan on game day. The NFL is entirely too scripted for my taste.

I also think that there a huge number of NFL "fans" out there that are NFL fans because of fantasy and gambling and not so much the sport.

 

[Classic Irish]

You don't get how someone could stand to watch the same game played, albeit by paid athletes, as you are passionate about on the college level?

Fail to see how anyone might like the same freaking game?

That's right---I don't get it. Perhaps it's because I don't see it as the same sport---same game, I grant you, but not the same sport. I wonder if some people will just watch anything if it's on TV. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Irish#1]

Both college and the NFL are fun to watch. The room for error is far less in the NFL, which makes the "chess match" more intriguing. It's hard to match the pageantry of the college game.

 

[Classic Irish]

To even not love it would put you in the super minority of American sports fans. The NFL is the best thing going, and 97%* of the sports watching public agrees.


*approximate

So what. I don't care if I'm in the minority. Just because some people like it doesn't mean I have to. A lot of people bought Edsels.

It's been my experience that most people who love the NFL either did not attend college or attended a college with no significant football program. So perhaps they fail to see things from my perspective---which is fine. I've been to over 20 different college football stadiums to watch games, and none of the NFL games I've attended match those experiences in the slightest. Again, just my opinion.

 

[koonja]

So what. I don't care if I'm in the minority. Just because some people like it doesn't mean I have to. A lot of people bought Edsels.

It's been my experience that most people who love the NFL either did not attend college or attended a college with no significant football program. So perhaps they fail to see things from my perspective---which is fine. I've been to over 20 different college football stadiums to watch games, and none of the NFL games I've attended match those experiences in the slightest. Again, just my opinion.

I can see where you're coming from. I watch 12 hours of CFB every weekend and have not seen an NFL game this year until wild card week of the playoffs.

I love the passion of CFB and ND obviously. But the NFL playoffs are about as good as it gets and I watch every game.

 

[GowerND11]

I can't stand the "other stuff" about professional football. The hold outs, the prima donnas, the fact they barely practice all week, the new rules (Defensive holding, Some targeting like when the offense initiates, but flag is on the defense), the fact that it is a business and everyone knows it, the commercials (I hate them for college too, especially ND football).

I like the product on the field in the NFL, but can't get over the background crap, and seeing guys smile after losing a game really pisses me off.

 

[IrishLion]

I don't like the monotony of the average NFL game, so I watch the Bengals during the regular season every Sunday, but I don't press to catch any other games really aside from channel surfing if nothing's going on after the Bengals.

I started to realize just how uniform and overly-organized the sport is when I got Sunday ticket, and found that the commercial breaks for nearly every game will match up in a nearly identical fashion through the third quarter.

I understand it's the best of the best on the field, but every game is the same. It's almost taxing to see that repetition 16 times with few hiccups, and takes away from why I like football.

Also, eff the fact that ties exist.

 

[palinurus]

The so called safety era of the NFL and the rule changes are ruining the game.

I disagree. I think it will save the game. With what we know about brain injuries, the NFL would eventually be held criminally liable without changes.

To me, these are both valid comments.

I also think there's no question that the product on the field is better when you're talking NFL vs college. But the emotion in college is purer, if you will.

But for me, I understand the concern with injuries, but a lot of the changes the league undertook predates the concussion-concern era. For me, it started to get worse when they made the rules completely favor the offense -- loosening the holding rules, tightening a whole range of physical maneuvers that defense used to be able to employ: bump and run, head slap, clothesline, hits on the quarterback, to name some big ones, evolving into calling penalties on clean hits on so-called "defenseless" receivers.

Sure, Jerry Rice was a great receiver and would have been so in any age, but if Richard Sherman can hit him, anytime, anywhere, any way, Rice's numbers aren't nearly what they were. There's a reason 5-6 Pat Fischer could cover 6-8 Harold Carmichael (at least sometimes). It's not because he was a better athlete.

I almost can't bear to watch how much they baby the QBs. These guys get a little shove after the pass and it's roughing. I swear, Tony Romo wouldn't last a month in the old NFL.

 

[Rhode Irish]

So what. I don't care if I'm in the minority. Just because some people like it doesn't mean I have to. A lot of people bought Edsels.

It's been my experience that most people who love the NFL either did not attend college or attended a college with no significant football program. So perhaps they fail to see things from my perspective---which is fine. I've been to over 20 different college football stadiums to watch games, and none of the NFL games I've attended match those experiences in the slightest. Again, just my opinion.

I don't fail to see that perspective at all. I said earlier in the thread that if you don't like football that much and are into ND football because of your relationship with the school that makes some sense. But overall, the NFL product is so much better than the college product, both on a game-by-game and long-view perspective, that it wouldn't make sense to me for a person who claims to like football to say that the college game is better.

At the NFL level, the players are better and the coaches are better, and they both tend to stay in one place longer than they are permitted to in college. The competition is better because the differential between any two teams is far smaller (when was the last 70-14 NFL game?). Bad teams can get good and good team can get bad in a matter of a year or two, whereas the best 8 or so programs have dominated the college game for 100 years. The offseason is better because free agency and the draft are 1000x less treacherous and you know 1000x more about the players involved. The schedules are balanced, the TV production and announcing are better, there is no voting or polls or committees or computer rankings. The players are remunerated for their services, the coaches are not as big of weasels, and the institutions that make up the sport exist for the purpose of putting on football games and don't have to undermine their own mission in order to field a competitive team.

I like ND so I root for them (mostly because they are so counterculture to what CFB generally is), but overall if CFB just went away tomorrow I can't say I would miss it other than as a minor league for the NFL.