artie_fufkin wrote:

Good call. Bad rule.

After ESPN blaring that Patriots announcer while Brady threw a touchdown against the saints once or twice .... a minute .... for 3 days .... I am pretty anti-Patriots at the present. I hope he never throws another, and to this point, he hasn't.

I agree with Artie though. It's the right call. The rule is designed to penalize New England for doing exactly what they did, but the rule itself is ridiculous.

I could have stood with Troy Palumanu (spelling sorry) actually making that play onside during that EP with Baltimore. It's just too bad he jumped it early, because that would have been totally amazing.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I agree with Artie though. It's the right call."

That line is an inside joke among Raiders' fans who've had to hear a "Good call; bad rule" explanation over the years for the Seattle Safety, the Foxboro Snow Job and the Illegal Forward Pass in San Diego and probably another half-dozen shitty decisions that have coincidentally gone against the Raiders since Pete Rozelle declared war on Al Davis.
I find it ironically humorous, or maybe humorously ironic, that Patriots' fans are dubbing yesterday's injustice the worst officiating decision in the history of sports. 

You're forgetting the snowplow game! That was my first "WTF New England???" moment. 1982. New England, cheating other teams in playoff games for over 30 years!

That's just wrong Artie.

Well true, I missed much of the Raiders/Dolphins rivalry because I was only 4 when the 70's ended. I didn't take it personally. I'm just imagining what kind of response the NFL would have if that was a present day occurrence. I wonder if the appropriate response is moving them to the other hash, or (wind specific) simply making them kick it from the other end of the field. Of course you could also impose a penalty.

artie_fufkin wrote:

"I'm just imagining what kind of response the NFL would have if that was a present day occurrence."

I can't. This is a league that fines players when their socks don't come up to the bottom of their pants and goes ballistic when Cam Newton uses an Under Armour face shield.
I'm going to sound like an old fart here, but I liked the NFL a lot better when it was a football league rather than a corporation that sells football. One of the things that drew me to the Raiders was they were characters. You couldn't have a team like that today. First of all, a player like Fred Biletnikoff wouldn't even make it to the scouting combine because he wouldn't have run a requisite time in the 40-yard dash to warrant an invite.  As a physical specimen, Ken Stabler might have been the most underwhemling quarterback in the history of the league. But he won football games. Thirty years later, the Raiders draft a guy like JaMarcus Russell who can throw a football 70 yards from his knees, but he couldn't play a lick. It's a different sport. And it's nowhere near as much fun to watch.

 
That's why I'm so into college football, although the steady decline of the Dolphins has helped speed this along.

You can be penalized for pass interference without touching the receiver. Say what? Yep, shielding. You're not making a play on the ball, but obscuring the vision of the WR. Huh?? You can't tackle someone by the back of their pads??? WHAT?!?! If you jump to deflect a pass and miss and your fingernail grazes the helmet of the QB while your arm is coming down, that's a 15 yard penalty. ..... Are you fking kidding me???? You can't hit a wide receiver who's going up high to get a ball. I'm sorry, what sport is this?

At least in college, I get to watch Oregon dazzle with an innovative and new offensive approach. The game is still a bit chincy, but at the same time the kids are playing for the glory of the team and the dreams of an NFL future. The NFL hasn't been fun to watch since Kurt Warner was playing for the Rams.

I'd rather someone brought up a "new" football league. Back to minimal padding with no hard plastic allowed in any fashion other than the spikes on the bottom of your cleats, and a legal tackle is quite simply "Getting an opponent to the ground". I'd also outlaw any playing surface that isn't real grass, just on principle. I'd also probably kill the salary cap, drop the league back down to 16 teams, and have 2 divisions of 8 teams where the top 4 make the playoffs. I'd also go back to a 12 game schedule, and eliminate any game schedule that doesn't play through entirely on Sunday.

It will never happen, because that's what we had and we had to fuck with it. I would kill to get it back, I'd buy season tickets in a heartbeat.

forsberg_us wrote:

And the Patriots are whining again.

God I enjoy the outrage that occurs when New England loses.

It's been a fun day so far.