Tag: NFL Playoffs 2012

NFL 2012 NFC Championship- Giants @ ‘9ers

I’m sorry for you left coasters, but LXVI is going to be an I-95 affair between New York and Boston.  If I can find it I’ll have some passages from The King’s Best Highway which I got for eksmas about how this vital artery of colonial communication led to our freedom from monarchical tyranny.

Or not.

FIVE TURNOVERS!  That’s what it took for the ‘9ers to eek the slimmest of victories over the Saints.  The Giants are not that mistake prone.

NFL 2012 AFC Championship- Ravens @ Patriots

I could drag this out but why bother?

The unfortunate thing about Throwball is that I saw enough last weekend to satisfy me for an entire season and make my picks.

The Ravens didn’t show anything against the Texans that leads me to believe there will be a surprising upset against the execrable Patsies who at least had the good grace to eliminate Tebowmentum from our national discourse.

I only hope the Ravens do sufficiently well to make the point crystal clear.

Pre-game hype happening on CBS right now.

NFL 2012 Divisional Playoffs- Giants @ Packers

THE most interesting game of this post season including XLVI.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that either the Giants or the Packers will beat the ‘9ers next week; after all, without 5 turn overs by the Saints last night, they wouldn’t have won.  The Giants are capable of sucking like that, there’s a reason they had to play the Falcons last week.  The Packers on the other hand had a near perfect season losing but once (to the Chiefs– wtf?).

All year long I root, to the extent I pay any attention at all to Throwball (a brain damaged collection of steroid addicts, and those are the owners), for two teams- the Giants out of geography and the Packers.

Now I am prejudiced by my lineage, I’m only half troll; but if any team can be said to be ‘America’s Team’, it’s the Packers.

The Packers are the last vestige of “small town teams” that were once common in the NFL during the 1920s and 1930s. Founded in 1919 by Earl “Curly” Lambeau (hence the name Lambeau Field on which the team plays) and George Whitney Calhoun, the Green Bay Packers can trace their lineage to other semi-professional teams in Green Bay dating back to 1896. In 1919 and 1920 the Packers competed as a semi-professional football team against clubs from around Wisconsin and the Midwest. They joined the American Professional Football Association (APFA) in 1921, the forerunner to what is known today as the National Football League (NFL). The Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States.

Based on the original “Articles of Incorporation for the (then) Green Bay Football Corporation” put into place in 1923, if the Packers franchise was sold, after the payment of all expenses, any remaining monies would go to the Sullivan-Wallen Post of the American Legion in order to build “a proper soldier’s memorial.” This stipulation was enacted to ensure the club remained in Green Bay and that there could never be any financial enhancement for the shareholders. At the November 1997 annual meeting, shareholders voted to change the beneficiary from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation.

In 1950, the Packers held a stock sale to again raise money to support the team. In 1956, area voters approved the construction of a new stadium, owned by the city. As with its predecessor, the new field was named City Stadium, but after the death of founder Lambeau in 1965, on September 11, 1965, the stadium was renamed Lambeau Field.

Another stock sale occurred late in 1997 and early in 1998. It added 105,989 new shareholders and raised over $24 million, money used for the Lambeau Field redevelopment project. Priced at $200 per share, fans bought 120,010 shares during the 17-week sale, which ended March 16, 1998. As of June 8, 2005, 111,921 people (representing 4,749,925 shares) can lay claim to a franchise ownership interest. Shares of stock include voting rights, but the redemption price is minimal, no dividends are ever paid, the stock cannot appreciate in value, and stock ownership brings no season ticket privileges.

No shareholder may own over 200,000 shares, a safeguard to ensure that no individual can assume control of the club. To run the corporation, a board of directors is elected by the stockholders. The board of directors in turn elect a seven-member Executive Committee (officers) of the corporation, consisting of a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and three members-at-large. The president is the only officer to draw compensation; The balance of the committee is sitting “gratis.”

As American as that pie the Apple Knockers make when they come to God’s Country to shoot at stuff and leave their money behind.

I’m looking forward to a Green and Gold repeat.

NFL 2012 Divisional Playoffs- Texans @ Ravens

As I said last night Throwball Playoffs are really about picking the team you hate most.  This particular game is about picking the best team to beat the execrable Patsies whose only redeeming feature is that they are slightly less over rated than the unlamented Broncos (let’s see them run up the score against a team without a High School Offense).

The analysts were picking the Ravens to face the Broncos which makes me naturally suspicious (see: “the only class of establishment media even dumber and more corrupt than political pundits“) AND there is their history of carpetbagging greed.

The Texans are a pure expansion franchise but they are from Texas.  Last week they decisively beat the Bengals to advance.  Given that the Ravens are said to have the advantage in every category it’s hard to explain why they are only 13 point favorites in a low scoring game (23 – 10) unless Flacco really is as bad as they say.

My contrarian instinct is forcing me to go against my ingrained disdain for all things Lone Star and pick the Texans but what I’ll actually be looking for is a team that can boot the Patsies.

NFL 2012 Divisional Playoffs- Broncos @ Patriots

Now you might think living in Stars Hollow as I do that this would be an easy pick.

Not so.

You see, I still remember how Kraft dicked around Hartford to get Foxboro to pick up the cost of his new stadium, the greedy bastard.  Tom Brady is a stuck up jock who’s not even half as good as he thinks he is and Bill Belichick a backstabbing traitor.

That said they’re up against Tim Tebow, the most over rated Quarterback in the NFL next to John Elway who also played for the Broncos.

The Patsies will wipe the floor with them.  They don’t even belong on the same field.

Throwball Playoffs are all about which team you hate more.  That and the pretty uniform colors.

NFL 2012 Divisional Playoffs- Saints @ ‘9ers

First off I apologize for missing “Wild Card Weekend”, like the rest of the season I’m sure it was thrilling (yawn).  Actually I’m just as happy the Giants advanced though it does introduce rooting conflicts later.

In case you forgot this season started with a massive labor dispute which the players mostly won-

The players won $1 billion in additional benefits for retired players, an opportunity to stay in the players’ medical plan for life, increased minimum salaries, the continuation of a 16-game regular season schedule, improvements in player safety, increased injury protection, unrestricted free agency after four years, a true salary floor, and increased roster size. Some of the major player safety improvements included five fewer weeks of organized off-season practice, limited on-field practice time, limited full-contact practices, elimination of two-a-day practices in pads, and an increase in the number of days off of work. The players also prevented the owners from knocking them down to 42 percent of league revenues, with a decreasing percentage each year. Starting in 2012, the players also won 55 percent of national media revenue, 45 percent of all NFL Ventures revenue, and 40 percent of local club revenue.

if you can call that winning.

In today’s first contest it’s the Saints who pretty much crushed the unexpectedly good Lions like bugs last week.  The matchup of #3 v. the #2 ‘9ers is pretty much a pick ’em in my estimation though it hardly ever turns out that way.  The majority of sports analysts (the only class of establishment media even dumber and more corrupt than political pundits) point to the ‘9ers crushing, smothering defense ignoring the fact that the Saints have a pretty crushing, smothering defense of their own.

Since they are always wrong I confidently predict a high scoring shoot-out with the Saints ultimately prevailing.

Which would be nice I suppose, I admit some lingering affection for the Katrina Kids of 2009.

Feel free to disagree below.