2015 NFL Conference Championship Weekend

[cartman]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

I had Cancer Everywhere Internal as my leader in the club house.

That too would likely end a career.

[thesloppy]

Communist Eye Itch

[Chief Rum]

Watch, the NFL will suspend Lynch for the Super Bowl for extensively defying league mandates on media interaction. And then the NFL will "un-suspend" Lynch to punish the Patriots for cheating.

Nothing changes, punishments handed out, everyone wins!

[jeff061]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

There's going to be backlash simply because they are looking to repeat. For anyone that's not a fan of the Seahawks, that's an issue. Folks might root for a fun story for a little while, but when that fun story starts turning into a potential dynasty, then most folks turn.

I would expect that folks that aren't turned off the Seahawks by other reasons will start to get tired of them if they beat the Pats.

I felt the same way about the Pats and Tom Brady - the first time they won a Super Bowl it was a cool story. But when it became clear they were a juggernaut and won 2 more, it became "anyone but the Pats FFS" - not because I found anything particularly loathsome about them, but just because I wanted to see another team get the prize. Same thing with the Red Sox - it was awesome when they broke the curse and topped the Yankees, but then they became the Yankees and it got real old, real quick.

At least you are honest about it. I like the Seahawks quite a bit, I'd be rooting for them if the Pat weren't in it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Can I wish a PEI (Post Ending Injury) on JIMG?

I'm already listed Day-To-Day.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Logan

Career ending injury, I'm guessing.

Got it on the first try.

(I really thought that was pretty common abbreviation, maybe not though? )

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by jeff061

At least you are honest about it. I like the Seahawks quite a bit, I'd be rooting for them if the Pat weren't in it.

As a Seattle sports fan that hasn't had a lot to cheer for in my lifetime - Sonics winning it all in 1978, Huskies winning a national championship in 1991 - and a lot more close call heartbreakers (Sonics in the mid-'90's, Mariners in '00 & '01, Seahawks in '05), it still feels surreal to be talking about the "defending Super Bowl Champion Seahawks". It doesn't really matter to me if folks outside of Seattle hate the Seahawks because nothing is going to take away the joy of rooting for this team, but I do fully understand how the general public turns pretty quickly on winning franchises when they win too much.

I also get the other criticisms of the team and players even if I disagree with most of it, but that's sports fandom - I'm not going to change the mind of folks like JiMGa, Bucc, Bug, TroyF, Sun Tzu and the rest, and that's just how it goes. Just like an Oregon fan shouldn't be surprised that I'll never root for the Ducks and that I enjoyed every minute of them getting beat by Auburn in '11 and Ohio State this year.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Got it on the first try.

(I really thought that was pretty common abbreviation, maybe not though? )

I got it right away. I, too, thought it was fairly common knowledge.

[HomerSimpson98]

I think the conversation here is funny about Seattle being hated in this thread, when the top 2-3 threads here are about a true national CRISIS coming out of New England. If it were the Doncs, it would be the Peyton-bashers. If it were Dallas, oh, my good lawd the gnashing of teeth. Its nothing specific to Seattle - its whoever happens to make it this far.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by HomerSimpson98

I think the conversation here is funny about Seattle being hated in this thread, when the top 2-3 threads here are about a true national CRISIS coming out of New England. If it were the Doncs, it would be the Peyton-bashers. If it were Dallas, oh, my good lawd the gnashing of teeth. Its nothing specific to Seattle - its whoever happens to make it this far.

It's the same way everyone loves to feel disrespected - look at Doug Baldwin going off about how nobody believed in Seattle and everyone "wrote them off" when they were 6-4 or whatever. Now, I remember a weird debate happening then about whether Russell Wilson was black enough, but the Seahawks have still been favored in 17 of 18 games this season, and I challenge anyone to find a media take or posts here that wrote the Seahawks off.

Baldwin also cracked me up yelling at Deion Sanders for calling him a mediocre receiver, when, well, that's exactly what you are. The best of a mediocre group of receivers on a great team. But either way, I'd take that emotion and personality over the corporate robots the NFL wants. And I blame Lynch less and less for not wanting to talk every time First Take and Around The Horn and whoever spend segments making fun of Baldwin or Sherman when they say something like that.

[Logan]

Wow, Seahawks had illegal 6-man wedge on onside kick. We all missed that. pic.twitter.com/TbAbzUrkuO

— Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) January 22, 2015

[Fidatelo]

Cheaters! Take away some draft picks!

[ISiddiqui]

Looking at the official rules, I think Kacsmar gets it way wrong:

http://static.nfl.com/static/content...Free_Kicks.pdf

(e) After the ball is kicked, no more than two receiving team players may intentionally form a wedge in an attempt to
block for the runner. An illegal wedge is defined as three or more players lined up shoulder-to-shoulder within two
yards of each other.
Note: This does not apply when the kicking team lines up in an obvious onside kick formation.

[Chief Rum]

Yeah, I think the wedge rule is in place for the longer normal kickoff returns. Obviously, when an onside kick is being done, players often crowd together on the side the kicker is going to.

[ISiddiqui]

On his Twitter feed, he changes the conversation to max players on each side of the kicker for a kick off, but even then he's wrong:

(c) At least four players of the kicking team must be on each side of the kicker. At least three players must be lined up
outside each inbounds line, one of whom must be outside the yard-line number.

[Logan]

Sorry for passing that along before it got squashed.

[ISiddiqui]

Not your fault. We naturally assume that NFL writers, especially for a joint like Football Outsiders would have consulted the official rules before posting a violation of rules...

[Logan]

Yeah seeing the FO handle definitely legitimized it to me vs some random person.