Here's a story, of a man named Brady....

[Ranjr]

Peyton Manning and the Colts were my guy/team.  I tried, briefly, to get interested in the Broncos when Peyton returned to football after his neck surgery.  I didn't last through the agonizing end to that debacle.  Peyton should have walked out when he was up and had the perfect reason to hang up his helmet and cleats.  

I also briefly tried to follow the Colts but that didn't take either.  Actually the end of the Peyton Manning era was pretty much the end of football watching for me.  There was a lot of team switching all across both leagues and guys retiring and I just didn't find the chemistry I enjoyed anywhere.

Husband is a Steelers fan but Big Ben is too iffy for me to care about though I did watch now and then just to see Troy Polamalu come flying in from who knows where to make awesome plays.  That's a guy who knew when it was time to walk away.

With the Brady/Belichick thing done and over I only have one team to hate...the Cowboys...but that's mostly because of Jerry Jones.

Wife 2 minus 1 was from Denver, so that was my team for 25 years and still is when my son comes over to watch a game.  I was happy to see Manning get another ring, Cam Newton take a beating, and my boy watch a Super Bowl victory he'll remember.  He was 4 when Elway won and walked away.

I discussed the Cowboys with a Texan at a ski lodge in Taos in March '92.  He was so Texan, he wore a shirt that buttons across the top.  In Arkansas, if you dress like a cowboy, but aren't, you are a goat roper.  Anyway, this guy told me that when Jones, which he termed "Your guy," bought the Cowboys, he pledged to not root for them for 5 years.  Next season, the Cowboys won the Super Bowl.  That's the only thing I like about Jones.  He made a bunch of drugstore cowboys spite themselves.  Jerry's an old knucklehead.  He interfered with the Razorback program and is partly to blame for our ongoing disaster.  

There are so many emerging talents, I also am struggling to find a new team to hate.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I’ll start watching American football when they get rid of all that posh gear.





Boru

[arewethereyet]

Peyton Manning and the Colts were my guy/team.  I tried, briefly, to get interested in the Broncos when Peyton returned to football after his neck surgery.  I didn't last through the agonizing end to that debacle.  Peyton should have walked out when he was up and had the perfect reason to hang up his helmet and cleats.  

I also briefly tried to follow the Colts but that didn't take either.  Actually the end of the Peyton Manning era was pretty much the end of football watching for me.  There was a lot of team switching all across both leagues and guys retiring and I just didn't find the chemistry I enjoyed anywhere.

Husband is a Steelers fan but Big Ben is too iffy for me to care about though I did watch now and then just to see Troy Polamalu come flying in from who knows where to make awesome plays.  That's a guy who knew when it was time to walk away.

With the Brady/Belichick thing done and over I only have one team to hate...the Cowboys...but that's mostly because of Jerry Jones.

Wife 2 minus 1 was from Denver, so that was my team for 25 years and still is when my son comes over to watch a game.  I was happy to see Manning get another ring, Cam Newton take a beating, and my boy watch a Super Bowl victory he'll remember.  He was 4 when Elway won and walked away.

I discussed the Cowboys with a Texan at a ski lodge in Taos in March '92.  He was so Texan, he wore a shirt that buttons across the top.  In Arkansas, if you dress like a cowboy, but aren't, you are a goat roper.  Anyway, this guy told me that when Jones, which he termed "Your guy," bought the Cowboys, he pledged to not root for them for 5 years.  Next season, the Cowboys won the Super Bowl.  That's the only thing I like about Jones.  He made a bunch of drugstore cowboys spite themselves.  Jerry's an old knucklehead.  He interfered with the Razorback program and is partly to blame for our ongoing disaster.  

There are so many emerging talents, I also am struggling to find a new team to hate.

I live in TX (Dallas area) now and have since 2006 but have never liked the Cowboys.  Moving here cemented that dislike and hardened it into hatred.  While commuting to work on the morning after a game the radio was one big Jerryfest.  Thankfully I no longer have that gag-worthy commute...on many levels I am thankful for that.

[Ranjr]

The gear let's you hit harder, take bigger hits and keep playing.  Nothing wrong with that.  Nothing against rugby.  It's schoolyard ball here.

---

I live in TX (Dallas area) now and have since 2006 but have never liked the Cowboys.  Moving here cemented that dislike and hardened it into hatred.  While commuting to work on the morning after a game the radio was one big Jerryfest.  Thankfully I no longer have that gag-worthy commute...on many levels I am thankful for that.

Sounds like torture.  I can't get angry enough to drive properly in Dallas.  Wife 2 minus 0 if from there.  She was a dance student of Texie Waterman, whom she idolized.  So I've tempered my hate for the Cowboys.

[Sal]

I don't particularly like handegg.

[Rhizomorph13]

[GUBU]

The gear let's you hit harder, take bigger hits and keep playing.  Nothing wrong with that.  Nothing against rugby.  It's schoolyard ball here.

No it just get's you injured more often, and worse. At the weight and speed serious American Football is played at, padding only adds momentum, not protection.

[popeyespappy]

Things fall apart.  I wish he hadn't talked Gronkowski into being part of it.

Maybe Brady and Belichick need to know how linked is their success.  If one can be a champ or at least get close without the other.  Brady, unlike Manning, waited too late to find out.  Pride and the fall are arm in arm for this go round.

---

Peyton Manning and the Colts were my guy/team.  I tried, briefly, to get interested in the Broncos when Peyton returned to football after his neck surgery.  I didn't last through the agonizing end to that debacle.  Peyton should have walked out when he was up and had the perfect reason to hang up his helmet and cleats.  

I also briefly tried to follow the Colts but that didn't take either.  Actually the end of the Peyton Manning era was pretty much the end of football watching for me.  There was a lot of team switching all across both leagues and guys retiring and I just didn't find the chemistry I enjoyed anywhere.

Husband is a Steelers fan but Big Ben is too iffy for me to care about though I did watch now and then just to see Troy Polamalu come flying in from who knows where to make awesome plays.  That's a guy who knew when it was time to walk away.

With the Brady/Belichick thing done and over I only have one team to hate...the Cowboys...but that's mostly because of Jerry Jones.

Didn't Manning retire at the end of the 2015 season after winning the Super Bowl? i.e. hung up his cleats on a high note and didn't have an agonizing end to his career.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The gear let's you hit harder, take bigger hits and keep playing.  Nothing wrong with that.  Nothing against rugby.  It's schoolyard ball here.

No it just get's you injured more often, and worse.  At the weight and speed serious American Football is played at, padding only adds momentum, not protection.

As far as the athleticism of the players, it probably evens out to a draw - American footballers are a touch bigger, rugby players average a little faster.

As regards the protective gear, there would probably be fewer debilitating, long term injuries if the yanks got rid of it.

Boru

[Ranjr]

No it just get's you injured more often, and worse.  At the weight and speed serious American Football is played at, padding only adds momentum, not protection.

We don't have an unpadded control group to test that against, so I'll go with my own experiences.  Other than using the helmet as a weapon, I'd much rather hit or be hit with pads.  Maybe some hockey players will weigh in.

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Y'all are ignoring history. Pads were developed to decrease debilitating, even deadly injuries.