Thank Goodness For REAL Football

[gbrittain]

It is moments like this when I look at the Training Camp Countdown Calendar and say Thank You for football.

Seriously...can football season get here soon enough?

Do I really have to see a sporting event that is supposed to be the biggest and best sport in the world get decided by something that in no way determines who actually has the best team? Cough...cough...penalty kicks...cough...cough.

How many more times do I have to endure a dude in tights riding a bycycle leading Sports Center?

I can not take it much longer...bring on Real Football already and save me from pathetic sports syndrome.

The fact that football exists is like eating a fine cake. The fact that the Cowboys exist in the great game of football is the icing. Bring on football and the Cowboys!!!

 

[Hostile]

Here here!

I have no idea what you mean about the World Cup, but I like the sentiment no matter what.

 

[Da Hammer]

i agree that i can't wait for the football season to start but don't hate on the World Cup

 

[DBoys]

This is the first year I have ever watched the World Cup. All I can say is I have never seen more whining and people faking injuries in my entire life.

Last time I will ever watch it.

 

[EastDallasCowboy]

I enjoyed the world cup, but just 3 weeks....we're getting so close......

 

[gbrittain]

Here here!

I have no idea what you mean about the World Cup, but I like the sentiment no matter what.

I did not watch, but from what I have read the World Cup today ended in regulation tie.

Once regulation was over they do a serious of penalty kicks and decided the winner that way.

Which is basically the equivalent of playing a Super Bowl every four years and then at the end of the game the score is 10 to 10. How should the biggest game in four years be decided? Send the field goal kickers out there and kick best of five field goals from the 30 yard line! Soccer is absolutely rediculous. I kind of have the right to say that to considering that I grew up in a country where soccer is all they play pretty much.

 

[parchy]

I did not watch, but from what I have read the World Cup today ended in regulation tie.

Once regulation was over they do a serious of penalty kicks and decided the winner that way.

Which is basically the equivalent of playing a Super Bowl every four years and then at the end of the game the score is 10 to 10. How should the biggest game in four years be decided? Send the field goal kickers out there and kick best of five field goals from the 30 yard line! Soccer is absolutely rediculous. I kind of have the right to say that to considering that I grew up in a country where soccer is all they play pretty much.

Actually, they've got two 15 minute overtime periods before they go into the shootout. I've long been a critic of this method. I think that you keep the 30 minutes of extra time, but you go into Golden Goal after it instead of the shootout. The system they've got now is moronic. Maybe use it during the group phase, but not during knockout stages.

 

[EastDallasCowboy]

To be fair though, the NFL overtime system sucks too.

I HATE sudden death OT.

The odds are what....75% of the team winning the toss winning the game? I think that's what I remember from last time I checked.

The college system is far superior, and a 10m quarter of regular football OT would be even better.

 

[Kevin]

To be fair though, the NFL overtime system sucks too.

I HATE sudden death OT.

The odds are what....75% of the team winning the toss winning the game? I think that's what I remember from last time I checked.

The college system is far superior, and a 10m quarter of regular football OT would be even better.

Exactly. There are only 16 games a year, and an ungodly amount of preparation, and physical and emotional involvement go into each.

If a game is to go into OT, they should find a system where the percentages aren't so telling.

 

[gbrittain]

Actually, they've got two 15 minute overtime periods before they go into the shootout. I've long been a critic of this method. I think that you keep the 30 minutes of extra time, but you go into Golden Goal after it instead of the shootout. The system they've got now is moronic. Maybe use it during the group phase, but not during knockout stages.

True, I forgot to mention there is a chance after regulation to finish the game in an honorable and competitive manner. Like you said, in the knockout phase it is totally unforgiveable how they decide the matches.

 

[EastDallasCowboy]

Not to mention the fact that a tie is possible is ludicrous. Only pansy sports like soccer and hockey allow ties.

Ya see?

Skins fans and Cowboys fans *can* agree on something. :laugh1:

 

[gbrittain]

To be fair though, the NFL overtime system sucks too.

I HATE sudden death OT.

The odds are what....75% of the team winning the toss winning the game? I think that's what I remember from last time I checked.

The college system is far superior, and a 10m quarter of regular football OT would be even better.

Yeah, I do not think the NFL system is the best, but at least the game is decided by conventional methods. Not perfect indeed, but light years ahead of what soccer has.

 

[EastDallasCowboy]

Ok, sorry...I'm posting too much too early here.

But the thing that mystifies me as that almost no one likes the NFL OT method, and yet it never gets changed. I've heard for years that they're discussing changing it and for some reason it never happens. And I really just don't understand it.

It reduces an entire football game to basically a coin flip.

 

[Kevin]

I don't see what's wrong with the NCAA's method? Seems to work flawlessly there- why not give it a shot on a bigger setting?

 

[BlueStar22]

PK's are the worse way to decide the game but those guys have nothing left after 90 mintes regulation and 30 minutes OT. They should revisit their substitution/DQ rules.

 

[EastDallasCowboy]

They're professionals in the World Cup final, the biggest game of their career.

Let them play until someone scores. If that takes 91m or 180m should be of little consequence, eventually someone will score if they're as tired as everyone claims.

 

[Number82]

First of all, this shouldn't be in this section, but since we're discussing this, I'll give you a soccer player's point of view. I'd like to see half of the people typing run up and down a field for 120 minutes (90 for regulation plus 30 for overtime) and keep going after that. Your body gives out. Sorry we don't have TV timeouts, ref timeouts, long and extravagant halftime shows. It's 45 minutes of game, 15 minute break, 45 minutes of game. Then, if necessary, 5 minute break, start of 15 minute OT, no break, just switch sides, 15 minute OT. Plus, there's only 3 subs for the whole game. No packages for different formations. While I agree penalty kicks aren't the best way to decide the world champion, what else can they do? These guys can't run forever.

As for the NFL, they need to change the OT rule. I'm a huge fan of the college OT rules.

As for EastDallasCowboy, not to call another Cowboys fan out, because that's what I am, a HUGE Cowboys fan since I was little, but this statement ...

***Not to mention the fact that a tie is possible is ludicrous. Only pansy sports like soccer and hockey allow ties.***

... is utterly ridiculous. Why? Because NFL games can end in ties too. If no one scores in the one overtime quarter, then game ends in a tie. Does that make the NFL a pansy sport? No, then it shouldn't make soccer or hockey one either.

'Nuff said. Someone lock this thread and lets talk positive. Like about OUR Dallas Cowboys as this year's Super Bowl Champions.

 

[Clove]

First of all, this shouldn't be in this section, but since we're discussing this, I'll give you a soccer player's point of view. I'd like to see half of the people typing run up and down a field for 120 minutes (90 for regulation plus 30 for overtime) and keep going after that. Your body gives out. Sorry we don't have TV timeouts, ref timeouts, long and extravagant halftime shows. It's 45 minutes of game, 15 minute break, 45 minutes of game. Then, if necessary, 5 minute break, start of 15 minute OT, no break, just switch sides, 15 minute OT. Plus, there's only 3 subs for the whole game. No packages for different formations. While I agree penalty kicks aren't the best way to decide the world champion, what else can they do? These guys can't run forever.

As for the NFL, they need to change the OT rule. I'm a huge fan of the college OT rules.

As for EastDallasCowboy, not to call another Cowboys fan out, because that's what I am, a HUGE Cowboys fan since I was little, but this statement ...

***Not to mention the fact that a tie is possible is ludicrous. Only pansy sports like soccer and hockey allow ties.***

... is utterly ridiculous. Why? Because NFL games can end in ties too. If no one scores in the one overtime quarter, then game ends in a tie. Does that make the NFL a pansy sport? No, then it shouldn't make soccer or hockey one either.

'Nuff said. Someone lock this thread and lets talk positive. Like about OUR Dallas Cowboys as this year's Super Bowl Champions.

It's still rediculous to end that way. And there is no way the NFL would let a Super Bowl game end in a tie.

 

[ATurkishSeaOtter]

I have no real opinon of soccer or the way it is done in overtime. But in the playoffs or the superbowl there can and will be more than one overtime period. You play til someone wins.

 

[kTXe]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but the talk of what to do with the NFL overtime system really interests me and I feel the need to give my opinion.

Personally, I hate the college football system. Yes, it is exciting, but it is still not REAL football. You eliminate all special teams other than FGs. You eliminate any field position games. You effectively create a NEW game. Also, being somewhat of a numbers geek, I HATE the fact that the NCAA treats OT stats the same as they do stats achieved during the game. It would be idiotic for goals scored in a shootout to count as official goals, and it is certainly idiotic for a TD scored in college OT to count in stats the same way as regulation TDs.

Yes, the NFL's system is flawed. However, the numbers are not NEARLY as skewed as some make them out to be. This article (http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041106/mathtrek.asp) shows that, historically, only 52% of teams that start with the ball go on to win, and only 28% of the time teams score on the first posession. However, the article does say that these percentages have increased in recent years, suggesting that the OT is becoming a bigger problem.

Personally, I like sudden death. It ensures that a team wins going out on the highest of high, and the team losing goes out on the lowest of the low. A single moment ends the game, rather than it being drawn out by ensuring both teams get posession. Plus, I think that there is legitimate concern that instituting a system that ensures posession for both teams will increase the length of games, and therefore increase the likelihood for unneccessary injuries.

However, the system is still flawed. I stumbled upon this article (http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/hender/ot.pdf) that has, IMO, a GREAT way to determine who should recieve the ball. The third proposal in the article does everything I think a system should: it preserves sudden death, does not extend the game, but eliminates the coin toss. He proposes that they go to a system of "Dueling Kickoffs" where BOTH teams have kickoffs to start the OT. The team that advances the ball the FURTHEST, though, would retain posession at the point to which they advanced the ball. The only problems with this system would arise if teams returned the ball to the same spot on the field, but with effective spotting (insert joke about how that doesn't exist), it shouldn't be a HUGE problem. Certianly, it would be a smaller problem than the perception that a coin toss decides an NFL game.

OK, sorry for the long-winded post. Back to the regularly scheduled programming.