If it makes you happy to cheer for a perennial loser like the Detroit Lions year after year then fill your boots, but just remember that nobody respects you any more than they do someone who buys a new jersey and cheers for someone different every season.

Nfl games have been extremely entertaining this year.

You may have dissed a lot of Leaf fans. :haha:

I think it's fine to stay loyal to a losing team - I just think if they suck for long enough, you can punish them financially by not watching games (live or on TV), buying merchandise, etc. You stick with them, but you hold back your money until they get their shit together. At least that's one way to deal with them without jumping to another team.

However, I don't get how people can wrap themselves up into a sports team - especially as they get older. Fine for a kid, but as an adult it's kinda weird to me they'd spend so much time, energy and money on it. Unless you're an athlete or involved in the business of it - it's just sports. There's more to life.

Unhealthy obsessions with anything are by definition going to be bad for you, but to most people sports are just a harmless form of entertainment. Is watching a football game on TSN any worse than watching a movie on STARZ or watching Beat Bobby Flay on the Food Network?

Trying to be as impartial an observer as possible, and even as a longtime CFL fan I have to admit that the NFL's product may have entered a golden age in the past couple of years.

I really get the feeling that the sport both on and off the field is at its peak or in its prime as an athletic and entertainment product.

There really isn't anything like it, in North America and perhaps the world even.

(Watching some of the action I was sarcastically thinking on the weekend that the NFL might finally be living up to the hype that all those wannabes were trying to sell me on in high school and university in the 80s and 90s! :haha:)

Some of their rules still suck though - like the way they play overtime, and of course the fair catch!

Someone once told me that it's not normal to be obsessed with any sports team unless a) one of your kids or b) a family member or close friend plays on it.

The fair catch is designed to keep football around as a sport 20 years from now. Youth enrollment in football is tanking due to the revelations surrounding concussions and CTE. Punt and kick returns are statistically the most dangerous plays in football.

Hasn't the fair catch rule in American football been around for about a century?

I saw last week that 75 out of the 100 most watched TV programs watched last year in the u.s was NFL football. That's insane not one movie TV show and not one mlb NBA or NHL game even cracked the top 100 most watch list only the presidential debates and Oprah's interview with Meghan and Harry did

Surprising there wouldn't be any MLB or NBA games - even if they were just the championship games. The NHL is not surprising at all. If the NFL were on strike for the year, I still don't think the NHL would crack the top 100.

There's a lot of politics and dirty little secrets surrounding concussions and CTE. There are groups that would like you to believe that sports like football and hockey (that are perceived as predominantly male) are the ones with the big issues with concussions. What goes against the narrative (that some are trying to spin) is that Northwestern University did a study about the effects of concussions and guess who came out worst: high school girl's soccer, the exact group where they didn't want those results.

Whenever I see people use the word "they" I always say "Who is they?" and often you can't get an answer. I can give you an answer, which is just my opinion, but it would likely start WWIII here so I'll keep quiet but I was very surprised commentator Jason Whitlock shares it (just to give you a clue if you give a poop :)

The Leafs getting beat out by NFL on Saturday Night is the big story from this week

Packers/49ers: 1.524M (CTV)
Leafs/Islanders: 1.338M (SN/CBC)
Bengals/Titans: 1.335M (CTV)

Still three more NFL games to go this season, so I guess we'll see where they land.

All of those being series rather than one-off knockout games probably has something to do with.

The previous weekend had some dud games, but this past weekends games were great.

4 games played... 3 ended with a walk-off field goal, and one crazy f'n game ended in an OT walk-off touchdown.

That’s what I have been thinking as well. This may have been the most entertaining NFL season I’ve ever watched. It felt like every prime time game was a close matchup with significant stakes. I’m a 49ers fan who got the pleasure of watching Deebo Samuel every week and the way he was used as a RB and WR was something I’ve never really seen. It looks like the NFL offense is transitioning to get the best playmaker on your team the ball as much as possible and let them do work without sticking to their position. Feels very NBA like as starpower becomes increasingly important. Every team in the semi-finals has their one playmaker that the offense revolves around. Rams have Kupp, 49ers have Deebo, Chiefs have Mahomes, and Bengals have Chase. Coaches also seem to be a lot less conservative when it comes to 2-pt conversions or going for it on 4th down.

From yesterday:

Rams/49ers: 2.114M (CTV)
Bengals/Chiefs: 1.947 (CTV)
Canada/USA: 973k (SN)

Great numbers all around.

The Bengals/Chiefs and the CAN/US game being played at the same time took away viewers from both games - but they both still had impressive numbers.

973K for CMNT is pretty good up against NFL conference finals. Nearly the top-rated CMNT match of this cycle, only behind the 1.1M that the Mexico match in Edmonton got. Through ten matches they're averaging 500K viewers on SN.

This run by the CMNT is the best thing ever to happen for soccer in Canada.

Just image if they also have an inspired run at the actual World Cup!

I don't want to jinx things but at this point I think we can have a discussion about potential groups in Qatar.

I'm of two minds

• Have an 'easy' group and have fun seeing how far we're able to go. If the pots are based on FIFA ranking then Canada will likely be either in pot 3 or 4, depending on teams in other confederations qualifying. Qatar is guaranteed Pot 1 as host. An 'easy' group would be something like Qatar, Switzerland, Canada, Mali or something. Definitely possible to advance from that, but that's an absolute best case.
  
• Just go for the most difficult group possible. Hit us with that Belgium, Germany, Chile, Canada group. We're happy just to be there. :haha:

:hmmm:

Just qualifying is an incredible achievement for the program and for the sport in Canada. Just being in Qatar is beyond good enough.

My buddy's man cave was plastered with longhorn memorabilia. He moved to Oklahoma City from South central Texas in 2020 and I was taken aback to see his new man cave plastered with Sooner (?) memorabilia in Spring 2021. Most people are free agents whether they want to be or not.