Superbowl

Brynn

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Anyone gunna stay up and watch it?

Just seen Aerosmith just play, bah they should have played walk this way or dude looks like a lady :p

Any predictions? im going with New England
 

Aoami

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I don't understand NFL. Throw the ball. Stop. Throw the Ball. Stop. Repeat for 90 minutes or however long.

So in answer to your question, no, i'm not gonna stay up and watch it. :p
 

Hot Soup

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indeed ..... it's all about 1st down and such and such gained 12 yards .... oh timeout ... oh and another timeout .... it drags ;(

I suppose knowing the rules would help butit has no fluency
 

babs

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Great game, halfway through now and it's tight :)
 

Scouse

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Been watching it in Riley's whilst I've been playing pool....just got home.

Used to watch American Football when I was a kid. Stopped watching it because it quickly dawned on me that it really is "rugby for girls".

Too stop-starty aswell. No flow. Too damn American ;)
 

Dillinja

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Shit match until the last 5 mins of 2nd quarter. Can see it getting boring again in the 3rd and 4th though. :\

As a Titans fan I was pissed off that they didn't make it and my brother was pissed off that the Rams didn't make it. Two boring teams (NE & Carolina) = Boring game.

My money was on the Patriots from the beginning, looks like it will go their way from what we've seen so far.

And another thing - Don't put it down until you learn the rules, I thought it was a load of shit too until a few years ago when I decided to give it a look. It's much more exciting than football once you learn how it's played.
 

Deady

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going bed now, cant afford to watch it past 2am when i need to be up at 7
 

Dillinja

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Lol. Super Bowl XXXVI, anyone? Looked strangely close to me... Could've been fixed, or I might just be paranoid.
 

Skyler

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Fantastic game.. I used to watch NFL all the time... but then I kinda lost track of it.. but this season I've followed almost from the start and I'm well and truely back into it... Great SuperBowl to round off the season...

My team, Oakland, were way out of the running at the start of the season almost so I started following my dads team Denver, they made the wildcard but went out... so it moved to New England as some family members live there and I usually follow them...

I was rooting for NE to win but I was also rooting for a very very close game.. once NE went 7 points ahead I was sooo hoping for the Panthers to get a TD to push it into OT, they did.. but left too much time on the clock and so the Patriots came back and won it...

NFL is a great game once you get into it, it's no less gruesome than Rugby... yes it is very stop/start but once you understand the way it works you appreciate the good things about it and the true skills behind it. It's nothing like Rugby or Football it's far more tactical and far more posession oriented or terratorial if you like. Most of the time once a team gets a decent offensive run down the field into the ot her teams half they almost certainly come away with some points. This leads to a real back and forth struggle between the two teams and it goes right down to the wire almost every game. I've seen teams go all the way down the field with say 27 seconds left on the clock and score a Touchdown and win, you don't get that so much in football... True teams can get up and down the pitch fast, but it doesn't usually end in anything.. where as in yank football... you get that consistent scoring most of the time...

It's worth watching, pity the season is so damn short... gotta wait 'til September for the season to start up again... :(
 

Scouse

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Dillinja said:
Don't put it down until you learn the rules, I thought it was a load of shit too until a few years ago when I decided to give it a look. It's much more exciting than football once you learn how it's played.

Fucking rubbish.

In my experience people who don't like football are ones who don't watch enough to be able to see the ebb and flow of matches, spot the holes, realise the tactics and appreciate the huge individual skill involved (especially at PL-level etc...).

Also, if American Football was so great it'd have caught on in the rest of the world, like proper Football :p


:)

(And don't give me the joey AF leagues that we have - they're too small to count)
 

xane

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Skyler said:
Fantastic game.. I used to watch NFL all the time...

Same here, back in the 80s and early 90s, I supported Washington.

I keep meaning to go back to following it, I notice most of the teams have changed again ! The last time I followed it the Raiders had moved from LA back to Oakland.

If you want to explore the sport in depth I recommend The Thinking Man's Guide To American Football[/ui] (Zimmerman).
 

Whipped

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I've never followed American Football, but I tend to make a point of watching the Superbowl. The John Madden games on my Megadrive taught me the rules, which does make any game more enjoyable to watch.

Although I do watch some football, I don't like the arguing bollocks that goes with it in this country. (My team is better than your team, *punch*, etc.) And before you shout at me, I know that is only a minority of the football fans.

Basically, if I say I watched some American football then I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to get into a silly argument. Also, you have to admit that the American's "over-the-top" attitude is funny as hell. The half time show alone is worth the watch. Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's right breast!!! Classic!! :D
 

Scouse

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xane said:
I keep meaning to go back to following it...

Not trying to be disparaging* - but that's the same for a lot of people. You follow it for a couple of years then it kinda slips under the radar.

If it was that great then you wouldn't let that happen.... Bit like Planetside for me - I've been playing for a while but haven't even logged onto it this year - hence the cancelled subscription. If it was good enough to hold my attention then I'd still be playing it....







*it's happening naturally tho :)
 

Scouse

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Whipped said:
The half time show alone is worth the watch. Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's right breast!!! Classic!! :D


Really!! Cool... :)



It says something that the half-time show's more interesting than the match itself tho eh? :(
 

Shovel

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Enjoyed it muchos. By about 3am I was becomming rather concerned that I would die of sleep deprevation should they go to overtime, so I was quite of getting a result.

As for teams, I wasn't supporting either of them, just enjoying the spectical. Officially I'm a Buffalo Bills fan, for the simple reason that on Madden 93 on the mega drive (you and me both, eh Whipped?), that was my team. It was class game, I don't know the name of the Buffalo half back from back then, but he'd trash Dad's Oakland pickings every time ;)).

The only downer for me really was the Five coverage. We don't have Sky at uni, and the Sky pundits are class. What do we get on channel 5? John bloody Barnes...
 

Sar

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Precisely.

"Wardrobe malfunction". ROFL

My arse!

:)
 

Frizz

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Well, tbh i really enjoyed that match. As a neutral (and virgin to ever watching American Football) i was supporting the underdog Panthers. It was actually quite exciting regardless of the games stop-start feel.

Even though i've never watched the sport before, i can still appreciate what some of the players did. Especially on the Panthers side, i'd even go so far as to say they were unlucky. That Delhomme guy linking up with that Muhammed guy was really quite groovy to watch.

Yeah, i enjoyed that. :)
 

Dillinja

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Scouse said:
Also, if American Football was so great it'd have caught on in the rest of the world, like proper Football :p


:)


The only reason why it hasn't is because the rules are too complex and it would be too hard to organise a quick game over the park or wherever. Whereas with football you can have a kickabout anywhere, and that appeals to most people.

I think if more people just gave it a chance it could be big in the UK.
 

dysfunction

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Dillinja said:
I think if more people just gave it a chance it could be big in the UK.


I think you're wrong cos we have rugby which is a better game. I think people around the rest of the world would rather play that than American football. And in there is no stupid shoulder pads (there is a bit now) in Rugby which makes it a mans game

Also there are too many stops in American Football. An hours game ends up being about 5hrs.





Oh and what do we have a sports forum for anyway?
 

Skyler

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Shovel, John Barnes and that yank guy didn't get much chance to speak and they are only there on the superbowl. The actual Channel Five guys we normally have, Mike something and Mike something are both fucking excellent guys. The channel Five coverage is totally boosted by having those two in the studio, I really do salute Ch5 for this coverage as it really is the best thing they have ever done, their NFL coverage makes them a worthwhile channel ;)

The actual American commentary team we had last night was from the CBS Network over there. Apparantly CBS don't do much yank football coverage over there but they bought the rights to worldwide broadcast of the Superbowl... thus they were explaining the nitty gritty of the rules to everyone for newcomers to help understand. This was of course totally annoying for experienced viewers like me, but for the new people it must have helped. I generally prefer the ABC/ESPN/Fox coverage as they have far better commentators ;)

As for Madden '93... I had it on the Amiga, exact same game just on the Amiga instead of MD, played it to absolute death and more against my dad and against the Amiga... Totally loved that game to death... those of you that loved Madden '93 might want to check out his latest offering in the form of Madden 2004. Apparantly this is one of the best Maddens ever... far more control over the players and far more realism, plus you can control entire franchises if you wish. I do recommend getting a PS2 to USB adapter or a decent control pad for the PC though if you're gonna play it as the analogue sticks on the controllers can be used to change play calls while at the huddle to throw the opposition off... it can be used for various tackling manouvres and whatnot too so it's worth using a controller :)
 

Stazbumpa

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A huge big fuck off and die to all those who are jumping about and trilling about how shit US football is. 99% of you haven't the first clue how to play and I doubt you'd know which way you'd be heading on the field anyway. The rules are WAAAAAAAAAY more complex than football and a much bigger set of skills is involved. And it is genuinly a team effort.
I'm not saying its better or worse than any other game in the world (except sychronised swimming) but it pisses me off when people see football and fuck all else.

The reason football is so popular is, as mentioned before, its so bloody easy to play. Any idiot can do it, and any idiot quite often does. US football is different, its not easy to understand and thats why so many are frightened of it. Rugby is a hard game, but then anyone who willingly plays a full contact sport without any form of protection is a bit daft anyway.

A bit like getting on a Kawasaki Ninja without a helmet really innit.

Watch a game of rugby and a game of US football and notice how they tackle differently. In US football you tend to use your head more than anything and the average speed of tackles is much faster as a rule too.

I have played both rugby and US football. Preferred the US game. I found it to be more tactically challenging, faster and much more enjoyable to play. Plus the fact that you have pads and a smash hat on means that you can hit a lot harder with more confidence. Flattening 20+ stone linemen was no problem at all.
For the record I played at under 19's level and had trials for the GB squad. I gave up the rugby because it seemed totally fair for people to punch you in the scrum or stamp on your head "accidentally".

That doesn't make it a mans game, coz a man plays the game fair and square. It makes it a game that is often played by wankers (like the French national side for example).
 

xane

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One of the major differences between American Football and Rugby is the rules governing how tackles are performed, these form the essential differences between the games and highlight why one requires body armour and the other doesn't.

The rules for a legal tackle or block are very narrow in Rugby, you can only tackle the ball carrier, you cannot block in front or stiff-arm back, or intentionally shove or shoulder so they go flying off, or tackle whilst they are in the air. A "dangerous tackle" in Rugby is one intended to harm someone, so it rules out a lot of the tactics that are allowable in American Football.

There are lots of "dangerous" moves in American Football that are illegal, such as tackling around the neck, pulling on the helmet or head charging, but on the whole most tackles would hurt you if you were not wearing padding of some sort, especially if they are done by a person twice as big as you.
 

Dillinja

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I agree with most of what Staz said.

I think that the Sky Sports coverage is better than channel 5, Nick and Kev seem to know what they are talking about most of the time. :p They get NFL players on there sometimes too. About CBS, from what I've seen on Sky Sports this year they have had quite a lot of coverage of the NFL, I think that Fox is the best but CBS ain't too bad either.

And for anyone out there who likes sports games, even if you don't like American football, Madden 2004 is excellent. The Xbox version is the bollocks. Possibly one of the best sports games I've ever played. It'll help you pick up the rules a lot quicker too as you are taking part in the action.
 

Deady

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John Barnes was so amateurish it was almost embaressing.
 

Deady

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Dillinja said:
It'll help you pick up the rules a lot quicker too as you are taking part in the action.

I picked up the basics from John Madden on the megadrive :)
 

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