Obligatory Sports Thread

So, there’re a lot of political threads going on here, and of course all the fellas love the photo threads.  Why aren’t there any sports threads? Does nobody watch football? Does nobody care that the Yankees won the World Series?  I, for one, HATE the Yankees and their "buy a championship" philosophy.  I think there needs to be a salary cap in baseball, and it should be reasonable.  Full disclosure - I’m a Dodger fan, so I know it kinda sounds hypocritical coming from someone whose team paid Manny $45 Mill for two years or whatever, but even with his contract LA only had the 9th-highest payroll.  As for football, I prefer the college game over the pros, I think NFLers are crybabies, and only care about one thing ($$).  I prefer teams that do well despite not having a bunch of pro talent (ex. Boise State, Utah, TCU). 

So, am I off base for starting a sports thread? Does anyone even care? Or are we too busy worrying about the economy and the Iraq and South Africa?

I don't have a problem with sports threads, although I haven't given a shit about pro football since the houston oilers fired bum phillips after he took them to 4 playoff seasons in a row, but didn't quite make it to the super bowl, so they fired him and never had a winning season after that. Do like college ball especially Texas Aggie football. how about some hunting and shooting and sports threads that change every week or season? maybe post your best critter or target shots.

Haha, nice saber, a Bum Phillips reference, havent heard that name in a long time, and youre right, he got the shaft for no reason.  I do enjoy college football...A&M's down but they'll be back.  I'm not a hunter, really, even though I live smack dab in the middle of deer hunting territory here in the northwest.

Steamwhistle - I'm a big fantasy sports guy, baseball and football mostly, with a little basketball thrown in.  Mostly, I just pick guys I know and I think are good players, but I do pretty well - my main football team is 9-1 so far this year!  Welcome to BDBP!

yeah the Bum Phillips reference does date me, but I was still a kid when it happened.

I knew you would, JP :) How about those Boise state Broncos, eh?  Rollin' up the score, clicking on all cylinders - and yet they're probably going to get left out of the BCS.  I hate the BCS, it does almost nothing to reward great seasons from "lower-tier" schools.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised to see that you're anti-BCS, since you're from the south with all them BCS schools down there.  I understand the money thing, and I really understand the "no playoff" thing too.  Boise State (even though it looks they will make it now, thank you Sooners!) is not on the caliber of Florida or Texas.  Could the Broncos give them a game? Maybe, but I understand why they (the big schools) wouldn't want it.  All I'm saying is, if a team goes undefeated, they should get a big-time bowl game instead of some bigger name school that has TWO losses..  I mean, they've earned it, haven't they?

Got out to a game today, yeah!  It was freezing cold (literally - it topped out at 32 degrees F in Boise today), but I got to watch Boise State crush New Mexico State, 42-7, claim the WAC championship, and finish off a 13-0 regular season!  Fiesta Bowl, here we come!

Anyone else had the opportunity to go to a game lately?

No game time, did get out to the range to sight in my new scope, shooting dime sized groups at a hundred yards, can't wait to go kill some wild hog.

Dude, that's what's great about the south.  You'd never see a contest like that up here.  Hell, the Miss Idaho pageant is barely publicized and full of dogs anyway.  Who won the contest?  My vote would go to the first brunette pictured...wow.  And there were FIVE undefeateds, don't forget TCU, the other "little guy"!  By the way, great freakin job BCS, pairing the two non-AQs in the same game.  Now we get to prove nothing.  And yes, seeing Tebow cry and watching his little postgame interview on the field was mighty entertaining. 

What a fitting caption to that picture.  I'd love to see Cincinnati kick Florida around a little bit in the Sugar Bowl.  Actually, what I'd really love to see is the Sugar and Fiesta Bowls make a swap, send Cincy to Phoenix to play Boise State, and TCU over to New Orleans against Florida.  Now THAT would be exciting football!

Also, remember, jp - you said "rednecks", not me, hehe..

I think the Scots were the original hillbillys anywhere in the world, actually...and I say that affectionately, because I think I have some Scottish in my blood too...I know I have Irish, at least.  Speaking of Scots (and back on topic, lol) - Caber Toss.  The craziest sport in the world.  Seriously, how did the conversation go that led to the invention of that game?  First Scot - "let's pick up a telephone pole, run with it, and then try to flip it and hope it doesn't land on top of us."  Second Scot - "I bet I can make it land straighter than you!"  Madness.  Of course, we've all seen Braveheart, and the stone-throwing contest...I guess they made do with what they had.

Braking news - Urban Meyer is stepping down as Florida's head football coach, citing health concerns as the main reason.  I guess coaching in the SEC without Tim Tebow as quarterback could be hazardous to one's health...

A couple of other quick hits, feel free to respond in any way you see fit.

• After blowing a game in the last minute against Oakland last weekend, the Denver Broncos now need to win out (@ Phila and vs KC)  and have a lot of things go right for them to make the playoffs.  Think they'll make it?
• Kansas is #1 in college hoops.  Texas, Syracuse, and Kentucky alos got first-place votes.  West Viginia, Purdue, and New Mexico are undefeated too, and Duke, Villanova, Georgetown (along with several others) only have one loss.  Who do you think should be #1?
• NBA nearing midseason.  Lakers, Cavs, Magic looking good.  Does anyone care?

Someone explain to me why it is ok for pro players to earn million dollar average salaries for playing in a few games a year and team owners can charge a weeks salary to a working stiff fan for a ticket, but a corporate CEO who works in an industry that the democrats/media doesn't like yet he employees hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide and works 12-18 hours a day 6-7 days week and congress and the media think that he should work for five hundred thousand and no bonuses.

I mostly agree with you saber, but just for argument's sake...

It's okay for a player to earn such an outrageous salary because the owners are willing to pay it.  It's okay for the owner to charge Average Joe a week's salary for a ticket to a game because Average Joe is willing to pay it.  Even if you or I refuse to, the teams in the NFL (which is easily the most expensive regular season ticket) have very little trouble selling out games.  Take as an example the Cleveland Browns.  4-11 record this year, one of the worst 5 teams in the league all year.  Stadium capacity: about 73,000. Average home attendance: about 69,000.  Average ticket price: about $50 (one of the lowest in the league, by the way).  Average gate: almost $3.5 Million per game (not counting merchandise, advertising, etc).  Cleveland, from what I understand, is one of the hardest hit cities in the nation as far as the recession and layoffs are concerned.  So why, amidst all this economic turmoil, are 69,000 Clevelanders willing to fork out $50 a pop every other week to watch a bad football team?  The point is, the problem isn't at the top.  I, for one, wouldn't pay $20 to watch the Browns, let alone $50, but obviously there are tens of thousands of people (probably hundres of thousands; I doubt the same 69,000 people are going to every game) who think differently than I do, and if the people are still willing to pay the owners, the owners are going to keep paying the players.  (Incidentally, the Browns' highest-paid player makes just over $250K per game.)  As a side comparison, a local company here employs about 15,000 people worldwide, lost over $1.6 Billion in 2008, and its CEO earned $1.5 Million that year.  That paycheck ranked 451st nationwide for CEOs, meaning 450 other CEOs made more than him.  There are 1760 players in the NFL, and I would guess that about 450 of them make more than $1.5 Million per season as well.  The median salary for an NFL player is $930,000, and while he's not in charge of the team or the league, his business isn't losing money hand over foot.  Also, it's safe to say that players are more important to NFL teams than CEOs are to individual companies.  Without a CEO, a company's COO or CFO could step in and do the job.  Without players, an NFL team could not put their product in front of the public.  Just food for thought.  I agree that players are paid too much for what they do, but we live in a capitalist society, and I say if they can make that money, more power to them.  Also, I look at it from my  point of view - I make less than $30K per year.  If I was offered a job that paid me $40K per year, depending on a few factors, I would almost certainly take it, and so would you.  So it's not fair for us to fault the players for getting as much as they can.  Maybe we can fault the owners, but again, if we don't pay them, they won't pay the players.  The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the American public.

I'm not blaming the players or the fans or any of that, I believe something or someone is worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. My problem is the hypocracy of claiming that profits of groups you don't like are gross and immoral but the same profits of a group they like is not only ok but uncommented on.  As for NFL salaries I looked on the espn website and they show the average median player salary for the players by team and the top 9 teams averaged from 2.1 million down to 1.1 million with the lowest of all teams being over 800,000 and that is just median average, and the CEO's I'm talking about are from companies making an honest profit for honest dealings but are targeted because it is convenient to get the masses riled up to pass bad legislation, also good CEO's are not that easily replaced that someone will just step up and take over what will and is happening is that the industries that are targeted are moving their operations and headquarters overseas taking jobs, money and tax revenue out of this country. I don't believe the govt should be able to tell anyone in private life how much they can earn or whether they must buy a certain insurance policy

I must've been looking at old data then, the list I saw had average median salary by NFL team ranging from about $760K to about $1.4M.  And I agree with you on both of the points you make: (1) things are worth what others are willing to pay for it, and (2) the government shouldn't be interfering with a company's profits simply because they don't like it.  In fact, outside of fair taxation and an equal system of checks and balances, I don't think the government should be interfering with business at all. 

couldn"t have said it better myself

BOISE!!!

STATE!!!

Here's a link to a cool pig hunting video I found the other day, it's pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiHmYsyVniE

I think it's funny that they feel like they have to justify what they're doing in the comments and put the legality disclaimer at the beginning so some asshole doesn't get his panties in a bunch.  They should just say, "if you don't like it, fuck off."

I just dropped a 250 pound boar monday about 4am with my .223 AR at a little over a hundred yards so yeah an AR will drop a hog in a heart beat. I've got a friend that uses a .22lr with a 90% first round drop em in their tracks record.  And your right Doggy it sucks that you have to explain yourself to the average person because a bunch of ignorant anti-everything assholes would rather have the country overrun with destructive feral hogs than actually let something be done about it.

Yeah I've got a good picture if I can figure out why I can't get it off my phone, can't get it to send and can't get it to download to my computer. We'll be killin a lot more big ones down the street and I'll get you some good pictures with a real camera on the next one. They've gotten so big that I've had the trap tripped 3 nights in a row but they were so big they couldn't get in the trap but still banged it around enough to trip the door. Can't wait to go to the range and re-sight in my AR just put a free float handguard and a drop in match grade trigger, that ought to make hog killin easier.

Thought I'd bump this back up for doggyhead after the super bowl, I didn't have a dog in the fight but it was a good game with NO coming back from behind and making those hot plays at the right time, who'd have thunk they'd do an on sides kick right out of the half?

Who dat?!

I kind of like both teams, but The Saints coach is an offensive genius, and Drew Brees had an amazing game.  I like to see the teams with amazing offenses, because the old adage is that defense wins championships, and I like to see amazing offenses prove that wrong.  Although, I guess the interception is really what sealed the deal there at the end, so maybe it holds true after all...

Thanks for the bump saber!  Just eight more days until pitchers and catchers report!!

I think you've got to have a great offense and defense if one of them is only so-so you aint supposed to win unless the other guys are more fucked up. Everyone around here is a Cowboy's fan but after watching the Super Bowl it's obvious that Dallas aint nowhere near the caliber of the Saints and Colts, that was one of the lowest penalty games I've seen in a long time and the big plays were awesome.