The Everything NFL Punter Thread - 2014/2015 Season

[WaterBomb]

Killah or WaterBomb or even DM wanna show these nerds how fandom works?

Gladly.

Teams I hate:

Ravens
Seahawks
Patriots
Jets

Teams I tolerate:

Cowboys
Redskins
Giants
Eagles
Bears
Lions
Vikings
Browns
Bengals
Dolphins
Clots
Texans
Titans
Chefs
Raiders
Chargers
Broncos
94ers
Rams
Cardinals
Saints
Falcons
Buccaneers

Teams I can sometimes root for without wanting to stab my face off:

Packers
Bills
Panthers (only because cool uniforms)
Jaguars (come on who doesn't love the Jaguars)

Teams I would die before pretending I didn't love:

PITTSBURGH STEELERS

 

[some hero]

Dude, the Panthers have some of the ugliest uniforms ever. And how is that dumb list any better than mine? Tehvalkrys post implied fans hated divisional rivals or something but wb hates random teams like Seahawks and Jets. Whats the point.

 

[Captain Skywalker]

Tehvalkrys post implied fans hated divisional rivals or something but wb hates random teams like Seahawks and Jets. Whats the point?

Most divisions have intense rivalries so he's not exactly wrong. The only divisions that don't have that kind of relationship is the AFC South and NFC South.
EDIT: by that I don't mean inter-divisional rivalries so the Colts-Patriots rivalry doesn't count.

 

[TheValkyries]

The Jaguars and Panthers are fun to root for can confirm.

 

[Gabe]

The Brady vs Manning argument is ridiculous whenever some idiot mentions rings as a factor. Rings are a team accomplishment. Peyton is the better QB based on his individual accomplishments.

 

[kd24]

apparently who you're throwing the ball to doesn't count

manning his whole career: harrison/wayne/thomas
brady his whole career: moss 2 seasons, gronk 3 seasons

those brady 5 seasons:
moss1: 4,806 yds 50 tds 8 ints (mvp award + made super bowl)
moss2: 4,398 yds 28 tds 13 ints (off injury)
gronk1: 3,900 yds 36 tds 4 ints (mvp award)
gronk2: 5,235 yds 39 tds 12 ints (made super bowl)
gronk3: 4,109 yds 33 tds 9 ints (made super bowl)

so much for bringing up the team argument and then citing individual accomplishments huh? in the span of 5 seasons with a healthy top receiver all year, brady got 2 mvp awards and made 3 super bowls

brady is slowly joining elway on the most underrated ever lists

edit: sorry forgot:

brady in postseason: 49 tds/24 ints
manning in postseason: 38 tds/24 ints

 

[Mr.E]

Harrison and Wayne hardly had a career outside of playing with Manning, so I never really cared for that argument. How do we know it wasn't Manning making them good rather than the other way around? I think we've since proven that Manning is pretty good irrespective of his receiving corps anyway. Brady is seemingly capable of putting up ungodly numbers if he/his team really felt like pushing it.

I will maintain my old standby Brady = Aikman, except Aikman never had a year without Emmitt Smith where he was allowed to just chuck the ball downfield to Irvin 30 times a game to "prove" his individual greatness on the same level. And hopefully it stays that way, with Brady not getting a fourth ring...

 

[WaterBomb]

they are both amazing, let's leave it at that.

As for my list, I don't hate the Bengals and Browns as much as I hate the Ravens because they don't threaten me at all. They are division rivals so I will obviously never root for them, but the rivalry isn't terribly intense because they just aren't as good.

I hate the Seahawks because arrogance is one of my biggest pet peeves, and that team is seething with it. Watching rants from B-list WRs like Doug Baldwin just makes me sick.

I hate the Jets because of the Rex Ryan era and because they eat up all the local programming since I live in NJ, so frequently I am forced to watch their games rather than something more exciting. I'll probably begin to hate them less now that Rex is gone, though.

Also, please do not confuse "hate" with "do not respect". I hate the Ravens and Patriots, but I respect them both. The Seahawks I would respect if it weren't for the few loudmouths ruining it.

As for your comment about the uniforms, I was more referring to the color and not the style.

And for my final point, the list is mostly a formality anyway. There is only one team in this league I give more than two shizzles about, and that is the Steelers. I live and die by them, and I could never seriously be a fan of another team. This is why my list is "Hate-Tolerate-MightOccasionallyWantToWin-WORSHIP". To me, what makes football fun is investing yourself into a single team, to experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It's an emotional experience, and it gives me something to truly look forward to every year. Casual fans who claim to like multiple teams might enjoy the game of football, but IMO they don't get to experience the deepest emotional experience that single-team fans do.

 

[Captain Skywalker]

To me, what makes football fun is investing yourself into a single team, to experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It's an emotional experience, and it gives me something to truly look forward to every year. Casual fans who claim to like multiple teams might enjoy the game of football, but IMO they don't get to experience the deepest emotional experience that single-team fans do.

That's true to an extent. For me that team is the Colts. However, I also root for the Bengals and Seahawks among other teams. I care about other teams besides the Colts because I'm not one sided when it comes to football. For instance, I'm a Bengals fan but because they're not my #1 team, I don't really care if they lose to the Colts. I just want them to win a damn playoff game. The last time was before my parents were even out of college.

 

[kd24]

Harrison and Wayne hardly had a career outside of playing with Manning, so I never really cared for that argument. How do we know it wasn't Manning making them good rather than the other way around? I think we've since proven that Manning is pretty good irrespective of his receiving corps anyway. Brady is seemingly capable of putting up ungodly numbers if he/his team really felt like pushing it.

I will maintain my old standby Brady = Aikman, except Aikman never had a year without Emmitt Smith where he was allowed to just chuck the ball downfield to Irvin 30 times a game to "prove" his individual greatness on the same level. And hopefully it stays that way, with Brady not getting a fourth ring...

manning is a great qb but just to play devil's advocate, is it proven that his receiving corps didn't matter? he's had those top guys every season since he's been in the league. quarterback may just be a super overrated position as well, to go against brady, look at how much adding 1 elite receiver changes his numbers and career. john elway with no talent around him was a different guy from elway with talent (although reeves -> shanahan's scheme changes is admittedly a huge reason as well). even this season, look at qbs who had an amazing season or qbs who have completely turned it around as their wide receivers emerged as all pro candidates:

eli manning - an awful quarterback who had a season so decent, bill barnwell wrote about eli becoming a good qb again due to schematic changes: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2014-nfl-preseason-predictions-revisited/ strangely enough eli was doing piss all until odb got there but w/e

big ben - ben put up one of his best seasons ever with a healthy antonio brown AND leveon bell doing everything they could

tony romo - romo has become an mvp candidate throwing passes to dez

a good quarterback is important but good wide receivers are just as vital. if anything maybe all these top qbs are not as far apart as we think (the gap from brady to manning to romo to rivers may not be as large as we like to have the media tell ourselves)...maybe we should just focus on condemning qbs who aren't performing this admirably with all pro wrs (im looking at you andy dalton and matt stafford).

jj watt for mvp!

 

[some hero]

apparently who you're throwing the ball to doesn't count

manning his whole career: harrison/wayne/thomas
brady his whole career: moss 2 seasons, gronk 3 seasons

those brady 5 seasons:
moss1: 4,806 yds 50 tds 8 ints (mvp award + made super bowl)
moss2: 4,398 yds 28 tds 13 ints (off injury)
gronk1: 3,900 yds 36 tds 4 ints (mvp award)
gronk2: 5,235 yds 39 tds 12 ints (made super bowl)
gronk3: 4,109 yds 33 tds 9 ints (made super bowl)

so much for bringing up the team argument and then citing individual accomplishments huh? in the span of 5 seasons with a healthy top receiver all year, brady got 2 mvp awards and made 3 super bowls

brady is slowly joining elway on the most underrated ever lists

edit: sorry forgot:

brady in postseason: 49 tds/24 ints
manning in postseason: 38 tds/24 ints

Are those stats supposed to be impressive? Those are the numbers Peyton puts up in his bad years. He was putting up better numbers when he knew shit about being a good qb. Please never bring up stats in this conversation. They're so one sided it makes you look like a homer. Stick to m-muh rings and m-muh post season wins.

they are both amazing, let's leave it at that.

As for my list, I don't hate the Bengals and Browns as much as I hate the Ravens because they don't threaten me at all. They are division rivals so I will obviously never root for them, but the rivalry isn't terribly intense because they just aren't as good.

I hate the Seahawks because arrogance is one of my biggest pet peeves, and that team is seething with it. Watching rants from B-list WRs like Doug Baldwin just makes me sick.

I hate the Jets because of the Rex Ryan era and because they eat up all the local programming since I live in NJ, so frequently I am forced to watch their games rather than something more exciting. I'll probably begin to hate them less now that Rex is gone, though.

Also, please do not confuse "hate" with "do not respect". I hate the Ravens and Patriots, but I respect them both. The Seahawks I would respect if it weren't for the few loudmouths ruining it.

As for your comment about the uniforms, I was more referring to the color and not the style.

And for my final point, the list is mostly a formality anyway. There is only one team in this league I give more than two shizzles about, and that is the Steelers. I live and die by them, and I could never seriously be a fan of another team. This is why my list is "Hate-Tolerate-MightOccasionallyWantToWin-WORSHIP". To me, what makes football fun is investing yourself into a single team, to experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It's an emotional experience, and it gives me something to truly look forward to every year. Casual fans who claim to like multiple teams might enjoy the game of football, but IMO they don't get to experience the deepest emotional experience that single-team fans do.

So only casual fans can like multiple teams huh? HUH? That sentence doesn't even make sense. Casual fans don't experience any deep emotions relating to the game at all. They just post something like "my steelers lost today :(" in facebook or something. Also i'm not implying being a bandwagon or casual fan is wrong, I generally like talking to these people about football. It gives me something fun to talk about during my daily life that i'm deeply passionate about. The more bandwagon and casual fans the better.

 

[Captain Skywalker]

So only casual fans can like multiple teams huh? HUH? That sentence doesn't even make sense. Casual fans don't experience any deep emotions relating to game at all. They just post something like "my steelers lost today :(" in facebook or something. Also i'm not implying being a bandwagon or casual fan is wrong, I generally like talking to these people about football. It gives me something fun to talk about during my daily life that i'm deeply passionate about. The more bandwagon and casual fans the better.

This. This described exactly how I feel about football. I'm not a casual fan just because I have multiple teams. I care about my teams a lot and I love football. I'm not one of those guys who only watches the Super Bowl then bandwagons the previous winner.

 

[CPrime]

Why are we arguing over different levels of fandom? Just because some people like more than one team? This whole thing seems pretty stupid but what do I know...

Predictions in no particular order:

Seahawks win easily.
Sherman "reinjures his shoulder" sometime during the game in order to prevent a possible Patriots comeback to be pinned on him (see Packers game).
Marshawn hurts his back carrying the team. He is also Seattle's leading receiver in this game.
Gronk hurts some random body part and gets more robotic this offseason.
Patriot fans will somehow manage to be even more obnoxious than Seattle fans, whichever team wins!
2 minute drill before halftime ends in a turnover and points for the other team.

 

[Killah]

imo you can "like" as many teams as you want, but you can only be a "fan" of one (sometimes 2) teams.

if, after a loss on gameday, you don't feel like some stranger just came over and kicked your puppy, then you're either a) extremely jaded after years of losing (sorry raiders/jags/etc. fans) or b) a total casual who shouldn't be claiming allegiance to his team on a chinese videogame forum

there are teams that are fun to root for, and teams that are fun to hate (UNLESS THEY PLAY EACH OTHER IN THE SUPER BOWL FCUK), but being a fan of more than one or two* teams is not possible under the blood-contract you were supposed to sign when you became a fan of your team.

ON THE OTHER HAND, you can hate or like teams for literally no reason and no one will have any problem with it, just don't go posting "omg I'm so happy such and such won, after all they are my 4th favorite team" because holy shit no one cares like seriously go fall off an actual bandwagon or something


*very few exceptions, imo you should only have a second team if it's like a "hometown" team or if your SO is also a diehard fan of some other team you don't hate or some other related reason


also fun stat that doesn't mean much: PFM has more 1st game playoff losses (9) then Tom Brady has losses in his entire postseason career (20-8, he'll tie if he loses the superb owl again) (PFM is 11-13 overall)

 

[TheValkyries]

Harrison and Wayne hardly had a career outside of playing with Manning, so I never really cared for that argument. How do we know it wasn't Manning making them good rather than the other way around? I think we've since proven that Manning is pretty good irrespective of his receiving corps anyway. Brady is seemingly capable of putting up ungodly numbers if he/his team really felt like pushing it.

First, what proves Manning is making his receivers better and not benefitting from their skill? He went from multiple Hall of Famers, to the current receiving corps of the Broncos which is also fucking ridiculous, and were great before he got there. Also worth pointing out that Wes Welker has barely been a #3 receiver in Denver when he was Brady's #1 forever.

Also fuck all the Reggie Wayne haters he was fucking great for Andrew Luck his rookie year. Reggie Wayne is an ancient decrepit beast.

Are those stats supposed to be impressive? Those are the numbers Peyton puts up in his bad years. He was putting up better numbers when he knew shit about being a good qb. Please never bring up stats in this conversation. They're so one sided it makes you look like a homer. Stick to m-muh rings and m-muh post season wins.

Adorable that you call kd24 a Patriots homer. You're real cute.

 

[Captain Skywalker]

Bruce Arians won head coach of the year. Can anyone say whether or not he deserved it? I don't get Cardinals games here so I can't really say.

 

[WaterBomb]

Bruce Arians won head coach of the year. Can anyone say whether or not he deserved it? I don't get Cardinals games here so I can't really say.

There wasn't another coach in the league who was even close, so yeah he deserved it. He took a Cardinals team that got unrealistically decimated by injuries (including the starting AND backup QBs) to an 11-5 record and coaxed an entire team to unilaterally overachieve beyond their talent level for almost the entire season. One of the most impressive jobs I've seen from a coach not just this season, but probably in at least the last decade.

 

[Captain Skywalker]

Aaron Rodgers MVP. Expected this one a mile away

 

[macle]

though im glad Arod got MVP, i feel it should have been a lot closer.

 

[kd24]

i dunno i thought jason garrett had a good case for coach of the year

 

[Stallion]

Free JJ Watt

 

[Milos]

the thing for me that puts brady above manning is playoff success... manning has gone one-and-done in the playoffs what.. like 9 times? meanwhile, brady has the most playoff wins for any QB ever and has made the AFC championship game 9 times. manning is a regular season stud but always falls flat in the postseason. brady is clutch in the big games (unless he's facing the giants). what does it matter to put up such ridiculous stats and all those wins in the regular season if it doesn't translate to playoff success/SuperBowl wins? thats what they play the game for...

peyton will never be the GOAT in my eyes. montana is and will always be the greatest. an argument could be made for brady if he wins against seattle, but till then.. he'll have to settle for 2nd best.

edit:

also, who else vicariously felt embarassed when seth myers or whatever his name is was cracking jokes about luck's neck beard or when he made jokes regarding green bay's loss? lol rodgers gave him the "stop pls" face

 

[Mercy]

I knew this day was coming but its disappointing to see Bettis get in the HOF and before Terrell Davis.

 

[Shinryu]

Agreeing that Watt should've gotten more votes, but the MVP is pretty much the QB's award to lose since it's such an over centralizing position. Even with a dominating performance on par with Lawrence Taylor, just can't overcome that QB bias. It would take a year of every QB collectively sucking and no historic year by a RB for any defensive player to win it probably.

It was nice to see Arians pick up another coach of the year, I hate the "home" team, but I do like Arians as a coach, and had Palmer stayed healthy, there was a slim, but legit chance they could've been the first Super Bowl team with homefield advantage. It'll be interesting to see what he can squeeze out of them next year, as this one really highlighted the need to draft or get a legit future QB since Stanton isn't the answer and Palmer is an injury away from madness happening.

 

[WaterBomb]

I knew this day was coming but its disappointing to see Bettis get in the HOF and before Terrell Davis.

Eh I don't think he's undeserving, but Terrell Davis should have gotten in before him I agree. The problem with the HOF these days is it has gotten a little diluted. We're probably going to have to endure seeing Eli Manning in the HOF someday, which will be even more sad.