Jets vs. Steelers and Packers vs. Bears! It's Evil vs. Slightly-Less Evil and <3<3<3 A-Rodg vs. Ex-Hatcat — 2010 NFL Conference Chamionships

It's still just weird and hard to believe that the Browns moved. If any club had local support, it was always Cleveland. Modell's were broke though from biz problems outside of football.

actually that kind of adds to my hatred of the ravens

i mean, it's not baltimore's fault that the colts split, but i kind of blame them for stealing the browns

I still find the overnight Colt move to be one of the more amazing sports stories.

That was a pretty screwed up time.

not 'amazing' in a good way but 'amazing' that something that fucked up happened

yeah the steelers were a nightmare pre-1970 or so, but happily i was not alive then. i recently shocked someone by mentioning that during ww2 the steelers and eagles combined into the "steagles"

xpost I think I watched that ESPN special on it like 6 times

I always think about how that Modell move, and the Browns crap must have felt as a fan. Such a dick move.

Yeah that 30 for 30 made me bawl

It's good that the history didn't move out of Cleveland.

I still think it is kind of sad that Houston club is not the Oilers. Some of my earliest football memories are of those early 80s Oilers clubs.

It was sad that the Colts left Baltimore too, bad ownership, pretty much Bob Irsay was the Dan Sndyer of his day. Smartest thing Irsay's son did was getting completely out of the football operations part of the business and putting someone in charge that knew the game. If Bill Polian doesn't run the Colts, that club would be in LA today.

I miss the Oilers....Warren Moon, Haywood Jeffires....

EARL CAMPBELL!

oh shit earl campbell

who?

j/k

he paid the price

Earl Campbell was one of the coolest running backs ever. The dude for a couple of years, just ran over people and was pretty hard to bring down. There are some amazing highlights out there, where people rip off his jersey and are not able to get him down.

He took a beating though...sad story.

"Earl Christian Campbell from Tyler Texas..."

One of the best NFL Films intros ever! I think it is even referenced in a Simpson episode.

I wish there was a doc series about football fans, especially in towns that lose a team..and especially of that team folds. Do you choose another team? Do you swear off football? ...I think it's interesting and sort of sad that in a lot of cases the business of sport, and the fandom are uncomfortable bedfellows. I dunno. Since I started following NFL its something that I think about a lot.

when people tried to make Campbell comparisons with Eddie George I was always like "gtfo"

with the Dolphins I guess I wouldn't notice much as I live four hours away from them anyway....I guess I'd keep rooting for em? dunno...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWKtv4gxuvQ

The crazy run against the Rams is in this one.

xpost I mean, if they folded. or became the Omaha Night Dolphins. what then?

i dunno, I've always considered it, I think it'd be a bigger deal if I lived in the town they played in, cuz then there are additional feelings to deal with beyond the mere convenience factor.

if they folded, I dont' know that I'd take up rooting for someone else right away as much as just watching as a neutral observer.

that's essentially what I do for the NBA right now although admittedly I don't follow it that closely

Christian Okoye was also huge and impossible to get down, but the thing with Earl Campbell was that he was really fast when he started out and just huge.

They used to make a big deal on how big Campbell's legs were, as they were like tree trunks.

I'd say Jerome Bettis was kind of similar, as he was a banger too that had some gas, but I don't think he was as good as Earl was at his peak.

the penguins were close to moving (to kansas city?) a few years ago and i don't know what i would have done. pretty sure i wouldn't have supported the kc whatevers. probably would have gone old school and been a canadiens fan, which in nfl terms would probably be packers?

i'd have kept my hatred of the flyers, caps and rangers tho

no one of that style was as good as earl campbell at his peak

ahh, the Nigerian Nightmare....loved Okoye, except when we had to play him

(which fortunately, back in those days, wasn't often)

i remember seeing a quote from some opposing coach about campbell along the lines of "well we can't stop him but if we get six hats on him every carry, we can cut the long-term damage"

The random talk of Raiders moving or merging or w/e kind of bothered me for a while but I try not to think about it. I'm so attached to the team and the people and where we play...I really think I better understand now how upside down fans must have felt when Al moved the team to LA. I mean, that team WAS Oakland. It still is but losing them and getting them back I think did something to the fans. I have a real fondness for the teams that managed to stay put through all of the flux of the decades. Steelers, Green Bay...there's something really open and good about the fans love for their team. WHere in Oakland I always see it through a lens of slight panic, like if we love them enough they won't leave again. you know?

Earl Campbell's run though was really short, he was only really dominating for 3 years until the wear and tear broke him down. He was a decent back for a couple of years after that, but it wasn't the same.

That happens to alot of good backs...Jamal Anderson, Terrell Davis, Billy Sims, Curt Warner etc.

I think the way the Packers are owned by the town might work in some towns, but the NFL I doubt would ever let it happen again.

Aren't some of the UK football clubs kind of owned by the small shareholders in a town like the Packers?

oakland also has the a's factor

yea, NFL teams are getting a lot smarter on wearing out RBs with all the data out there now. pretty strong shift in RB dynamics now versus like 5-6 years ago. In fact, this year's leader in rushing attempts was Michael Turner at 334, whereas between 1991-2006, no leader had less than 353 in a single season.

I'd imagine getting rid of that old astroturf on concrete has helped out backs (and players in general).

there seemed to be a real epiphany with denver 10 years ago. terrell davis was awesome then he went down and it didn't really seem to matter, they filled in admirably with various dudes named gary or whatever.

i guess a lot of it is the offensive line, but rbs seem to have extraordinarily and increasingly short lifespans. (fast) willie parker was done well before turning 30. clinton portis is like the grand old man and he's 29.

well actually maybe it's not that new

oj had his last great season at 29, dickerson at 29, curtis martin at 31

curtis martin was a hell of a player btw

u know where he's from?

yea RBs may just have the shortest shelf life of any position in any sport anywhere in terms of productivity.

look at lt2! teams seem to be widely adopting the multiback system now which I've always thought was more effective anyway -- two runners with different styles/strengths rather than just beating on one back and an occasional third down back seems like the better approach.

there's been a dip in the number of 1,000 yard rushers per season since the early 00s as well, tho I don't have the stats right now. used to be 20+ 1,000 rushers per year...last year was the highest it's been in a few seasons at 17, but it definitely declined

actually I may b e imagining this.

Teams That Should Never Win A(nother) Super Bowl:

Jets
Patriots
Bills
Redskins
Vikings
Bucs
Jags
Raiders (while Al Davis is alive)

― five deadly venoms (San Te), Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

haha, someone's still pissed about 62-7!

lol actually, I never saw that game. I didn't have working television at the time. Easy to forget just how awesome that early Jags team was, and how different a style of football they play now compared to back then.

My hate for the Jags is more based on the fact that we already had two pro teams in Florida at the time, which was more than enough, and that prior to them arriving, I could watch almost every Dolphins game on television, because Orlando was their secondary market (and there was only trouble when the Fins played an NFC team).

Now, the Jags are the secondary market here meaning at least 8 times a year I either have to get an illegal internet feed or go to a bar to watch my game, when the number of Jags fans in Central Florida is probably less than Dolphins fans (at least judging by unofficial Sentinel polls).

wait, San Te...are you IN Orlando? Because I'm right over in Brevard co.

yep I live in Orlando, not far from downtown

Cool. I didn't realize any other ilxors were so close.

Teams That Should Never Win A(nother) Super Bowl:

1. 49ers
2. Cowboys (until the Jones family doesn't own the club)
3. Pats

I have enjoyed watching a decade of crap in SF. I hate those bastards only with the knowledge that eventually someone will have them being good again.

Raiders were a fun team when I was a kid and were on TV a ton in the early 80s. Jim Plunkett is one of my all time favorites.

― earlnash, Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

This is mega-otm! Especially re: the niners, I'd be delighted to see them never have a winning season again. Steelers and Eagles round out the top 5 for me. I was gonna say Saints too, but now that they've won one I guess the floodgates have been opened.

I agree with what you were saying about Cinci too. Brown runs the team like a family business and makes no apologies for it. IIRC, one of Marvin Lewis' conditions for returning next year is that Mike Brown invest in a real player personnel department and improved facilities. We'll see how that plays out. Player personnel is really the biggest problem in Cinci, to me - they have a notoriously tiny department and Brown has a hand in every move they make. It's very easy to predict who the Bengals will draft in any given year, because they love big-name lottery tickets with bad reputations. 2009 was my favorite example of this - Andre Smith, Maualuga and Michael Johnson in the first 3 rounds? You can't find a more 'Bengals' draft than that. It's a canny strategy for a team that refuses to spend on talent evaluation, but it's still a losing strategy when you're competing with teams like the Steelers, who are able to draft for their system better than just about anyone.

Who are the top five teams that NEED to win a superbowl?

Lions first and foremost, their fans deserve better.

Also Cleveland, for having their team ripped from them only to see it win a Super Bowl in Baltimore four years later.