The Super Bowl

[Berzerker]

I'm a bit stunned, I didn't figure Peyton Manning would do much against a good defense... and he didn't. But the Denver defense led by Most Valuable Player LB Von Miller turned in a stellar performance against one the toughest QBs to defend.

Denver 24
Carolina 10

Cam Newton will be back but he needs some receivers in Carolina!

I'm happy for Manning, he may not be back again... and apparently the only other QB in or headed for the Hall of Fame to quit after winning a SB is John Elway, the current General Manager of Denver.

That said, there's a small controversy brewing around Newton.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/brian-urlacher-peyton-manning-cam-newton-touchdowns

Now, I agree with Urlacher... Excessive celebrations (look it up, you'll find a picture of Mark Gastineau) are at best borderline taunting and just bush league, low class. Thats what my coaches taught me, dont show up your opponents. Well, they didn't need to teach me that. A group hug after a TD and spike are enough I think. I'd rather just hand the ball to the ref, but spiking the ball seems to be somewhat traditional.

I've seen Newton's celebratory routines, and he'll do them after a good play or a 1st down as do other players. For a celebration to become taunting the NFL requires directing the celebration at an opposing player, that includes spiking the ball at or toward someone. Imagine a boxer standing over the opponent he just knocked down celebrating rather than backing away.

Another observation: both Manning and Miller thanked God. Of course, God is a Broncos fan. And all the other people out there who God didn't select are...what? It reminds me of an ugly incident back when I was playing softball.

I subbed for another team and the ump for our game had a lame arm, not sure what or why and I didn't even notice. But after one of our players got called out or something, I'm not even sure why, he told the ump he was basically a loser for being an ump instead of a player.

I think that was when we learned the dude had a bad right arm. Well, the guy who told off the ump confessed to us, I didn't see or hear what was said but he felt bad enough to fill us in. Telling the ump that BS is beyond me, but then the ump cant play because of a lame arm. Jesus...

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe celebrating, even taunting, reflects God's grace upon the victors. Newton defended his celebrations by telling opponents to stop him if they dont like it. Its a might makes right argument, survival of the fittest, or law of the jungle.

We generally consider the Romans to be immoral (dont we?) because of their cultural practices like conquest, slavery and slaughter in their arenas. But if nobody's stopping them, then whose to say God disapproves?

Key and Peele had a funny skit in Colbert's post SB show dealing with the subject of celebrations, watching it right now

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I thought the game was pretty boring. I feel bad for Carolina's defense, they did a pretty good job (both of Denver's touchdowns were direct results of failures by Carolina's offense), but the offense just couldn't get anything together and Newton in particular seemed like he just crumbled under the pressure. Not too surprising considering how young and inexperienced he still is but it was painful to watch. Carolina also absolutely murdered themselves with penalties. Pretty amateur league performance all around.

 

[Camikaze]

I watched the game, had nothing better to do. Found it bizarre that each 15 minute quarter lasted like an hour. Is that normal or was it just because they amp up the ads for Superbowl?

 

[really]

This was covered in the entertainment section of the radio news this morning rather than in the sports part.

 

[luiz]

I watched the game, had nothing better to do. Found it bizarre that each 15 minute quarter lasted like an hour. Is that normal or was it just because they amp up the ads for Superbowl?

It's normal... in American football actual playtime is a very small fraction of total game time. It's a big celebration of advertisement.

 

[Omega124]

I watched the game, had nothing better to do. Found it bizarre that each 15 minute quarter lasted like an hour. Is that normal or was it just because they amp up the ads for Superbowl?

Not normal. Many games are pretty explosive, and you should see some of the playoff games this year for that kind of play (especially the ones involving Packers or Steelers or Chiefs, they were the fun teams this year). Especially the second half was dull this game though; neither team really had much energy left and you could tell. In the end it turned to an attrition fest and the more experienced Broncos won.

This is not to say that low scoring games are boring, as a steelers fan that'd be hypocritical, but the way it happened here, it was clear the offenses were just tired and that's why no scoring was getting done. You should see some classic Ravens vs Steelers games for that kind of low scoring but exciting defensive football.

 

[warpus]

One of my friends was into it, he convinced my roommate to watch it. We ordered pizza and wings and I showed up for parts of it, but overall I was out of it and not really paying attention. Most of the time I was upstairs doing some work, while my friends chatted about this and that in between plays.

I watched the half-time show and finally saw Beyonce perform. Is she obsessed with her thunder thighs or something? What's her deal? How'd she become famous? She just shuffles around and shows off her thighs with a dance troupe? Yeah alright it's sort of entertaining I guess in a "Are ancient aliens behind this?" sort of way.

But that was slightly entertaining at least, even though Coldplay's vocalist was crouching the whole time like an idiot for some reason, and looked reallllly out of place.

When the game was getting started my guess was that it was "Birmingham vs North Carolina". My friends' verdict was that I was "25% right". Turns out Birmingham doesn't even have a team. Or maybe they do?

I also saw that Eli Manning didn't care too much that his brother won a 2nd Superbowl.

I also learned that the Superbowl is only 50 years old and that it first started up when 2 leagues joined forces back in the 60s.

The wings were good, the men in tights were meh. Oh and the national anthem at the beginning, holy crap, Lady Gaga can actually SING! Daaaamn. She should sing more often.

edit: And we don't get any of those fancy commercials here in Canada, but we did get this one:


Link to video.

 

[Omega124]

....I don't think Birmingham even has a college football team of significant note, Warpis. I mean there's Alabama Crimson Tide, but they're in Tuscaloosa. I'm very curious how you got that conclusion to be quite honest.

That's like me thinking there's a Canadaian football team in Red Deer. Like, of all the cities, you pick that?

 

[warpus]

*shrug*, I was put on the spot and that's what I thought I heard somewhere. I guess not! I wasn't very confident in my answer, it'd be like someone asking you who played in last year's Chinese volleyball championship final, unless you follow the league you can only sort of guess.

 

[Omega124]

*shrug*, I was put on the spot and that's what I thought I heard somewhere. I guess not! I wasn't very confident in my answer, it'd be like someone asking you who played in last year's Chinese volleyball championship final, unless you follow the league you can only sort of guess.

Safer guesses than a random city in Alabama:
New York
Chicago
LA (actually until next season a super bad guess since there was no LA team at all in football)
Boston
Detroit
Miami
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh

In American sports, those are generally where the good teams are at, with some minor fluxuations depending on the history of the sport (Denver and Green Bay for football) You're probably never going to find a team in the Deep South in that list though; that's just not where teams are physically located (you'll find them on the outskirts, like in Texas or Florida, though)

Only exceptions are Atlanta, which does not field any good teams in any sport, and New Orleans, which in both basketball and football can sometimes be dark horses but are usually middle in the pack.

Edit: the reason, if you're curious, is because most of the super competitive sport programs at the college level are found in the Deep South, especially for football. College sports is simply more popular down there than professional in general

 

[sophie]

Only exceptions are Atlanta, which does not field any good teams in any sport, and New Orleans, which in both basketball and football can sometimes be dark horses but are usually middle in the pack.

How quickly and easily Bobby Cox is forgotten.

 

[Omega124]

How quickly and easily Bobby Cox is forgotten.

70s baseball was just weird. Kansas City being the main rival of the Yankees? That just doesn't feel right, man

We're the Luke against the Emperor, not the Royals. It's just not right when we're not the ones opposing the evil empire. ;_;

 

[whyidie]

This is not to say that low scoring games are boring, as a steelers fan that'd be hypocritical, but the way it happened here, it was clear the offenses were just tired and that's why no scoring was getting done. You should see some classic Ravens vs Steelers games for that kind of low scoring but exciting defensive football.

You should be ashamed of yourself. The Denver defense was off the charts. Few, if any, quarterbacks could withstand the kind of pressure they brought. Run defense was stout as well. Of course this is all predicated on their defensive backs playing stellar man defense. If you were around during the Steel Curtain or Blitzburgh days, you should have loved the performance (and the Oilers ties to Wade) the Broncos defense put on in the last two games. Shutting down Tom Brady and Cam Newton lead offenses ? Thats not bad offensive football, thats good defense.

70s baseball was just weird. Kansas City being the main rival of the Yankees? That just doesn't feel right, man

Your sports card is suspended. 1990's was the decade of dominance for the Cox lead Braves.

 

[sophie]

70s baseball was just weird. Kansas City being the main rival of the Yankees? That just doesn't feel right, man

We're the Luke against the Emperor, not the Royals. It's just not right when we're not the ones opposing the evil empire. ;_;

90s baseball*. also 2000s baseball.

 

[warpus]

@Omega124 Looks like Birmingham is a lot smaller than I thought. But yeah, I didn't want to guess any of the big teams, I was under the impression that lesser known teams made it in this year again.

I was cheering for the Falcons the whole time anyway.

 

[downtown]

Safer guesses than a random city in Alabama:
New York
Chicago
LA (actually until next season a super bad guess since there was no LA team at all in football)
Boston
Detroit
Miami
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh

In American sports, those are generally where the good teams are at, with some minor fluxuations depending on the history of the sport (Denver and Green Bay for football) You're probably never going to find a team in the Deep South in that list though; that's just not where teams are physically located (you'll find them on the outskirts, like in Texas or Florida, though)

Soo....almost none of that is true lol.

There's a little bit of a built-in advantage for the biggest US cities/markets in pro sports (depending on the sport), but that isn't destiny. Championship caliber teams come from all over the country, especially in the NFL, where salary cap rules make parity nearly the rule. Over the last decade, we've had superior NFL teams in places like Indianapolis, New Orleans, Green Bay, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle and more, outside of that list.

Even in the NBA, where big cities probably enjoy the biggest advantage (since the balance of power is concentrated with just a handful of players, and one free agency move can swing everything), three of the best four teams in the league are in Cleveland, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City. In very recent memory, there have been elite teams in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Orlando and Indy, all while the New York and Philly teams have sucked.

The reason there are not many professional sports teams in the South because there are not many full blown CITIES in the South, especially around the times when many of these leagues expanded heavily. Running a pro team is extraordinarily expensive, and requires proximity to large businesses as potential sponsors. There are more of those cities in the North, Midwest and West. Or at least, there were when these leagues started.

Geography advantage is a WAY WAY WAY WAY bigger deal in college athletics.


Now, as for the actual game? It wasn't one of the better played Super Bowls in recent memory, but it was fine.

 

[sophie]

RE: The NFL is salary cap + the draft + favorable rookie contract rules.

It's hard to keep a team together when doing well = players pricing out of your salary cap, compounded by getting shut out of decent prospects of replacing them. Even then though, it's no guarantee of success. Teams are more dependent on having a competent ownership group and lucking into some ace draft picks, particularly at QB, than anything else.

Also the West doesn't have a WHOLE ton of primo cities to choose from. SF area (i.e. SF/SJ/OAK), LA area, SD, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, and LV, with Portland/Sacramento/SLC as borderline options. It's a lot - certainly more than the non-Texas/Florida south - but it's not a lot given the amount of land represented.

The irony, or at least weird thing is that the Midwest isn't particularly great either. A lot of the traditional sporting homes would be kinda borderline nowadays - Cincy, Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, to say nothing of Green Bay. Consider, for example, that you could put a team in each borough of NYC and they would each individually represent larger population pools than any of the Midwest cities I just named (yes even Staten Island). SF, Oakland, SJ are the same, as are LA/LB/OC/SD. Like if we were going to design a sports league tomorrow we probably wouldn't be putting any teams in the Midwest outside like Chicago, Detroit, and maaaybe Minny/Milwaukee unless we were explicitly doing so for symmetry's sake. Which is actually visible in things like esports where all the teams base themselves out of LA, or Seoul in the case of Korea.

I guess my point in a roundabout way is the same as yours. If you have to guess a city a team might belong to you don't guess on the basis of population, you guess alternatively on the basis of population/economic relevance in the time when the league arose (when those industrial midwestern towns were YUGE and important back in the 00s, 10s, 20s, 30s, and 40s) or on areas that tend to have sports teams, in either case you would need to be familiar with the sport thereby kind of ruining the exercise in the first place.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

You should be ashamed of yourself. The Denver defense was off the charts. Few, if any, quarterbacks could withstand the kind of pressure they brought. Run defense was stout as well. Of course this is all predicated on their defensive backs playing stellar man defense. If you were around during the Steel Curtain or Blitzburgh days, you should have loved the performance (and the Oilers ties to Wade) the Broncos defense put on in the last two games. Shutting down Tom Brady and Cam Newton lead offenses ? Thats not bad offensive football, thats good defense.

The Denver defense had a lot of help. Newton had the obvious jitters, missing high on way too many open receivers. His receivers did their share as well, dropping a fair number of catchable balls. That contributed a lot to the snowball rolling down hill that swept them away. Not saying that Denver's defense was anything less than great, but when you play a great defense you have to grab every one of those rare opportunities and push back hard...and the Panthers didn't grab many of them.

 

[Berzerker]

I missed the post game interviews, apparently Newton behaved poorly and left before it was over... He's in need of some growing pains

 

[Zkribbler]

I watched the game, had nothing better to do. Found it bizarre that each 15 minute quarter lasted like an hour. Is that normal or was it just because they amp up the ads for Superbowl?

I always assume that 4 quarters of 15-minutes each will take about 3 hours. If you're right and Superbowl 50 took 4 hours, then the extra hour can be put down to extra commercials.