Question For The Old-Timers

[PA Cowboy Fan]

This is not the same game I used to love.

 

[RodeoJake]

It's become less sport and more entertainment. The NFL needs to find a good balance to keep it a sport that is entertaining.

 

[gjkoeppen]

No ones pointing a gun at your head making you watch.

That's right and there's no reason why fans can't voice their disapproval of how the game has changed. The NFL has lost track of the fact that the fans are root for all the money they make.
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[atlantacowboy]

The game is flag football compared to the 70's when I really got into watching the sport. Back then, it meant something to be part of a team and the team always came first. The players took the game more personally. There was no handshaking and back patting of opponents before or after the game. The team rivalries were real.

At some point , the league got away from promoting the teams and the rivalries and focused more on the individual players and their exploits.......ESPN had a lot to do with ruining the sport. Games are now an endless parade of self-aggrandizing knuckleheads who just want everyone to look at them and what they just did. I root for the cowboys more out of nostalgia than any love for the current game.

 

[Gangsta Spanksta]

I understand rules to protect players, but what really sucked the fun out of the NFL, are a bunch of the rules Goodell has implemented that seem that they are changing the rules just for the sake of it. Also think the Emmitt Smith rule was total bull, I used to enjoy seeing the players out there without their helmets on,between plays, as it sort of gave teams a personality. Geez they even edited out that footage from the cowboys greatest games vid. Anyway I'm surprised, nobody has suffered from heat exhaustion because they can't take their helmets off between plays and sued the league.

 

[Blackrain]

I was talking about it today I can barely watch these games anymore . Its so far from what I used to enjoy watching I can hardly stomach it .

There are too many teams talent is too diluted . Watching the Cowboys now makes me feel like I did when I visited my GGrandmother in the nursing Home . I knew I had to do it out of respect and loyalty but seeing her like that was just sad just like watching this current game and team is .
Cowboys are the last team I follow gave up on Baseball Hockey and Basketball. Loved The Big Red Machine, Flyers Bruins Rivalry of the 70s .. Followed the Lakers Bulls and Heat but eventually gave up .

The game once had substance . It was played by great men that you would want to meet and talk to . Now that Witten retired I cant think of any of these current players that I would even want to have a beer with .

 

[CouchCoach]

There are way too many "i"s in team. That one thing is ruining the game for me.

 

[BourbonBalz]

The game is no where near as fun to watch as it was back in the 70’s. Rule changes have destroyed it and continue to do so. I don’t get close to as pumped up for games like I used to. It’s just not very interesting today.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Teams today have no identities due to free agency and constant player and coaching changes. The NFL also doesn’t have “characters” today like several decades ago. Like most things, money has ruined the game. Players used to want to win more than anything. Now they make business decisions on the field and only worry about their next contract. It used to be a sport that was also a business. Now it’s a business that is also a sport.

 

[FineFan]

Back in the old days we won a few Super Bowls. So the last few decades haven't been as much fun. Yet I'm still a fan.

 

[gjkoeppen]

I remember when the league outlawed the bump and run and there were some that said it had become one step away from flag football then and now years later and a zillion of rule changes it really is just about flag football. What do you think the members of the Doom Day Defense would say about tackling and somehow not landing on a QB or get flagged for landing with your body weight on the QB.

 

[dallasdave]

Back in the old days we won a few Super Bowls. So the last few decades haven't been as much fun. Yet I'm still a fan.

Hang in there, things will turn around.

 

[HonoluluCowboy]

I guess I'm a old timer (fan since the 70's) and I miss when our Cowboys we're the most exiting team in the NFL....the shotgun...doomsday....today's Cowboys team no matter what success it may have now or in the future is boring being without what made our Cowboys America's team.....the long passing game is gone....the trick plays are gone...the great coaching..we no longer have a 88 out there....we no longer have a QB who you have confidence will bring you back and win it in the final seconds....we are a Boring and anemic offense and 1 long (Last week) TD pass in 10 games pretty much says it all for our Cowboys of today.....if this continues our status as America's team will be tested as the fan base will phase out as we no longer have the fundamentals that made our team America's team......This is what happens when a oil man decides to play GM of a football team....shame ......

Same Pappy. I used to love the O line under Landry pre snap do their thing.

 

[Captain-Crash]

it's basically wrestling now. WWENFL.

 

[triplets_93]

I'm just a sucker for the 70's Cowboys, Tom Landry, The Doomsday Defense, and Roger The Dodger.
But today's Cowboys just leave me flat. They do things that I hardly if ever saw done under Tom Landry. The Football brains left the building with Jimmy Johnson. What's left is the incredible marketer/businessman Jones and his very profitable Franchise.

 

[Brax]

That's right and there's no reason why fans can't voice their disapproval of how the game has changed. The NFL has lost track of the fact that the fans are root for all the money they make.
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The only voice that fans have is to stop buying tickets to games, but since they have made most tickets season tickets fans will have no say unless they say to the NFL take your crappy NFL and shove it and do not renew seasons tickets and stop going to games and Stop watching on TV and do not buy NFL merchandise, (Most will not do it ) and the NFL will listen as low ratings mean $$$ from networks go down. Safety rules are one thing but the changing of the game to just see all these points, handicap defenses and horrid ref calls that are changing the out of games every week really make you wonder. They have their own propaganda team the NFL Network that keep telling the fans the game is really better now and the game is evolving and getting better. It will just get worse and worse until it is totally ruined. RG is the worst thing that ever happened to this league. Give me bump run coverage , clean sacks, good D and great O any day over what is presented today. It is really becoming fairy football especially where the QB is concerned. , today’s league is built around most every team be mediocre because that keep most fans hopeful that’s why there are so few year in and out winning teams. As long as big $$$$ keep rolling in you the fan doesn’t mean S**t to the NFL. The NFL has never asked the fans what they think and it is obvious the only say a fan has is with their purse or wallet.

 

[kskboys]

You're right, without a doubt. He is just the face of what I don't like. Just doing what the tell him to, but the crap with Zeke had his greasy fingerprints all over it.

The Zeke situation was amazingly similar to our legal system. Basically, if Zeke had owned up to whatever he did and just said I'm sorry, the suspension would've been reduced. Same as our legal system. And that's what happened w/ Winston.

Looks to me like Zeke got some bad advice from Jerry in this case. If Jerry's the one who gave the advice to deny deny deny.

 

[kskboys]

The game is dying from leadership in the NFL office and I watch fewer games every year. if I didn't have such a love for cowboys. I'd be through with watching football. they've ruined almost all the sports for me. basketball, nascar. they had better start paying attention. computer games are going to make them irrelevant mostly in some years ahead. and yet, they insist on killing their own game even sooner.

Money and greed in general has ruined sports. It's not just the owners, though they definitely play a part.

 

[cern]

over and over, as the owners screwed the players, they told them it's just a business. the players finally got the memo and are now throwing it back in the owners face. after all, it's just business. the owners created the monsters. it is ironic to me that fans tried to ban boxing due to its violence. same for mma. but not ok for football??? the mob is a fickle lot.

 

[DBOY3141]

FA and rule changes have killed the NFL. This theory that FA creates parity is false. There was parity before FA. The Steelers were terrible till they got a real coach and FO in the 70's. The Giants were terrible till they got a real coach in the 80's. Those are just two examples. Teams should be rewarded by knowing how to build a football team, not how to manage the cap. Keeping players with teams for 8-12 years is how most fans become fans. Players would still be rich beyond their dreams without FA.

The NFL is a higher priced version of Arena football.