Tales of Home [3]

I wouldnt step in those ferns, thats his toilet, 'keep on the path', as Gandalf always said.

Hey Im not completely uncivilised you know, I use Daves fields.  

Pettytyrant101 wrote: I use Daves fields.  

                                 

I dont know what youre upset about why else do you think your crops do so well? Its the buckie content.  

It's all natural fertilizer! Depending on what Petty's been eating lately...  

(in a buckie sauce naturally)

Eldo - I assume that is an alternative baltimore ravens badge on your avatar. As in NFL team?

Yep, it's the Ravens' shoulder patch. I had the Ravens' bird head logo as my avatar for a while last season but decided to mix it up (also because this one incorporates the Maryland flag). We played in the season opener last night against the Denver Broncos, but unfortunately we got crushed by Peyton Manning as he exacted revenge for our miraculous playoff win back in January.

Peyton? I thought he was out of it after his big injury.

Doesnt it bother you that you only get about 15 minutes of the NFL season to support your team? The season is so short!!

peyton? the ravens? is this one tree hill?

No

Lancebloke wrote:Peyton? I thought he was out of it after his big injury.

Doesnt it bother you that you only get about 15 minutes of the NFL season to support your team? The season is so short!!

I don't follow offseason news that closely, but he was definitely back last night in a big way.  Tied the single-game passing touchdown record with seven TDs.  

My stepmom has DirecTV's uber NFL package so we can watch all of the games each week instead of being at the mercy of whatever's showing in our area, so that's nice. Although I don't expect much from the Ravens this year, since our roster got gutted after we won the Super Bowl last year.

Well, he does need to teach his little brother a lesson.

Yeah, I was saying last night, who would have ever said in c. 2005 that one day Eli would have more rings than Peyton?

Im a Brady fan. He deserves more!

I started rooting for the Patriots during the 2001 playoffs after the Ravens got knocked out cause I was seven and I thought their uniforms looked cool. Turned out to be a decent choice given all their wins afterwards.  I stopped liking the Patriots a couple of years ago though because I had an incredibly annoying roommate who worshiped the ground that Belichick and Brady walk on and got mad at everyone when the Patriots were losing.

American football is weird you changed the team you supported?  
Thats such a no-no in proper football - your team is for life.

Think the issue there petty is that they are franchises and can and have literally moved cities. Doesnt inspire the same sort of support you see here I dont think.

Plus they only play for 5 months of the year.

Just seems so weird- your team is like your nationality- its just there, part of what you are. Part of your tribe probably more accurately.

American football in general is taken much less seriously than association football in Britain (and perhaps much of the rest of the world?  I don't really know).  Most allegiances are regional based since teams are tied to specific cities and enjoy certain media rights in them (and only a couple of cities have two teams, and none have three, unlike say London).  However, as Lance points out teams can and do move serves to shake things up.  Baltimore had a football team called the Colts for 30 years and they did quite good, won a bunch of championships including "the greatest game ever played".  But in the 1980s they weren't doing so hot and there was a dispute with the state government over the stadium so the owner of the team packed everything up in a bunch of moving vans and drove off to Indianapolis in the middle of the night.  The Colts took the name, the uniforms, the records, and the history with them and we've only heard about the Indianapolis Colts since then.  About a dozen years later Baltimore got a new team ... by stealing Cleveland's. Though at least in that case the team left behind the name and the records and everything and started over from scratch.

and perhaps much of the rest of the world?  I don't really know- Eldo

Yeah everyone who plays football takes it very, very seriously- the Italians and former Soviet countries in particular make the Brits look casual in our attitudes to football. But its the same all over- massive rivalries and tribal lifelong allegiances (usually passed down through families).
Its taken so seriously many football fans die every year in violence with rival supporters.

I mean, we have rivalries in American football too, but for the most part they're good-natured.  In a lot of rivalries the fans of the teams involved are likely to be friends and sometimes even support the other side if only one of the teams makes it to the playoffs (Facebook had an interesting statistical study of this last season). And very few people ever get stabbed for being a Cowboys fan in Washington or a Redskins fan in Dallas.

All in all I prefer this to your stories of football rivalries elsewhere.

The violence and deaths are tragic and should never happen- but it seems to me that it does make real football a lot more passionate and more meaningful than the US variant- which seems to me to be more like going out to the cinema or any other 'day out' activity.