Sports

[Spurt]

As for the probowl----I think having the probowl in Hawaii kept some of the players from bailing....who wouldnt like to enjoy a nice Hawaiin "vacation" with family or friends......while Orlando may not hold as much of an attraction....especially if Disney World isn't much of an interest to them or been there, done that already.....

They did add the skills challenges to the probowl and the players will do that the Thursday before and the NFL has added new challenges.....

Im pulling for the Rams in the Super Bowl, but not all that confident....Goff can be shaky at times and will that Rams defense show up!  The Pats will probably win which will pose an interesting question...would Brady decide to retire while on top spot in the NFL....I think Gronk will call i quits regardless..win or lose..

[gardenman]

Re: The Saints game and the missed call. Everyone's assuming the Saints would have made the field goal to tie the game or get a touchdown and win. They might want to call the Bears about that. You can never assume a kicker will make a fieldgoal. You also can't assume a touchdown. If they'd gotten the call there's no guarantee that the next play wouldn't have been a fumble or interception recovered by the Rams. Maybe the field goal would have been blocked and recovered by the Rams and taken down for a score.

Was the pass interference call missed? Absolutely! Would it have mattered? We truly don't know. The Rams might have picked off a pass or recovered a fumble and the game could have ended with the Rams up by ten instead of three. You just don't know. As painful as it is, you just have to live with the bad and missed calls.

You can make a decent argument that the Eagles lost out on the NFC East title by several bad/missed calls in that last game against Dallas. On the opening kickoff the Eagles return team forced a fumble. Four or five Eagles pounced on the ball and Kamu Grugier-Hill emerged with the ball. There was no Cowboy in the pile. The officials reviewed the call and since they couldn't actually see the Eagle recover the ball, even though only Eagles were there, they gave the ball back to Dallas. Ugh! So, I know how frustrating it can be to have the refs go against you, but it is what it is. Who knows, if they'd given that ball to the Eagles we might have fumbled it right back or thrown a pick. You just don't know and have to roll with the punches. Bad calls and missed calls are just part of the game. They'll drive you a bit crazy, but there really isn't a perfect answer to the problem. You just have to play through them and hope for the best.

[Spurt]

@sunshine45 @teganslaw @gardenman

Can you imagine this in the NFL....

NBA referees will answer questions about calls in real time over Twitter in a selection of games for the rest of the season. Fans can tweet @OfficialNBARefs or use the hashtag #RefWatchParty to get responses from officials who are watching the game.  The feedback on the experiment was positive, as referees were active in back-and-forth conversations, addressing controversial whistles and conceding incorrect calls were made when appropriate.

I think last week's NFL games would have CRASHED Twitter....

[sunshine45]

@Spurt

that would be kind of FUN! lol

[Spurt]

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@sunshine45 wrote:

@Spurt

that would be kind of FUN! lol

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@sunshine45

Yep it sure would 

[nun ya]

Every teams gets bad calls.

Remember when Jesse James caught the ball LOL

[Emma Bunting]

Your bias against Brady and the Patriots is showing @gardenman...... But it's understandable. People hate winners. 😆

[gardenman]

I think it's Mike Pereira of Fox who answers tweets about calls during the games. They'll post his twitter handle and ask for questions, so the NFL, at least the games on Fox, does that to some extent already. He likely got a zillion tweets on Sunday, but Fox does make him availble in game for fans. It might be this time next year though if you're waiting for a personal reponse from him over Sunday's game. I dare say he got flooded.

[gardenman]

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@Emma Bunting wrote:

Your bias against Brady and the Patriots is showing @gardenman...... But it's understandable. People hate winners. 😆

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You should color Louisiana red also based on the polling I've seen. They're now pro-Patriots.

I'll gladly admit to not being a Patriots fan. They do win, but they tend to bend (at least) a few rules along the way. Way back when we played them in an earlier Super Bowl, the Eagles were certain the Patriots had tapped into their communications. Our middle linebacker (I think it was Jeremiah Trotter, but I'm not sure) would get the defensive call into his helmet and before he could relay it the rest of the defense Brady was telling the offense what the defense was. Brady knew the defense before the defense did and the only way that was possible was by intercepting the calls.

They did the same thing against our offense. Andy had a special play drawn up to exploit a Patriots defensive look, but the defense called out what the play was as the Eagles got to the line of scrimmage. The Eagles had never shown that play before, but somehow the Patriots knew it was coming. Either they have truly psychic players, or they were bending the rules a bit.

I don't like losing, but it's not bad if the other team is better. If it appears the other team is bending the rules to win, then it breeds bitterness. If you train for a year to run a marathon and you lose to someone who rode a cab most of the way only to jump out of the cab just ahead of you and claim victory, you get a bit annoyed.

Now, cheating is pretty much as old as football. Hank Stram used to say he just wanted his fair advantage, but when a team has a reputation for cheating, it makes it a bit harder for those who were cheated to love them. I understand why Patriots fans love them, but when you're on the other side, it's not so easy to love them.

[Spurt]

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@gardenman wrote:

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@Emma Bunting wrote:

Your bias against Brady and the Patriots is showing @gardenman...... But it's understandable. People hate winners. 😆

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You should color Louisiana red also based on the polling I've seen. They're now pro-Patriots.

I'll gladly admit to not being a Patriots fan. They do win, but they tend to bend (at least) a few rules along the way. Way back when we played them in an earlier Super Bowl, the Eagles were certain the Patriots had tapped into their communications. Our middle linebacker (I think it was Jeremiah Trotter, but I'm not sure) would get the defensive call into his helmet and before he could relay it the rest of the defense Brady was telling the offense what the defense was. Brady knew the defense before the defense did and the only way that was possible was by intercepting the calls.

They did the same thing against our offense. Andy had a special play drawn up to exploit a Patriots defensive look, but the defense called out what the play was as the Eagles got to the line of scrimmage. The Eagles had never shown that play before, but somehow the Patriots knew it was coming. Either they have truly psychic players, or they were bending the rules a bit.

I don't like losing, but it's not bad if the other team is better. If it appears the other team is bending the rules to win, then it breeds bitterness. If you train for a year to run a marathon and you lose to someone who rode a cab most of the way only to jump out of the cab just ahead of you and claim victory, you get a bit annoyed.

Now, cheating is pretty much as old as football. Hank Stram used to say he just wanted his fair advantage, but when a team has a reputation for cheating, it makes it a bit harder for those who were cheated to love them. I understand why Patriots fans love them, but when you're on the other side, it's not so easy to love them.

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@gardenman

Yep, the Pats always seem to do these sneaky little things that make them disliked.

And another thing is sportsmanship, Joe Gibbs came back to coach the Redskins for a second tour in 2007...The Redskins played the Patriots in Foxboro....The score was 45 to 7 and Beli went for it on 4th down to run up the score to 52 to7 sticking it to a HOF Coach....Joe Gibbs was so mad he didnt even shake Beli's hand after the game....And Beli did that in the recent Chargers game too....You'd think he was coaching in college where margin of victory mattered to boost your team in the rankings!