American Sports Thread

[lfdown2]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CDiCxhtGMhc

Lets Go Chargers!!!

[heganboy]

Carmen - next week it's at 1.15pm over there - don't tell me that's in the middle of the night here?

Jeez what do you know? I've been a chargers fan for years and I just didn't know it...

[DrinkingHarp]

Heading to the boozer tonight and when I leave about 12.30 the lads will be saying - isn't he wild sensible making sure he's ok for work in the morning! Home in time for Bears v. the Pack more like! Tough for Bears to beat Packers and Houston in last two but doable and to be honest if you can't do it you've no business being in the playoffs. Giants have to beat Vikes too cos there's no way, even with the favourable results so far, that Bears can make wild card spot. Raiders would have to beat Bucs as well as Philly taking Cowboys.

The Bears have to get their heads out of their asses 14-10 losing to the Pack start of the 4th quarter.

[DrinkingHarp]

Heading to the boozer tonight and when I leave about 12.30 the lads will be saying - isn't he wild sensible making sure he's ok for work in the morning! Home in time for Bears v. the Pack more like! Tough for Bears to beat Packers and Houston in last two but doable and to be honest if you can't do it you've no business being in the playoffs. Giants have to beat Vikes too cos there's no way, even with the favourable results so far, that Bears can make wild card spot. Raiders would have to beat Bucs as well as Philly taking Cowboys.

The Bears have to get their heads out of their asses 14-10 losing to the Pack start of the 4th quarter.

Bears come back and win in OT  20-17  There is such a thing as Christmas Miracles 

[magpie seanie]

I really thought they were goosed at half time. Absolutely zero offense and defense beginning to creak (hope Mike Brown's injury is not too bad) but turned it around with some heroics at the end. A blocked FG with 18 seconds left and then Robbie Gould doing the needful in overtime.

My brother lives in Houston and the rest of my family have gone there for Christmas so my two brothers will be at the game next week. First year married so I'm with the in-laws! Actually at a wedding Sunday - will have to find a sneaky TV somewhere! Gotta hope the Giants don't send out the reserves against Minnesota cos defeats for the Bucs and Cowboys are unlikely.

[the Deel Rover]

any of ye lads watch the top 10 fullbacks on sky last night. Holy fcuk there were some tough motherfcukers some of the hits were unreal 

[thejuice]

No, but I like those Top10 programs. Who was on it?

[Minder]

Strictly speaking it wasnt fullbacks but "Top 10 Power Backs". Jim Brown was #1, Earl Campbell, Alstott, Bettis etc. Some commentator said if some of todays players got shampoo in their eyes they would miss two games ! There was a clip of Earl Campbell about to go in for a touchdown and a defender left his feet and piledrived him in the chest, the defender slid down him like a wet snotter and Campbell never moved before going into the endzone..............

[the Deel Rover]

Strictly speaking it wasnt fullbacks but "Top 10 Power Backs". Jim Brown was #1, Earl Campbell, Alstott, Bettis etc. Some commentator said if some of todays players got shampoo in their eyes they would miss two games ! There was a clip of Earl Campbell about to go in for a touchdown and a defender left his feet and piledrived him in the chest, the defender slid down him like a wet snotter and Campbell never moved before going into the endzone..............

that was fecking unreal

[thejuice]

Yeah, Earl Campbell was unbelievable. He didnt seem to run to the gaps but towards players he could run through. Great player, Allstott was great too, played on some shite Buccaneers teams though.

[DrinkingHarp]

Yeah, Earl Campbell was unbelievable. He didnt seem to run to the gaps but towards players he could run through. Great player, Allstott was great too, played on some shite Buccaneers teams though.

Just seen Earl Campbell on ESPN a couple weeks back, the man looks like he is 70+ , both knees and one hip ruined. He has to have the largest thighs ever, all his power came from though massive tree trunks. But his main contribution to Football was his manners and his active work in charities which still continue today out of the spotlight.

[magickingdom]

http://www.nfl.com/videos?categoryId=teams


great clip of the worst snowfall in seatlle in a decade (gotta scroll down to ny jets). still if its snowing and cold you'd think farve would have it won, but no. jets are in a big hole now

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Fcuk me - the Yankees liked spending money.

They've reached a deal with Mark Teixiera apparently - taking their spending in December to a whopping $423.5 million - on just 3 players

[magickingdom]

Fron Sky Sports, this about covers it all -  some weekend coming up...


It's already being billed as Shuddering Sunday - a final week of rare significance and huge games. And it's hard to disagree. In my 20 years of following the NFL, I can't remember a more competitive last day of the regular season.

If last week served up a gargantuan feast of ultra-spirited match-ups with much at stake virtually everywhere you looked, Week 17 is a gourmet's delight of more specific dishes featuring an incredible 10 contests of genuine play-off consequence, including three head-to-heads of laser-beam intensity.

(And that's without considering the ghoulish interest in seeing if the car-wreck carnage of the Detroit Lions can create history with the great anti-achievement of going 0-16 by losing at Green Bay).

But before we gallop merrily into the possibilities, let's cast a quick look back to see how we got here. Because last week's array of gridiron curiosities included yet more examples of the improbable and unpredictable that have been the hallmarks of the 2008 season. From almost the first minute (Jacksonville jumping into an early lead against Indianapolis before the Colts came roaring back to clinch their post-season berth) to the last (Chicago edging to their second successive overtime win), there was an almost surreal drama about the way the results unfolded.

Teams that had to win collapsed to unlikely defeats (Dallas, Tampa Bay, Denver, New York Jets, Minnesota and Philadelphia); others that were hanging on by their finger-tips somehow defied the odds to stay in the race (San Diego and Chicago). Dallas even went from doomed - following their Saturday night smackdown by Baltimore - to back on Salvation Road as the Buccaneers, Eagles and Vikings all improbably lost on Sunday.
Pressure cooker

New England piled up 47 points against play-off bound Arizona; Miami won an amazing shootout at Kansas City; and the Giants and Titans emerged the big winners after their top-seed showdowns with Carolina and Pittsburgh (and more of those later). So now we have the pressure-cooker scenario of 11 teams scrabbling for the remaining five tickets to the post-season, along with the little manner of half the division titles still being up for grabs. Breathless? You soon will be.

Start in the NFC South, where three teams are still alive and virtually everything remains unsettled. The Panthers (already guaranteed a play-off spot) can clinch the division title with a win at New Orleans. But, after last week's topsy-turvy episode, there are no guarantees, and there is the issue of the Saints' Drew Brees shooting for Dan Marino's record mark of 5,084 passing yards in a season. Brees needs 402.

If Carolina slip up, Atlanta can pounce and (incredible as it may seem) grab the number two seed and a first-round bye with a home win against St Louis. A Falcons victory really does seem a no-brainer here, so the pressure is on the Panthers. And then there is the little matter of Tampa Bay still looking to sneak into the play-offs and give the division an implausible three representatives. How might that happen? If the Buccaneers beat Oakland (which seems fair enough) and Dallas lose at Philadelphia (see below).

All those games kick off at 1pm over here (6pm GMT), along with three others of post-season impact. The NFC North will be decided as Minnesota entertain the Giants and Chicago travel to Houston, where two wins for the division rivals will see the Vikings crowned as champs and the Bears hoping for help from Philadelphia and Oakland. If Chicago win and the Vikes slip up, Lovie Smith's men are the number three seeds and Minnesota will be left to pray for Dallas and Tampa defeats. Got it? Let's move on.

The AFC East is another three-way slugfest, and New England will be first up (live on SS3 at 6pm) with a trip to schizophrenic Buffalo. The Patriots have piled up the points in recent weeks (178 in the last five) and could easily finish 11-5 - and miss the play-offs altogether. Only Denver (in 1985) suffered a similar quirk of fate but, if Miami and Baltimore win, the Patriots will be at home at January while teams with far worse records (and abilities - are you listening in Arizona and Denver?) continue to muddle on.

That concludes the early kick-offs, so we then move to the 4.15pm crowd (9.15pm in the UK), and a crowd of chaotic proportions. While the Pats will have concluded their business, the Dolphins and Jets go head-to-head in one of the most eagerly-awaited collisions in recent years (as I indicated last week - and live on SS3). With Chad Pennington returning to the club who spurned him in favour of star import Brett Favre, it's hard to imagine a more delicious sub-plot to a game with so much at stake.

Miami turnaround

The scenarios for this are (relatively) simple. A Miami win sees them advance as the AFC's number three seed - and complete one of the biggest turnarounds in sporting history from their dismal 1-15 disaster zone of 2007. However, Favre and the Jets can still CLAIM the division (if they win and New England lose); GET IN as a wild card (if the Pats win but Baltimore lose); or MISS OUT completely if Pennington completes his revenge mission. At which point the hot seat under Eric Mangini is likely to turn positively hellish.

Therefore, while that heavyweight trio battle things out, the Ravens also need to take care of business at home to Jacksonville. Win and John Harbaugh's men are in as the number six seeds; lose (which is hard to imagine against these Jaguars) and they could see a promising season slip through their fingers.

Another major head-to-head showdown features two teams who have been absolutely impossible to predict in recent weeks as the Eagles take on Dallas. Last Saturday night it seemed a fair bet the Cowboys (and head coach Wade Phillips) were heading for the last round-up as they were battered by Baltimore. Then along came Sunday evening and a performance of pure feebleness from Philly at Washington. Game back on. Now Jerry Jones' expensively-assembled desperadoes can ride into The Linc and steal a wild card spot with a victory. Or Donovan McNabb can summon up his Dr Jekyll persona (instead of last week's Mr Hyde) and topple their arch-rivals to leave Texas in deepest dudgeon.

However, the Eagles' own hopes of sneaking in to the post-season party will already have been decided by the earlier kick-offs, hence there may be a very different attitude among Andy Reid's team depending on those results. To have their fate back in their hands, Philly will need defeats for Tampa Bay and either Minnesota or Chicago. At which point, the frigid Pennsylvania air will become supercharged for a winner-take-all clash.

Finally, we come to the day's piéce de resistance, a one-off showdown (on SS3 at 1.30am on Monday) that, realistically, should never have happened. Five weeks ago, an in-form Denver were 6-4 and facing games against no-hopers Oakland, Buffalo and Kansas City; San Diego were a wobbly 4-6 and facing four play-off teams in their final six. Game (and division title) over? In any year other season than this, almost certainly. But this is NFL 2008, when anything (apart from a Detroit win) is possible, and now we have a simple duel.

The Chargers can shake off half a season of despair and close defeats (including their infamous 39-38 Week Two upset by the Broncos when ref Ed Hochuli's blown call cost them the game) with a win, an 8-8 record and the AFC's number four seed. Equally, Mike Shanahan's outfit can redeem the recent ignominy of defeats by the Raiders and Chiefs by completing the double over their division rivals and limping into the play-offs at 9-7.
Predictions

Those are the basics of what's at stake on Sunday, a labyrinthine sequence of intrigue and possibility in shoulder pads and helmets. As to how it will all actually shake out, that is anyone's guess. I gave up predictions in about Week Four when my Super Bowl line-up of San Diego v Dallas looked fairly laughable (along with my tip of Green Bay to win the NFC North). But, for those who like a laugh, here's how (I think) I can see things going:

AFC: Tennessee and Pittsburgh as the top two seeds; then New England, Denver, Indianapolis and Baltimore. Which means the Patriots will win, the Jets will beat Miami (and still miss out), Denver will again leave San Diego broken-hearted and the Ravens will comfortably see off the Jags.

NFC: NY Giants and Carolina as the top two; then Minnesota, Arizona, Atlanta and Dallas. Which means the Vikes will take advantage of a second-string Giants team, Carolina and Atlanta both finish strong, and Dallas sneak in by finally showing their mettle at Philly.

Which, of course, sets up the possibility of a repeat of last week's epic Titans-Steelers and Giants-Panthers match-ups in the two Championship games, a truly mouth-watering prospect after the way those four genuine heavyweights set about each other. Except that history says the top two seeds hardly ever meet. But then, this is 2008.......

[Carmen Stateside]

Is O Neill away to bed yet for the big game tonight??
Hoping for a Buffallo win so the Jets can get a sweat
Detroit 14 down already looks like a perfect season for them!