O/T Oi! Americans!

[Terre Harte II]

Leeds losing was not my worst loss on Saturday. Leeds 49ers pull the shocker at Lambeau.

FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK*.

* I hope the 49ers throw us some dosh for the transfer window.

Of all the playoff chokes that must make the Rodgers-era Packers top 5

Difficult to feel sorry for a team with such an odious character behind centre. I reserve the right to change my mind on that is he goes to the Panthers this off season…

Fair play to the 9ers. I think Brady takes care of them but should the Rams get through it’s anybody's

Why couldn't Tyler Roberts be loaned out to the 49ers? He's good for some interceptions and no finishing quality. Put him in for the winning field goal and I feel pretty good.

Christ. Green Bay's special teams were FedEx'd from the seventh circle of hell, but if your offense moves the ball with any kind of competence, it never comes down to that.

Getting shit-talked by not-won-shit-since-Take On Me-was-on-the-charts Chicago Bears fans on social media was a nice piss cherry on a shit sundae too. At least I have 30 years of ammunition to shoot those no-account fuckers down.

As for Breitbart Starr (borrowed), he can fuck off. I mostly silently tolerated his nonsense under the assumption he would produce when it mattered. He didn't, so he can go take his mid-life crisis, self-aggrandizing, contrarian-as-confused-with-intelligence, immunized bullshit somewhere else.

Almost certainly guaranteed to be rooting for the AFC rep in the Super Bowl again. Bengals, Bills and Chiefs are all tolerable. Rams? I guess, but the 49ers can suck my left nut sideways, and the Bucs? I need another dose of Tom Brady worship like I need a Raphinha free kick delivered with inch-perfect GPS right at my jewels.

I hate sports so fucking much.

[MightyWhite]

Feels like the Packers under LeFleur and Guda-whatever have never found that second option in the passing game. I know Adams is probably the best around currently but the likes of Lazard, St.Brown, Valdes-Scantling and the corpse of Randall Cobb are about as JAG as you get in the NFL.

That said, considering the conditions, I reckon one of the biggest contributing factors for the loss was Dillon going out. The running game pretty much went out the window after that.

Big summer of change ahead for the Packers you'd expect.

[FredFlintstone]

Can't say I'm sorry to see GB knocked off (sorry) as the thought of the Bucs having to go up there in similar conditions left me feeling... well, cold. -16C on the field in 'feels like' temperature was just crazy.

Did love the meme last night of Tannehill showing him 'Regular Season Tannehill' in his Titans uniform and "Post Season Tannehill" in his Dolphins uni

Titans have only themselves to blame. How do you sack the opposing QB 9 (Nine) times in a game and still let them hang in there long enough to kick the winning FG on the final drive?

Additional reason to want the Bucs (FIRE THE CANNONS!!!) to knock off the Rams tonight is that watching Sean McVay charging up and down the sidelines celebrating like a maniac reminds me of David Wagner pulling that shit against us a few years back. Needs a good slap. And a flag for taunting too probably.

On a side note to the playoffs: Is anyone else surprised at how slow the HC market is moving this year? Usual round of firings is no surprise but the fact that nobody has moved to appoint a replacement yet is odd. I guess as one pundit said "it suggests that there really isn't a 'must have' candidate this year", even though the talking heads seemed really high on Brian Flores after Miami canned him.

[Terre Harte II]

Fred, come join me in playoff football hell.

[MightyWhite]

Fuck me that 4th quarter. Sport at its best.

[Terre Harte II]

Fuck me that 4th quarter. Sport at its best.

Plenty of stupid shit, but very dramatic, yes.

Can't believe the Bucs blitzed and left Cooper Kupp one-on-one against a safety. That's a bold choice.

[FredFlintstone]

Fred, come join me in playoff football hell.

Right there with you

TB12 just started too cold today. He's gotten away with it a could of times since arriving in Tampa but this is the playoffs... No 'do overs'. You can't spot teams early leads with 3'n'outs and not expect to get punished.

I'm not sure he comes back next year. But if he doesn't he's already given the Bucs two years of happy memories.

[Terre Harte II]

Kansas City-Buffalo currently going to OT. One of the best games I’ve seen in a long time.

[Chieftain626]

This game is nuts

[Chieftain626]

These QBs are so good

[Terre Harte II]

Dopey NFL overtime rule creates a buzzkill finish. The hue and cry is loud on my social media. NFL needed to change the OT rule 40 years ago.

[MightyWhite]

What a bloody game, just ludicrous levels of quality from the QBs. Ridiculous.

I don’t know how any of the remaining teams keep up with Mahomes and the Chiefs. Though I recognise I probably said the same about the Buccs last year.

[Chieftain626]

Yeah OT rules make it the ending suck.

But that was an incredible game 2 guys operating at the absolute peak of QB play they were so good neither team deserved to lose,

Bills should have squib kicked the kick off with 13 seconds left.

[AndyPaul]

I quite like watching a bit of NFL but never fully get into the games and I've realised it's because I'm no good as a neutral. I'm like it with other sports too.

I need a team. I need the Leeds of the NFL. A fairly big team but not the biggest, certainly not the richest. Goes through its fair share of bad times but come through it. Usually disappoints in the end but it's a fun ride of ups and downs.

Any ideas?

[Chieftain626]

I quite like watching a bit of NFL but never fully get into the games and I've realised it's because I'm no good as a neutral. I'm like it with other sports too.

I need a team. I need the Leeds of the NFL. A fairly big team but not the biggest, certainly not the richest. Goes through its fair share of bad times but come through it. Usually disappoints in the end but it's a fun ride of ups and downs.

Any ideas?

Bills, they also have an amazing QB so are going to be fun to watch for a while.

[MightyWhite]

The way the NFL works, with salary caps, drafts, and the likes, means that most teams have doldrum years followed by periods of success. It’d probably be easier to list which teams to avoid based on your criteria, which I would say were Patriots, Packers, Steelers, Ravens and probably 49ers. They’re your teams that are perpetually good-to-very good. Throw in the Cowboys with that too as they’re the Man U of the NFL and are fun to laugh at when they fail.

If I could offer one tip, if you think you’ll get bang into it try and pick a team that’s not on or near the East Coast. This means they’ll typically play in the 9pm slot and leave you free to enjoy the 6pm games on Redzone - which is by far the best live sport show on tv.

[London_White]

Been a Vikings fan since seeing them at Wembley in 1982 when they played in the first NFL pre season game outside of the US I think.
They were playing the St Louis Cardinals who wore rred, Vikings wore purple - I was 20 years old and that's what made me pick the Vikings
They have, I think, the highest win percentage and best divisional record of any team (that has not won the Superbowl) - seems pretty Leeds like to me!

[Terre Harte II]

I quite like watching a bit of NFL but never fully get into the games and I've realised it's because I'm no good as a neutral. I'm like it with other sports too.

I need a team. I need the Leeds of the NFL. A fairly big team but not the biggest, certainly not the richest. Goes through its fair share of bad times but come through it. Usually disappoints in the end but it's a fun ride of ups and downs.

Any ideas?

Packers fit your criteria to a tee. Haven’t had too many bad times recently, but have in the past. Support for the Packers is as virulent as is it for Leeds.

Team is community-owned, so no dickhead owner. I can speak from personal experience that they usually disappoint.

Aaron Rodgers, if he stays, which is unlikely, is an anti-vaxxer, self-aggrandizing dickhead, but he’s likely to leave, and besides, nearly every other team has someone who is odious for one reason or another.

Other teams that fit your criteria
(I didn’t pick any teams that relocated or that were recent expansion teams)
Bills (honestly, history is much like Leeds, white-hot periods of brilliance; followed by long spells of shit, extremely loyal, but relatively small fanbase, Buffalo, though, is smaller in the context of American cities as Leeds is to English ones for what that’s worth. Buffalo is comparatively more like Sheffield or Norwich)
Eagles (bob from really good to mediocre, OK history, dickhead, but loyal, fans)
Dolphins (long recent dry spell, but good history, lots of fans)
Browns (extremely loyal fans, rich history, very tortured recent history, though better lately)
Chiefs (good fans, best team in NFL at present, but most of history is one of falling short)
Broncos (shit at present, but with a rich history, fanbase is massive)
49ers (Leeds connection, recently have gone from extreme highs to lows, lots of fans, but tend to be fickle)
Seahawks (very good for last 10 years, very mixed history prior, fans are very loyal, though I rarely see them being that they’re Pacific NW)

Teams To Avoid (totally biased edition)
Vikings (they fit much of your criteria, but fuck them, plus they play inside because they’re soft)
Bears (fuck them the hardest)

[Terre Harte II]

For those of you in the UK, what is the experience of following the NFL there like? How much is it covered? How much access do you get to it?

It’s funny that Mighty mentioned the 6 and 9 pm time slots, which are 1 and 4 pm here. Hard work to follow along, just as, in a different way, it can be hard work to follow English football here.

My job and my disposition means I am not a morning person, so the noon EPL kickoffs there are 7 am here, and I typically avoid them and watch the match on delay via streaming.

Are those options available for the NFL there?

[MightyWhite]

For those of you in the UK, what is the experience of following the NFL there like? How much is it covered? How much access do you get to it?

It’s funny that Mighty mentioned the 6 and 9 pm time slots, which are 1 and 4 pm here. Hard work to follow along, just as, in a different way, it can be hard work to follow English football here.

My job and my disposition means I am not a morning person, so the noon EPL kickoffs there are 7 am here, and I typically avoid them and watch the match on delay via streaming.

Are those options available for the NFL there?

We’re very well catered for here. It’s not that dissimilar to the Premier League in that viewers abroad can see more games than those that actually live in the country of the league’s origin.

Sky show a 1pm and 4pm game each week, along with all the TNF, SNF and MNF games and RedZone. Channel 5, a free to air terrestrial channel, show MNF and have a highlights programme. The BBC show the London games live and also has a weekly magazine highlight show on after Match of the Day on Saturday nights. On top of that the outside-US version of Gamepass is about £140 a year and let’s you watch any game you want - live or retrospectively.

Viewing experience is not too bad, although night time kick offs are a no go for anyone other than insomniacs. You just come to peace with the fact between September and February you’re going to be groggy on Monday mornings