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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 14:42:29 GMT
Post by kds on Apr 1, 2020 14:42:29 GMT
No doubt. And that's always the case, too: "classic era" is almost always your era! Music, TV, movies, sports. But you're right that financially the NFL has been huge in recent years. I think fantasy football being more widely and easily available and the inclusion of female fans into the experience is behind that as much as (or more than) the quality of the games. But rules and style changes to favor the offenses probably are relevant as well.
At some point things go the other direction, though. Whenever something is so huge...well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. I don't see a bright future for football.
I think referring to "your era" as the best era happens more with sports than anything. In general, most of my favorite music was released prior to my existence.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 14:58:45 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Apr 1, 2020 14:58:45 GMT
No doubt. And that's always the case, too: "classic era" is almost always your era! Music, TV, movies, sports. But you're right that financially the NFL has been huge in recent years. I think fantasy football being more widely and easily available and the inclusion of female fans into the experience is behind that as much as (or more than) the quality of the games. But rules and style changes to favor the offenses probably are relevant as well.
At some point things go the other direction, though. Whenever something is so huge...well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. I don't see a bright future for football.
I think referring to "your era" as the best era happens more with sports than anything. In general, most of my favorite music was released prior to my existence. I don't know if that's true of the general population, though. It's true for me, as well, and I'm not saying we're the two outliers in the whole world. But for example, I've seen countless examples of people roughly our age talking about NKOTB reunion tours or Backstreet Boys or whatever as "old school, the classics, the best" etc. I think most people truly do look at what they grew up on as the best. Older is just old, newer is no good. But "back in my day..."
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 15:02:26 GMT
Post by kds on Apr 1, 2020 15:02:26 GMT
I think referring to "your era" as the best era happens more with sports than anything. In general, most of my favorite music was released prior to my existence. I don't know if that's true of the general population, though. It's true for me, as well, and I'm not saying we're the two outliers in the whole world. But for example, I've seen countless examples of people roughly our age talking about NKOTB reunion tours or Backstreet Boys or whatever as "old school, the classics, the best" etc. I think most people truly do look at what they grew up on as the best. Older is just old, newer is no good. But "back in my day..." I don't know. Between going on various places on the internets, and even just my friends, I know a lot of people my age or younger who appreciate music from the 60s and 70s. But, with sports, as much as I'll acknowledge the Orioles, for example, had far better teams prior to my fandom, nothing beats the teams I actually followed.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 15:05:35 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Apr 1, 2020 15:05:35 GMT
Let's take a nationwide poll!
With sports, though, I think that's definitely right. Especially since until the very recent past, you'd have no real way of connecting with previous eras. Maybe you'd see highlights. MAYBE you could find game tapes somewhere. But nothing beats the day-to-day tracking of your favorite players and teams, and you can't do that in hindsight.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 15:19:12 GMT
Post by kds on Apr 1, 2020 15:19:12 GMT
Let's take a nationwide poll!
With sports, though, I think that's definitely right. Especially since until the very recent past, you'd have no real way of connecting with previous eras. Maybe you'd see highlights. MAYBE you could find game tapes somewhere. But nothing beats the day-to-day tracking of your favorite players and teams, and you can't do that in hindsight.
Exactly. I do go back and listen to albums by older bands. It's far easier to take in pop culture from the past than sports. Books and highlight films just don't do it justice.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 15:22:56 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Apr 1, 2020 15:22:56 GMT
Yep. It's one thing to rewatch a game that you know Jordan scored XX points in, or Eric Dickerson ran for XXX yards. It's another to be watching a game in which something spectacular happens.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 15:39:13 GMT
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 1, 2020 15:39:13 GMT
When I look at the changes in the NFL from the time of my first "good old days", which were the mid/late 1960's up until 2020, it's incredible. When I followed pro football in the 1960's, there were only games on Sunday afternoon, and sometimes there was only one game (depending on the local TV station programming). This is pre-Monday night football and obviously pre-Thursday night and Sunday night Football. There was no talk radio or multiple TV sports' talk shows. Today you can purchase just about any kind of team merchandise and memorabilia; in the "old days" you were lucky if you could find a team t-shirt. You have the extensive draft coverage. Free agency week(s). When a team wins the Super Bowl there is a huge parade. And the biggest change, other than the rules, would be Fantasy Football/gambling. But the bottom line for me is - is it any more of an enjoyable "following experience"? That's a complicated answer.
Another old Philadelphia Eagles' story, related to the Super Bowl winning parades...When the Eagles won the NFL championship in 1961, they celebrated by having a team dinner the night of the championship game at a local Philadelphia restaurant - and that was it. Eagles' DB Tom Brookshier told the story of going into a local Philly store shortly after the championship game, and seeing a set of three special Eagles' championship glasses displayed. Tom didn't have a credit card, so he asked how much the glasses cost. It turns out that he didn't even have enough cash with him to purchase the glasses. The sales clerk didn't know who he was, and after Brooky telling the clerk who he was, still wouldn't accept what money Tom had with him, and Tom walked disappointing away. Needless to say, you couldn't comprehend a story like that happening...ever!
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 15:44:44 GMT
Post by kds on Apr 1, 2020 15:44:44 GMT
I do think fantasy football has skewed the ways look at players. In Baltimore, many fans completely undervalued Joe Flacco because he wasn't a big fantasy stats guy.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 16:07:55 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Apr 1, 2020 16:07:55 GMT
I do think fantasy football has skewed the ways look at players. In Baltimore, many fans completely undervalued Joe Flacco because he wasn't a big fantasy stats guy. 100% agree. Not just the way people look at players, but who looks at players. I think more and more people with no interest or history actually playing the game (even just for fun in the backyard) have become "fans."
That's fine, you don't have to be a player to be a fan. But it also skews perspective somewhat, as more people only consider the measurable statistics, and confuse that with what is valuable on the field (or court).
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 16:11:00 GMT
Post by kds on Apr 1, 2020 16:11:00 GMT
I do think fantasy football has skewed the ways look at players. In Baltimore, many fans completely undervalued Joe Flacco because he wasn't a big fantasy stats guy. 100% agree. Not just the way people look at players, but who looks at players. I think more and more people with no interest or history actually playing the game (even just for fun in the backyard) have become "fans."
That's fine, you don't have to be a player to be a fan. But it also skews perspective somewhat, as more people only consider the measurable statistics, and confuse that with what is valuable on the field (or court). Right, often times, certain intangibles are tougher to measure. I mentioned this on the MLB thread, but baseball is trending that way too with the rise of sabremetrics.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 16:16:35 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Apr 1, 2020 16:16:35 GMT
Sadly basketball has gone pretty far down that road already as well. Great for sheer numbers of fans, great for commerce, but it's annoying to talk with a "fan" about players or games and realize they are only spouting Player Efficiency Ratings or Defensive Win Shares rather than understanding what is happening on the court.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 19:32:06 GMT
Post by kds on Apr 1, 2020 19:32:06 GMT
Sadly basketball has gone pretty far down that road already as well. Great for sheer numbers of fans, great for commerce, but it's annoying to talk with a "fan" about players or games and realize they are only spouting Player Efficiency Ratings or Defensive Win Shares rather than understanding what is happening on the court. That just sounds awful. I've had similar conversations about baseball and all they want to talk about is WAR (wins against replacement).
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 20:19:40 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Apr 1, 2020 20:19:40 GMT
Oooh, that's a basketball one, too. Actually it's a couple: VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) and WARP (Wins Above Replacement Player). Different outlets have different proprietary algorithms make different numbers that are something between obvious enough without knowing the algorithm on one hand and wholly unnecessary to know on the other.
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NFL
Apr 1, 2020 22:32:08 GMT
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 1, 2020 22:32:08 GMT
Hey, kds, check this out:
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NFL
Apr 3, 2020 19:52:04 GMT
Post by kds on Apr 3, 2020 19:52:04 GMT
Hey, kds, check this out:
That's stirred up a minor controversy here in Baltimore. But, then again, fans want anything to talk about right now.
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