NFL 2012

[shiznitz]

Broncos are not coming to NY this season.  That would have been interesting.

[Sjofn]

I am indifferent to this season because none of it means anything, the Giants never, ever repeat and I see no reason to think they will this time.    As long as they beat the Eagles and the Cowboys at least once (bonus if it fucks those teams over somehow), I will consider the season a win.

[Paelos]

We still have Romo and Jerry Jones as the GM.

We can fuck ourselves over, thank you very much.

[Sjofn]

It's more fun when the Giants do it, though. 

[Hoax]

No fucking idea how Packers and Patriots get easy schedules. Annoying.

[Paelos]

No fucking idea how Packers and Patriots get easy schedules. Annoying.

Two best, most marketable QBs in the league? Yeah wonder why the NFL would want THOSE GUYS in the playoffs.

[Ingmar]

Mostly because of the divisional stuff. Not only are the AFC East and NFC North pretty weak divisions, its those divisions turns to play the even weaker divisions in the NFC West and AFC South. (Do they do it by turns? I am just making an assumption there.)

Although thinking about this it seems like it should mean the 49ers also have an easy schedule and that isn't the case.

[Trippy]

Yes it's on a rotating basis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_rivalries#Background

[Draegan]

Giants first four games are odd.

Game 1 Wednesday
Wait 11 Days then...
Game 2 Sunday
Wait 4 Days then...
Game 3 Thursday
Wait 10 Days then...

G'damn.

Are sched is brutal though for the whole NFC East for that matter.  We play the AFC North and NFC South.

That means the NFC East plays the Saints, Falcons, Steelers, Bengals and Ravens, all playoff teams, then you also have to play an emerging Carolina team.  That's the same for the Cowboys, Eagles, Giants and Skins.

Now The Giants have to face the first place team in the NFC West and North which is the 49ers and Packers.  All told, that's 7 playoff teams, 4 of them on the road.

[Segoris]

Mostly because of the divisional stuff. Not only are the AFC East and NFC North pretty weak divisions

Having one weak team in the NFC North doesn't make it a weak division.

For scheduling - iirc, yes, the scheduling is you play each of the other three teams in your division twice, play the four teams from another division in the same conference, then the four teams from one of the opposite conference's divisions, and then something with the rankings from the previous season to determine the previous two years. The divisions you play rotate every so often to make sure teams play each other so many times in so many years

Edit: Wikipedia explains it much better

[Paelos]

Mostly because of the divisional stuff. Not only are the AFC East and NFC North pretty weak divisions, its those divisions turns to play the even weaker divisions in the NFC West and AFC South.

Wait, wait, the NFC North is a weak division? Are you kidding me? Not only did they have the team with the best overall record AND a wild card slot, they also had the most wins of any division in the NFC. Hell, by almost any viewpoint I'd say they are probably the second strongest division in the NFL behind the NFC South going into 2012.

As for the AFC, I don't think they have a "strong" division other than the AFC North. The rest are just teams that are missing one or two pieces to make a playoff run (with the exception of Denver if Manning is 85% or better of what he was)

[caladein]

Giants first four games are odd.

Yeah, the weird part is that you've got the Thursday game so close to your automatic mid-week first game.

[HaemishM]

Mostly because of the divisional stuff. Not only are the AFC East and NFC North pretty weak divisions

Yeah, that's not right. The AFC East isn't a creampuff division, though it's certainly weaker than the AFC North or NFC North. The NFC North, however, is absolutely not a weak division. You have to think Chicago got BETTER with Brandon Marshall, a returning Cutler, an offensive coordinator who doesn't try to get his QB killed by not blocking for him and making 7-step drops his version of the quick pass. The Lions will be at least as good as last year if not better. The Packers may lose more games this year - but I still expect an 11 to 13 win season. The Vikings will be a pushover, that much is true.

I don't see Green Bay's schedule being all that easy. Ok, they get Indy and Jacksonville. I don't expect St. Louis or Tennessee to be a pushover, they have to play AT Seattle on a Monday night then play a Sunday afternoon game against New Orleans, and they have to play AT New York. Best news for them is playing Minnesota twice in the last 5 weeks of the season.

[sickrubik]

ESPN Has a nice SoS ranking.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/56896/2012-nfl-strength-of-schedule

Manning isn't getting any favors with his first season as the Broncos QB. Mind you, as a fan, I'm pleased with _5_ primetime games, including three before the Bye.

[Segoris]

FIrst thing that hits me from that SoS ranking link is that I feel really bad for the Browns....wow. 7 games against playoff teams, 6 of those are divisional games. Their only "breaks" will be against the Colts w/ Andrew Luck, and a much improved Redskins with Griffin and a couple new receivers.

3-13 may be an ambitious goal for them this season. Though, they did do well vs divisional opponents last year, and have made some good moves on the defensive side of the ball in free agency, I just don't think they'll be able to pull out more than 1-2 divisional wins this year with their even worse offense when compared to last year's (I didn't think it was possible....but they proved me wrong....gg Cle).

[01101010]

FIrst thing that hits me from that SoS ranking link is that I feel really bad for the Browns....wow. 7 games against playoff teams, 6 of those are divisional games. Their only "breaks" will be against the Colts w/ Andrew Luck, and a much improved Redskins with Griffin and a couple new receivers.

3-13 may be an ambitious goal for them this season. Though, they did do well vs divisional opponents last year, and have made some good moves on the defensive side of the ball in free agency, I just don't think they'll be able to pull out more than 1-2 divisional wins this year with their even worse offense when compared to last year's (I didn't think it was possible....but they proved me wrong....gg Cle).

3-13. That sounds about right. I think they get by the Bills, Indy and NYG (yes, I said it - this is what the Browns do to fuck with their fans).

HOWEVER, the Browns have never in their history gone 5 consecutive years with a losing record. Of course, that is always subject to change, but still.

In other news...
http://www.steelers.com/video-and-audio/photo-gallery/80th-Season-Throwback-Uniform---4-17/ad65d41e-3b56-4fd7-ae4a-f19aa1132d75
 

edit: Ugh. Eating and typing, not gud.

[K9]

Not only are the AFC East and NFC North pretty weak divisions

The NFC North is probably the toughest division in the NFC over the past few seasons, either that or the East. The AFC east I'll give you as a weak-ish division. For a good portion of the last season both the NFC wildcard spots were coming from the NFC North, and in the previous three seasons you have had a team from the NFC North taking at least one of the NFC wildcard spots. It's not the be-all-end-all measure, but I think calling it a weak division is a bit of a stretch. That said, who knows where we are heading with this season.

[Segoris]

In other news...
http://www.steelers.com/video-and-audio/photo-gallery/80th-Season-Throwback-Uniform---4-17/ad65d41e-3b56-4fd7-ae4a-f19aa1132d75
 

edit: Ugh. Eating and typing, not gud.

I saw those uniforms earlier but didn't want to subject others to have that image burned in their eyes. Those uniforms are just not right....not right at all.

[sickrubik]

I like the effect of the numbers just being taped to the uniforms.

[sickrubik]

Speaking of things being taped...

NEW ORLEANS -- The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana was told Friday that New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis had an electronic device in his Superdome suite that had been secretly re-wired to enable him to eavesdrop on visiting coaching staffs for nearly three NFL seasons, "Outside the Lines" has learned.

[HaemishM]

 

Oh they are FUCKED.

[Nebu]

They always use the first team caught as the example.  Lesson learned: don't get caught!

[sickrubik]

They wouldn't be the first team caught spying.

[Nebu]

They wouldn't be the first team caught spying.

Belichick wasn't the first either.  People have pretty short-term memories when it comes to this stuff.  You have to slap a hand every season or two so that teams do a better job of concealing this stuff from the media/public.

[Paelos]

Good news is the statute of limitations already ran out on the wiretapping violation.

[Segoris]

Mostly, but not entirely if I read that article correctly, specifically this part:

"There's the potential for a lot of lawsuits filed by whoever was victimized by the electronic eavesdropping," Emmick said.

Under the civil laws that govern electronic eavesdropping, the victims of the eavesdropping would have two years from the time they had a "reasonable opportunity to discover the violation" in order to file lawsuits, Emmick said.

While, if I'm understanding this correctly, they dodged a much MUCH larger bullet from Federal prosecution, but still may be sued by visiting teams if an investigation. I may be wrong, but that's what it seems like to me.

[caladein]

Yeah, the federal and state criminal statues of limitation are five and six years respectively.  The civil liability clock starts now from what was said on ESPN earlier. (IANAL and such.)

[K9]

Jets to use Tebow as a personal protector on punts

Not. Enough. 

[Paelos]

I don't put much stock in that. Pretty much anything you hear from now until the draft is over turns out to be total crap. If we hear it again in two weeks? Then, yeah.

[HaemishM]

Dear God, why did they have to trade Tebow to the biggest fucking media market circus in the goddamn world?

[Segoris]

Old news is old news. Has Tebowmania gone so far they're going to re-state old shit just to keep his name on a headline? I think the bigger story of the day for a second string baddie would be that NFL Films actually rates Mark Sanchez's back up QB as the #7 best Heismann Trophy winner in the NFL...what the fuck?

They place him over Eddie George, Bo Jackson, Reggie Bush*, Rashaan Salaam, Tony Dorsett, Marcus Allen, Tony Campbell, Herschell Walker, Cam Newton (who probably shouldn't be on that list at all after only one season, even as amazing of a season as it was it just isn't a large enough sample size to put him on that list yet imo) and a whole slew of other players who were, you know, actually good at a pro level consistently for years.

Edit: Looks like of the 2400+ votes for whether he should be on that list, higher, or lower currently has 8% thinking he should be higher, 8% thinking #7 is about right, 10% think he should be lower, and 75% voting that "it's absurd he's on the list."

[K9]

Heh, indeed. 

[ghost]

 

[sickrubik]

Old news is old news.

None of that was news, it was speculation at the time, to be perfectly fair. I will never tire of Tebow craziness now that it has nothing to do with the Broncos... well, until they play the Jets in the AFC Championship game. 

[Segoris]

Yes, in fairness it was speculation at the time. Though, it was speculation based on the Jets wanting to use Tebow in various situations, and punt plays isn't exactly a shocking surprise as one of the results

More news on the NFL Films list of bullshit though - they posted the criteria for that list (since, for some reason, more than a player's stats/career are being taken into account), and it only gets more face-palmy from here. The criteria is:

Who had the best NFL career?
Who had signature plays and great moments?
Who had box-office appeal? Who sells tickets? Who sells jerseys?
Who has cultural resonance? Who passes the Mom test?

Their reasoning? "The Heisman Trophy isn’t always about who’s the best player. Just ask Larry Fitzgerald and Eli Manning about losing out to Jason White." 

The best part - if passing the mom test is a criterai - how is OJ Simpson on there?

the draft can't come soon enough so there's something better to talk about regarding the NFL