Go Saints!!!

[MorganGrayson]

Originally Posted by Vick

I think the Chargers will make the playoffs again this year
Drew Brees has matured in to a quality QB, LD is LD

I've just started to teach the intricacies of the game to my Fiancée this pre-season
Before that she (like many other) thought it was just a bunch of big guys running around beating the hell out of each other

Yesterday she had to leave the room a few times because she was getting too excited

But from watching last night's ugly Ravens' game - she now understands how tight ends or RB have to chip block
Dwight Freeney was giving Johnathon Ogden fits again, Freeney is amazingly fast, So eventually the Ravens had to line TE Todd Heap up on the left side or have a RB stay into block

*looking for the "I worship the ground you walk on" smilie*
OK, Trev, we need one of those!

Vick...I am so thrilled. My husband gave me a book years ago. (Geeze, thinking back, it was a *lot* of years ago.) He couldn't explain football to me himself because he didn't know anything about it. We'd just decided to watch it together. You're going to discover that once your fiance understands the game...she's going to be pretty scary to watch during them!!

That's the basic problem with women and football. They have absolutely no idea what's going on. If you don't know what's going on, you think these guys are trying deliberately to hurt each other. You don't know that there's an NFL rulebook the size of a building on how you're *not* supposed to deliberately hurt each other. Do players get injured? Of course they do. People also get hurt on the freeways but there isn't a call to go back to horse and buggies. (People got hurt in those, too.)

There is rarely "violence" in football, by my definition of the word. Violence is a matter of intent. Punching a guy in the face in a bar fight is "violence." Knocking a guy down who's wearing a shitload of padding, in the proper way it is one is allowed to knock him down to prevent him from gaining further yardage, is not "violence." It's "playing by the rules."

Oddly, that's one of things I like the most about football. It's got so many damned rules. I like structure, fair play and all those good things.

Which is why we got called when one of our glory boys clocked the Dallas quaterback in the head. I screamed then, too. (Admittedly, I was multitasking at the time and didn't see the play, so I don't know whether or not is was a "fair call" or not. Of course...the definition of "fair call" often depends on which team you're rooting for.)

One of the things I like the most about my husband is that he's able to yell "damn, that was a beautiful catch!" at one of the Cowboys. Fair's fair, after all.

[Trev]

Originally Posted by MorganGrayson

*looking for the "I worship the ground you walk on" smilie*
OK, Trev, we need one of those!

[MorganGrayson]

Originally Posted by Trev

My crumpet, you are "da man"!!!

Vick...

More Vick...one of the things that I'm completely embarrassed to say surprised me was how intelligent football players are. They may not always be well spoken, but they are not a stupid bunch of big guys knocking each other down.

Another one of the things I love about my team (I imagine all teams do this, but I'm familiar with the Chargers) is their charity work. They have one of the largest and most successful blood drives in the country. You can also get one to come out for just about any event. When we'd first moved here and my children were very young, there was a Charger at the opening of something. (Sadly, I forget who it was...or even what was opening.) What I do remember is my two little girls vibrating with excitement over meeting "a real Charger!" He was intelligent, well spoken, had a great sense of humor and thorougly charming. I had to bend my head back to look up at his face. Large gentleman.

[DrGuile]

Chargers will not make the playoffs... not that they're not as good as last year, but very simply because there schedule is just insane.

[MorganGrayson]

Originally Posted by DrGuile

Chargers will not make the playoffs... not that they're not as good as last year, but very simply because there schedule is just insane.

You have a very fair point. One of the problems of having a "good year" is that your next year's schedule pits you against much better teams than you played the year before. I admit to an "oh, shit" when I saw the schedule.

However, I am a firm believer in "Any Given Sunday." I'm also an optimist to a rather insane degree. And I'm the kind of football fan that loves my guys win or lose. (The year we went to the Super Bowl was the only year I didn't wear my collection of Charger t-shirts in public. You couldn't take a step without bumping into somebody in a Chargers t-shirt around here. Fair weather fans, the lot of 'em.)