Watching my team play. Any of you watch American Football?

[Chris]

My team is the New Orleans Saints. Any of you keep up with NFL? How about some of you that live in Mexico or South America?

[JPablo]

Well, congratulations for the Super Bowl last year!
I do not keep up with NFL as much as I'd like... after all, I still don't totally understand all the rules and everything else. But I definitely love to see a good TD!

Last year I was with the Minnesota Vikings, particularly because of Brett Favre... (besides his indecisions and retiring-unretiring-retiring and unretiring again...) I think the guy has the guts and the intention to keep at it at 40 and counting... and despite any and all rigamarole about him, I think the guy is highly commendable.

I liked to see the Saints crowning themselves champions last year, I think they deserved it, despite the good season Manning did for the Colts...

Well, I also like Donovan McNab... and I was following a bit the Philly Eagles. Now he is with Washington Redskins... and yes... He is an “interesting” QB!!!

At any rate, now that I start to write about it, I realize I know more than I thought, although I bet you can fill me in, in many things and details I have not the faintest clue...

(I am more of a basketball fan... Lakers to be precise!!)

[Chris]

Well Favre is a pretty tough guy. And his home is about a 15 minute drive from where I live. I've never met him, but my sister in law has met his wife. He has a lot of fans in this area.

I've been a Saints fan all my life so I was very happy to see them win. Now as an old Saints fan we had to have alternate teams over the years to pull for heh.

McNabb is a very good quarterback and I thought the Eagles were stupid for letting him go. He's one of those quarterbacks that isn't afraid to get hit and I like that.

This year the Saints have a RB named Chris Ivory. I'm excited about him because he's a train! He can run over several defenders and make the first down which was needed last year.

For the rules... Well I don't know anyone that knows them all haha. I started watching soccer this year and it took me a few games to get what was happening. At first I thought it was just a bunch of back and forth until I started seeing the strategy behind it. I have aquired a lot of vocabulary including header, corner and cross.

Right now the score is 21 - 29 NO with :51 in the 4th. It's a nail biter because they could tie with a TD and 2 point conversion.

San Diego 21 New Orleans 36

New Orleans intercepted a pass with 17 seconds left and ran it in for a touchdown. They squib kicked it and recovered the ball then in the victory formation took a kneel to run the clock out with 7 seconds left for the win.

[JPablo]

Originally Posted by Chris

San Diego 21 New Orleans 36

New Orleans intercepted a pass with 17 seconds left and ran it in for a touchdown. They squib kicked it and recovered the ball then in the victory formation took a kneel to run the clock out with 7 seconds left for the win.

Hey, CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!!!

(But I need a "translation" for the "green" sections... if you don't mind!)

[Chris]

A squib is kind of like an onside kick except that they kick it deeper and it's only done so that the guy that normally catches the ball off of the kick off can't get it and the guy not experienced gets it instead. There is always the chance that a kick off could be returned for a touch down. A squib tries to minimize this chance. Don't do it with a lot of time on the clock because it will give your opponent good starting field position. I think this was the first one I'd seen in a game. I only knew what it was by playing Madden video games.

A "kneel" or quarterback kneel is where the QB hikes the ball and just kneels down. It would be as if he completed a pass or handed the ball off for a run to the clock. The clock doesn't stop, it keeps running. They are wanting run the clock out. This play has an opposite called a spike.

A quarterback spike is where he hikes the ball and in a forward arm motion throws the ball directly on the ground in front of him. This stops the clock. Let's say you have 14 and your opponent has 21 points and there is 1:30 left on the clock. You make a pass in the middle of the field getting the first down but you need the clock to stop so that you can plan your next play. You spike the ball and stop the clock and now it's 2nd down and 10 yards. If instead you passed the ball to the edge of the field and got the first down, your receiver can step out of bounds and stop the clock that way. This is how you'll see it done more often.

There is another way that you "manage the clock." Now you have 21 and your opponent has 14 and you have the ball again. (possession or possession of the ball) Also there is 6 minutes left in the game. Well you want to score, but you don't want to just hurry and score because you want to minimize the opponents chance of scoring, doing an onside kick and scoring again. So you want the clock to keep going without stopping as much as possible. In this case you do a lot of running plays. If you did passing plays there would be the chance that you throw an incomplete pass (stopping the clock,) throw an interception (that could be ran in for a TD or giving them a good opportunity to make a TD and tie the game,) or sacking the quarterback making it hard to get another first down and having to punt it away. You see this type of playing a lot. Your opponents defense is stopping the run early and make you punt it, his time outs and forcing fumbles.

There is a lot of strategy to managing the clock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_management

[laepelba]

Go Buffalo Bills!!!!!!

[Perikles]

Chris - care to translate your post in Spanish?

[JPablo]

@Chris. Wow! Thank you! I guess I will have to see more games to really get familiar with all the details and have all this data sinking..., but your explanations are very clear. (You may take Perikles 'challenge' as an interesting drill/exercise... but that task may be a very hard one to tackle... given that besides Mexico, I don't know of any Spanish-speaking country that plays American Football!!) (I am wrong on that, looks like it has spread throughout all South-America)
I know that QB in Spanish is "Mariscal de Campo" or "corebac" (the second version a "hobson-jobson" spelling of the English "Quarter-Back") It may be an interesting thread to start. (Maybe Chileno, Crotalito and Angélica know more about the sport.) (Ookami may say something from Argentina...)
In Spain there is some teams... but rugby is more popular... and even then, it is totally dwarfed by soccer...

@ Lou Ann... I take yours is a statement for the Buffalo franchise!
Is Dan LeFevour your QB?

@ Perikles... don't you want to help him translating? (Or better yet... what about startring one thread about Rugby?) ...

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by JPablo

@ Perikles... don't you want to help him translating?

To be honest, it was because I couldn't understand a single word of his English, but it sounded too rude to put it like that. The vocabulary is just too alien to me. I thought I'd stand a better chance reading the Spanish.

[JPablo]

Oh! I thought you were kidding!
I see what you mean... but maybe you want to "connect" with ESPN (I don't know if you need a Satellite/parabolic dish or what... most probably you do) and watch some American Football... (I personally enjoy it a lot more than baseball.)

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by JPablo

but maybe you want to "connect" with ESPN (I don't know if you need a Satellite/parabolic dish or what... most probably you do) and watch some American Football... (I personally enjoy it a lot more than baseball.)

I'm afraid it's all too alien. I have tried, but fail to see the point. I don't even understand Rugby, or in fact, 'normal' football. If I bought a satellite dish, I would pick up some other signals that might mean a bit more to me. Each to his own.

[JPablo]

Understood!
(Hey, have you read "Mission Earth" volume I, The Invaders Plan? There there is some "alien" sports that are really "alien"... no kidding!)

[Elaina]

My

--------Brett Favre SHOULD RETIRE!!

[JPablo]

Well... I respect your opinion, Elaina... but what are the ESPN commentators and NFL analysts going to talk about during the summer? My personal opinion is that Brett Favre should keep his Hamletian dramo... "To retire or not to retire... to unretire or not to unretire... that is the question... are the questions..." (I think that when he actually retires, besides keep selling jeans, he should also entertain doing some Shakespearean dramatic performances... I don't know, Hamlet... probably Richard the III, if he has to recover from some of the surgery...)

He could go up to 44, and still remain in "mint condition" and win a couple of Super Bowls in the process... (give 2 or 3 to the Saints in these next years and 2 for the Favre's Vikings!) (After all this is Chris' thread! )

Well, how is that for Science-fiction?

(N.B.: No offense intended at all to Mr. Favre. I respect and admire him as one of the best athletic and sportsmanlike individual this planet has produced...)

[Elaina]

I still think he should retire and stop BEING GREEDY. He should give a chance to some other quarterback. There's only so much a human body can resist and not break down. I think his body is ready to call it quits but his brain is not listening to his body.

He should get into something else and enjoy his life with his wife (who is a survivor of breast cancer) and his kids. Be thankful for the years he could play and then very graciously step aside.

[JPablo]

Mmmh! Greedy! (I never thought of that! ) But now you reminded me another "greedy" athlete, Eddy Merckx. He was called the "cannibal" because he wanted to win "everything", and he not only won 5 Tour de France (to the 7 Lance Armstrong won) but also won 5 Giros d'Italia and 1 Vuelta a España in the 70s.
Sure enough he worked with a team, but his 'philosophy' could be summarized in this quote,
"There are too many factors you have to take into account that you have no control over...The most important factor you can keep in your own hands is yourself. I always placed the greatest emphasis on that."
Eddy Merckx, Belgian, who won Tour de France five times.

Maybe you are totally right, and may be better for him to retire, but what I like of Brett is that he demonstrates again and again that "function is senior to structure", that "thought is boss", and he keeps the spirit of play... (And that is not exactly his "brain" but that which controls his brain and his body... call it "spirit" "elan vital" like Bergson... or "source of life energy"... )

[Elaina]

Oh please do not misinterpret what I said about him being too old to play. Its just that certain things are done better when you are younger. You cannot deny the fact that football playing is very demanding physically and you cannot compare a 27 y/o's body to a 40 y/o. You need strength, speed and stamina (3 SSS).......in other things though, I think a 40 year old will do just fine....

[JPablo]

Oh, I think I understand what you mean... (Not sure what I misinterpreted...) But I sure got your point about the 40 year old performance...

Innocently and factually speaking, being 47, (that is 4+7 = 11) I play 10 to 20 minutes of soccer every morning before work and breakfast, with friends that are up to 61 (6+1 =7)... So I recognize I have an edge...

(I remember maybe 10 years ago, I ran a "popular" 5K, with maybe 300 runners... I ended up 20 on the overall classification... but I had at least 3 or 4 60 year olds passing me in the last 2Ks! That was a nice 'lesson' to learn. Of course, 'running' is a lot less demanding than football... but I think you get my drift)

Then again, the best cardio-vascular exercise (and most efficient time-wise) is a bunch of squats on a daily basis... I got up to 200 squats a day... and that definitely helps you when you want to run without tiring yourself... Peterson, writes in his book about transformetrics that if you can do 500 squats in less that 20 minutes, you are "in shape". I've done it a couple of times, but I need a bit more consistency...

At any rate. My own philosophy (to stay on the thread subject) is that if you watch any sport, you have to practice it as well, or if you don't do that sport, then you are practicing something, i.e., at least do something with your body, (not just eat hot dogs while you watch) so your body is a useful tool to reach whatever goals you want, without having to be "introverted" on it...

[Elaina]

Hey! Eating a hot dog CAN be a sport.........have you seen the hot dog eating contests?

Seriously though, I agree with you. Any type of movement is good no matter what your age.

Gotta keep that pounding.

[JPablo]

That's right. (And yes... I heard about the 'hot dog' contests...
and also the ones on drinking beer, in Germany... )

Yes, some jogging, some push-ups, pull-ups, some stretching... that is always good to get your in good shape!

(Basketball, soccer, volleyball... ping-pong...) ... ... ... ... The key is always have a ball!