There’s been a lot of criticism of Fox for his crappy, uncreative game plans, lack of preparation, and inability to make half-time adjustments. Apparently there is (was) a lot of tension between Elway and the coaching staff, and they were expected to improve over last year, which of course means winning the Super Bowl.
Will Peyton want to start over again breaking in a new OC? Plus he may lose some weapons due to cap issues. Hmmm… odds of him retiring just went up quite a bit IMO. Let the Brock Osweiler era begin!
He never coached though. He was out of the NFL from when he retired in 1998 until 2011 when be started at the top with the Broncos as VP of football operations.
It looks like they are hosed next year. Besides cap issues it seems like it would be tough to lure free agents to stay. True on lack of coaching preparation. They looked unready and uninspired in big games.
Plus I am an admitted crabby Manning detractor and it is in good part tongue in cheek. If he retires I will still have Elway to dislike based on that old pre-realignment rivalry. He will always be Mr. Ed to me.
My dislike of Elway goes back to the 80’s when I was a fan of the Baltimore Colts. Elway refused to play for Colts and forced a trade.
Plus his two Super Bowl wins are tainted because the Broncos were cheating on the cap. They got caught, and were heavily fined and docked a draft pick.
Yet all we hear in NE is about “Bela-cheat”. They all cheat–shouldn’t Sean Payton be vilified as well as a result of his “cash for concussions” program. No, he was welcomed back as a hero. Frankly, that’s much more serious an offense than having your allowed cameras in the wrong position. Yeah, I’m a Belichick apologist, but admit it, you’d love to have his mind in charge of your team, even though he is an arrogant jerk, admittedly.
Belichick rubs some people the wrong way, but I think it is mostly because he can’t stand dealing with the press and answering stupid lazy questions, and that’s all people see of him. He’s BFFs with Jon Bon Jovi, he can’t be all bad.
I would be happy dropping Belichick AND Payton off the face of the earth! I don’t trust either one not to cheat, and I don’t like watching cheaters, it taints the whole game.
Often a lineman will report as an eligible receiver so they can catch a pass. The number is announced to the other team so they can cover accordingly. The Pats had a receiver announce as ineligible so they could be up on the line as an extra lineman but out wide and not eligible to catch a pass. They reported with 11 seconds to go in the play clock and Harbaugh didn’t feel that there was enough time before the snap to adjust to the late announcement.
I know a lot of people root for their “home” team, but I grew up roughly equidistant between two different teams and wound up disliking both.
I had a relative who was a journeyman player on a few NFL teams for a decade, and my opinions on teams and people are heavily influenced by the things he told us in casual conversation - I have a hard time not rooting for the good guys even if they are terrible, and have a hard time celebrating jerks even when they are great. I like the Broncos and the Packers a lot, and the Giants and the Vikings quite a bit too. I actively DISlike the Patriots, the Ravens, The Eagles, the Cowboys, the Colts, and the Seahawks, which makes this a great postseason for me, since there is a 75% chance that the SB champion will be a team I detest.
I love that distinction of love, like, neutral, dislike and actively DISlike. I have those same categories. A lot of my active dislikes go back to old divisional rivalries before realignment.
Question for you @cosmicfish (not a challenge but just out of curiosity) - does your active dislike of the Seahawks stem from the vibe or behavior of the current team or from the Holmgren era (I doubt they were worth disliking before that). I ask because I was really unhappy with Holmgren for turning a blind eye to the worst behavior and he had a lot of guys who just weren’t upstanding citizens. Jerramy Stevens and TJ Houshmandzadeh come to mind but there were many more. It was embarrassing. Now there are characters and I get how a few would rub opposing fans the wrong way, but they are all really compelling people and seem to have high character. The program is night and day from what it was in the Holmgren years. I really like that they unloaded Tate and Harvin and are better for it.
@saintfan: There are three reasons I don’t like the Hawks, all relatively recent. In order of priority:
The attitude. Generally speaking, the more a player trash talks, the less I like them and the less I like the team. I hate the Colts, but I like the fact that Luck (for example) seems like a good guy who respects his fellow players (including opposing defenders) and treats them that way. Conversely, the Hawks, like the Ravens, attracts thugs. I don’t like that, even if they are better than the Holmgren years.
The home field advantage. Every team has one, but I hate that part of any sport. It’s supposed to be about the team on the field, not the fans in the stands. The extent to which Seattle deliberately (and successfully!) skewed the game against opposing teams genuinely angers me.
Postseason. The relative I spoke of was a defensive player, and he echoed those who have noted that the refs enforce the rules differently in the postseason than in the regular season. Refs back off and “let them play”, meaning that defensive teams suddenly have a big advantage and making the old adage “offense win games, defense wins championships” a deliberate result of the officiating. This is not unique to the Seahawks, but I root against defense-oriented teams in the postseason.
Wow - I will definitely give you the second two with the reminder that they have also been winning on the road the last 2 years. Last year they started practicing at 10am during camp to try to get over the east coast time zone hump - they had been horrible in early games and it became a monkey on their backs until they shifted practice time and just mentally got over the idea. I loved the idea that Manning expected a subdued, corporate crowd at the Super Bowl and instead he got a bunch of homers who were actually rooting for their team. I totally get how that would bug other people though.
I am surprised at the “attracting thugs” perception though. Sherman is Sherman and he definitely talks which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he isn’t a thug by a long shot. The only other guy I can think of is Ricardo Lockette who seems to have very little impulse control when it comes to scrapping after the whistle on special teams. Lynch was falsely accused of assault this season - it turned out that he was on lockdown curfew checked in at the team hotel and eventually the woman was charges with false reporting - she had been with some completely different guy. That part was not reported nearly as widely as the part about him having been accused, though.
I’m interested in outside perceptions, though. If you told me to name the most thug-like teams in 10 seconds or less I might have gone Ravens but the Bengals and Dolphins would have been right up there and I would have mentioned New England and Pittsburg if I had time left.
I wouldn’t call Seahawks “thugs” but I do think their D plays borderline dirty.
My most hated teams are Pittsburgh, NE, Dallas, Eagles, Ravens, Washington. Don’t particularly like Rams, SF, Seahawks. Laugh regularly at Jets. Feel bad about how Detroit is behaving lately because I used to live in MI and had some affection for them.
Pretty much indifferent to the rest, I think, or don’t know enough to have an opinion. Besides my team, of course–Giants. Oh, and like Green Bay a lot. Would have picked them as my number one if I didn’t already have a local favorite.
"The issue here is if I made a tackle, that means a lot went wrong. I probably hit a horrible punt, horrible kick, they’re going to have good field position, and I got completely lucky making a tackle. Granted, I’ve had to tackle (Julian) Edelman before, he’s so talented, it might happen.
“The goal is always for me to stay clean because I’m a delicate flower, Dan. I don’t like to make many tackles. I’m not a trained assassin, I’m not a mercenary. I’m not in a relationship with Kurt Busch. I’m just back there to kick the ball really far and make other people look good.”
This might just be the best quote ever uttered by a professional athlete.
As a transplant to the Pacific Northwest, I can tell you that the Seahawks are seen as defensively dirty and thuglike at least in the midwest. Even before the Fail Mary, people there did not pay much attention to them til they started winning. In my state (Wisconsin), they love Russell Wilson, so they are starting to like them more. The Seahawks are often compared to Detroit wrt sportsmanship (bad sportsmanship), which I do not get at all. Though some of the nastiest players (Suh and other kids from Grant hs) are from the PacNW!!
If he retires I will still have Elway to dislike based on that old pre-realignment rivalry. He will always be Mr. Ed to me.
