Again, I'm only going on the article I linked but it's not talking about teams' success but attendance figures.

To quote the article:

'is Miami really a sports town? Let’s look at the attendance stats for the current professional teams. The Miami Dolphins play in the NFL and American Football is easily the most popular sport in the US. Miami is currently 20th out of 32 teams in terms of attendance.'

'...the Florida Marlins succeed in hisses and fits. They’ve won a few World Series, but also fielded some pretty bad teams during rebuilding years. Right now, the team’s attendance is 29th out of 30.'

'...the Miami Heat’s attendance is amazing, but probably down more to winning championships and fielding the league’s best player than general sports interest. In fact, if you look back at the team pre-Lebron, their attendance was usually middle of the pack. In 2009, they drew about 18,000 and ranked 15th out of 30 teams.'

Its because in very recent years both the Marlins and the Dolphins have sucked, which drains attendance, but less than ten years ago both were some of the hottest teams in their respective sports. American sports is fickle like that, people bandwagon even their own life-long teams, only diehards attend games when the teams are in losing/rebuild mode. Attendance alone doesn't reflect a cities sports culture and support, you have to look at other figures like TV ratings and merchandise sales too. Further, only LA can New York could probably top Miami in the number of sports bars hosting games every night of the week. And of course the Miami Heat not only were the most successful home-team attendance in the NBA, they were the most successfull road-team averaging 19,000 sold-out attendance at ALL of the 41 road games ;)

And no problem if he wants to sign Victoria but he might need to rethink the strip

Miami MLS will sign Lebron. He will be the Bo Jackson of basketball and wow the world ;)

Sums up the past ten years in Oakland in a single, well-timed gesture.

At 6'8 he'd probably be decent in goal.

Out of interest, why is he such a popular hate figure? It can't just be because of his success.

EDIT: It's OK. I"ll let you all get back to talking about American Rugby in a bit.

While the guy is a BLOCKING MACHINE, I think his sheer speed and attack makes him a patented striker albeit tall. Of course this is just a joke, I'm not going into the "what other sports could Lebron play professionally" because that answer is NONE. The guy is an NBA machine, and he will continue at that. Bo Jackson played baseball and football at an elite level, but he was fucking Bo Jackson, enough said. Neon Deion Sanders played baseball and football at an elite level, but that was fucking Neon Deion, so that is that (notice I managed to wheel this thread back on topic). As to Lebron, its not happening by 28, those two-team elite guys played both sports continuously across their careers.






He's actually not, it was waaaaaay over blown and realistically only lasted one season. His jersey has been the number one selling jersey for several years in a row now. Heat sell out ALL of their road games. He did the same thing when he was in Cleveland. What happened is people just didn't like all the media hype surrounding his leaving Cleveland. That, and he is the best basketball player by leagues and miles above the NBA, and is in fact easily in discussion for the top-10 players OF ALL TIME, even just now halfway through his career, and if we compare him at this half-way point to all the other greats at their half-way point, he'd be in the top-5. People hate on that because Lebron spoils any of their own teams' hopes of winning a championship. Half of America loved Michael Jordan in the 1990s, but then again half of America hated is fucking guts and probably had MJ voodoo dolls (see Utah, Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Utah, New York.. in fact in LA we only started to root for the Bulls because they were beating all of our rivals [see Utah, Seattle, Phoenix..] ).. With Lebron its the same. If you think your team can remotely win a championship, you despise Lebron James because essentially, its not happening ;)

You're obviously better positioned than I am to know but I think it's about a popular image rather than how opposing fans might feel about him. There are massively successful sports stars who remain popular despite the fact they can destroy opposing teams' supporters' hearts: say Messi. Even Real Madrid fans struggle not to like him, whereas Ronaldo divides even Real fans, despite being almost as good as Messi, and has generally become something of a pantomime villain within the game. You'd know better than I do if that's the case with LeBron but I definitely think some players have a 'likability'/'dislikability' factor that goes beyond success and team rivalry.

oh no, not before you start making comparisons to cricket. that comes first.

But futbol is different than NBA, its less personality driven, and the NBA season is lengthier with more games, so mathematically the top-10 guys get that many more opportunities to humiliate your own team. So NBA rivalries tend to have more animosity than other sports, because the season is so long. That, and unlike other sports, in the NBA good teams tend to swoop on the Championships consecutively and sit on them for a few years, which frustrates other teams all the more, because each year their hopes get stamped on, again. By the way, as to likability, Lebron is actually one of the most likeable guys in NBA history, he married his high school sweetheart, he is a jokester, he plays team oriented, pass-first basketball, and generally makes his teammates better. So all the beef has little to do with his personality, its mostly just his stellar game.

The Football season's actually longer than the NBA's, although you're right about teams playing more games in the NBA. And I do agree about the NBA being more personality driven. You'll rarely see Messi or CRonaldo on a talk show. In certain countries like England that could be explained in part by language issues but even an English player will rarely talk to the their own media, and when they do it's largely stage managed by their clubs. There's a definite culture of suspicion towards the media among top footballers that doesn't seem anything like as strong in the US. When I think about it there's actually very few real media personalities in football. Beckham's one, obviously, but he's a rarity and perhaps significantly left Europe for the US as soon as the opportunity arose. Equally, the longest interview I've ever seen with Messi was done for US tv.

And on likability, I agree. LeBron James has always come across well in the interviews I've seen with him. He also seems very comfortable with the media, especially compared with most footballers.

Whoa, I've never had such an exciting victory celebration utterly
deflated by a bonehead move of the year. If Ravens' D wasn't
back in the top-10 we'd have lost this game for sure. It was
battle of the bad quarterback, and surprisingly Dalton was worse!
Is that even possible? I've become convinced that Ravens offense is
sabotaging itself after all the attention Joe Flacco's contract got, they
are trying to intentionally make him look bad by just not playing
100%.. I hope they turn it around, but playoffs seem a long way
away this year, and Bill Barnwell's prediction that they'd regress
to 8-8 seems sooooo less impossible than it did in September.

harsh but true

"
The ball was less than 10 feet from the goal line but Schaub might as well have been asked to throw it across the Pacific Ocean. There was a zero percent chance anything good was going to happen there and everyone knew it. I knew it. Schaub knew it. Andre Johnson knew it. All of the people in the stadium knew it. All of the people on all of the continents knew it and so did the Raiders and so did any actual real raiders that happened to be watching the game or listening to it on radios or however it is that a raider would consume a football game.
The ball was hiked, Schaub threw it way too early to Johnson, Johnson caught it, then he was tackled by 90 people at the 1-yard line. An offside call gave the Texans another opportunity to disappoint everybody so that's what they did; Schaub didn't even get the ball to any of his receivers' hands on his second attempt, instead opting to try to throw it through a mass of Raiders defenders.
After the series, the superheroically even-tempered Johnson was moved to say not nice things to Schaub on the sideline. It was the first time in his decade's worth of games in the NFL that he was so offended by a quarterback's play that he felt compelled to do such a thing, remarkable considering he existed through the David Carr era. I can think of no greater indictment." - Shea Serrano ESPN Grantland

What were y'all expecting after that? What a weird NFL season, all the 11-13 win teams from last season are going to get top draft picks and all the 2-4 win teams from last season look like they are going to make the playoffs! If both Chiefs AND Eagles make the playoffs this year I think it will be an ever bigger Cinderella story than last year's Colts and Redskins surprise play-off berths.. Let alone the Panthers suddenly looking ridiculously good!

Dude. Did you see that Ravens finish? Fucking shit! I had three heart attacks and a stroke! Literally. Never in NFL history has a game had FIVE lead changes in the final 2 minutes 5 seconds. The Ravens won, lost, won, lost, and finally won that game, meanwhile the Vikings lost, won, lost, won, lost that game.... And even I WAS FLACCO hating after 3 horrible interceptions at home. For those in America who don't know, the reason we Ravens' fans love Joe Flacco is unlike the Eli Manning's of the QB world, Cool Joe doesn't get fazed by his own blunders. Time after time (and I wish I had an actual stat for this), after throwing an INT or getting a fumble or even just a great punt return from the opposing team, Joe walks back out on the field as if he was winning and not losing the game, and confidently makes a TD to equalize his mistakes. Yesterday? While clearly the Mile High Miracle demonstrated that Joe Flacco and the Ravens play exceptionally well in cold, Joe said in the post-game that it was his first ever game in the snow. What did he do? He walked down the field in the final 45 seconds of a game that about every person in the world assumed was lost, and scored a game winning TD with 4 seconds to spare on a clutch Hail Mary (while I was literally on my knees praying "Hail Mary Full of Grace"..) pass to a rookie wide-out who just managed to keep both feet down in the endzone to seal the win. FUCKING EPIC!! I didn't think anything could beat that crazy swing in the Lions-Eagles game, until Ravens cut in at the end with the final minutes... too damned bad the Dolphins won too, it would have clinched the Wild Card with their loss.. Now Baltimore simply HAS to go 2-1 against some hard teams just to say competitive, considering Miami is suddenly gifted with a pussy-soft schedule to finish the season :eek:

I was watching Redzone, watching Philly and Lions,a nd then the Ravens. wow. WOW. such awesome games. the lions and eagles did not kick ONCE! ha! love the snow games. the Ravens....wwowowowow. I thought they had shot their load and then they came back again!!!!!!!!!!!

that was the best 3 hours of football I have seen in years. 5 lead changes in 2 minutes!!!!!!!!

I was following the score on my phone on the Metro coming home from church thinking, "What the fuck Flacco, three interceptions at home?? We're screwed.." I kept that feeling alive as I walked in the door and turned on that epic Lions-Eagles game on Fox to see the Eagles SHRED what has been the best run defense in the NFL (over the past 4 weeks that is, allowing just 40 ypg on the ground in that span!) get annihilated. The fucking blizzard obviously played its part, indeed that same snow storm is why Ravens couldn't tackle for their lives, dudes were just bouncing off of each other up and down the field across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland (even the Redskins play in Maryland)...

They interrupt the Lions-Eagles during a referee time-out to show Ravens not only get a TD but also a clinching two-point conversion with 2:05 left in the game. I'm thinking, "FUCKING SHIT WE JUST WON THIS GAME!"

They interrupt literally less than 2 minutes later during another time-out to show the Vikings score on the kick-return with 1:45 left in the game and I say to myself, "FUCKING SHIT WE JUST LOST THIS GAME!"

Then the Eagles blow out ends and Ravens game is played on Fox here locally, to watch probably one of the most epic final minutes of an NFL game since the Jets-Raiders in the "Heidi Game" where Raiders scored two-TDs in nine seconds to come from behind and win... When Ravens got the ball back with 45 seconds, notice not a single person in Baltimore left their seat. No Ravens' fans left that tundra frozen stadium, even though it was mathematically a sure-win for Minnesota. Then Joe marches down the field, wins with a Hail Mary to seal it?

While Joe Flacco may not be on of the most talented Fantasy QBs in the NFL, surely the entire league has noticed by now that there may not be a QB with more sheer come-from-behind-and-clinch-it BALLS than Cool Joe Flacco. On the road in the playoffs? No problem. Playing like shit in front of a disappointed home crowd? We got this. Playing against the best teams in NFL history like Patriots IN New England? No sweat. If there has been a QB with more balls and less visible swag than Joe Flacco, speak now or forever hold your peace ;)

And the Pats roll......

Until next week that is ;)

Rob, if Kubiak in Baltimore brings us back to the playoffs with a stronger offense than 2012 will you be more pissed or indifferent?

Am I a Prophet? Or just noticing the obvious.

I feel bad for Flacco. Kubiak will drive him to mediocrity.

Initially that was my concern, but then I realized, DUH, Kubiak wasn't mediocre, that was all Schaub! If anything, I discovered Ravens were thinking quite the opposite, that instead of bringing Flacco down that looking at Kubiak's history with admittedly mediocre at best QBs will translate into a better Flacco. After all, Flacco gets a bad rap because he isn't a stat padding QB, but the guy is far from mediocre with 10-4 playoffs record and SB/SB MVP..

ESPN points out:


If Schaub can throw for nearly 5000 yards and Plummer can beat out Favre in Kubiak system than Flacco can MOST DEFINITELY improve, period! I'm not a fan, but I will admit that Kubiak has made some great lemonade in his career working with mediocre QBs, and while Flacco gets a bad rap because of his streaky stats, the guy is good, in fact, the second most clutch (i.e. game winning drives in 4th qtr) QB behind Tom Brady since 2008 in come from behind wins.
Also, Ravens need to seriously resurrect the run game, and Kubiak did very well scheming for Arian Foster, Ravens are confident that he can similarly boost up a recovering Ray Rice, plus he is familiar with our back up Vonta Leach.

http://johnnyunicorn.bandcamp.com/al...14-128-song-ep

Big Game 2014 (128 song EP) by Johnny Unicorn

I guess every player on the Super Bowl teams gets their own song. Something like that.

The head official was able to handle Joe Namath's speed better than Denver handled Seattle's.

Joe Namath was so wasted! ha! The official totally handled it like a pro!

YES he did!

Seahawks won by 35 last night......the previous 6 Super Bowls were decided by a total of 34 points.

I hate the Broncos so much, mostly because they used to kill the Oilers nearly every year in the playoffs, and because fuck the broncos.

Fuck John Elway too.

I guess it is pretty safe to assume the Seahawks will open next NFL season on Thursday night against the 49ers......

By The Way, that Bob Dylan commercial for Chrysler made me want tO BARF in his ugly-ass face

The Denver Broncos curse strikes again, and not only gut checks John Elway but even manages to drag Peyton Manning out of Greatest All Time conversations!

Broncos set NFL record worst 2-5 in Superbowl
Peyton Manning breaks Favre's record word 12 postseason losses..

Haha, America is naively calling this a "boring game" MEH.

I'm not on Seattle's bandwagon in the slightest but man, that was one of the best games I've ever seen!! Seahawks utterly thwarted EVERY single option for the Broncos. Peyton said "embarrassing" is an insult, yup, I agree, sorry about that Peyton, the better term would be, "HUMILIATED."

Do they not appreciate the kind of guttural, savage, primal defense that we haven't only seen about 3 or 4 times in NFL history? That is right, last night Seahawks officially climbed into the top-5 all-time defenses in NFL history. My list? (1) 85 Bears (2) 2000 Ravens (3) 2013 Seahawks (4) 1976 Steelers (5) 1973 Dolphins


Personal Bias: I HATE PEYTON MANNING. DUDE SENT MY RAVENS HOME TWO CRUCIAL YEARS, and yeah, we got out payback too, but still, those wounds sting. That, and I never like the fan boy, dick riding favorites. People are honestly STILL trying to apologize for Peyton, still claiming his legacy isn't tainted, still, trying to say he is the best all time? Haven't they watched him throw pick-6s in THREE Superbowls now (an NFL record btw).. Haven't they watched him have SEVEN first round exits as one-and-done duds? Meh. To me, last night was almost as vindicating as last year's Ravens' win, it sealed my opinon substantively that Peyton Manning is a shitty QB who pads his stats in the season beating up on weak teams. Hey Tom Brady, you're legacy is next ;)

I hated every commercial.

The most fun part of the Super Bowl for Denver may have been the coin-toss, all 1 minute and 20 seconds of it.

Transcript of Joe Namath's Super Bowl coin-toss, 2014

Stadium P.A. Announcer - "Coin-toss participants, Super Bowl legends Joe Namath of the New York Jets and Phil Simms of the New york Giants. And now, referee Terry McCauley (sp?)."
Ref - "Congratulations gentlemen. Welcome to Super Bowl 48. Please shake hands."
Team Captains - (incoherent mumbling)
Russel Wilson, shaking hands - "Have a good game. Have a good game."
Wes Welker - "You too."
David Bruton - " Thank you."
Ref - "Step back. This is the coin. The side with team logos and the Lombardi trophy is heads. The stadium is tails. It is my honor to present Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath, to toss the coin."
(Off-screen) - " Do it Joe!"
Joe Namath - "Allright folks..."
Ref - "Seat....uh!"
Wesley Woodyard - "woahwhoahwoah WHOA!"
Ref - "Seattle's the visiting team. Who's going to call the toss?"
Heath Farwell - "Tails."
Joe Namath - (laughs)
Ref- "Tails. He called Tails. Now Joe."
Joe Namath to Heath Farwell- "I got a quick release, you know what..."
Line Judge to Ref, jokingly - "What's he call?"
Re6 - "Tails."
Phil Simms to Ref -"That's a good catch."
Ref after Namath flips the coin - "It is Tails. You won the toss."
Seattle player - "We defer."
Ref - "Seattle won the toss. Defers to the second half. You want the ball. Which way are you gonna kick? Place your backs over here. Denver will receive."

^^thanks for sharing the transcript......Broadway Joe was straight pimpin in that fox fur coat.

It took me 15 minutes to transcribe that shit right! Too funny. Joe Namath don;t give a fuck bout NOTHIN

I was close, the Seahawk vs. Packer score Thursday night was not.

And so it begins......