Stay Classy, Philadelphia Eagles Fans

by | Dec 21, 2009 | We Forgot

I’m sure this is already posted all over the interwebz, but we just had to post it as well:

Stay classy, Philly fans.

While we frequently criticize the league and/or teams for trying to take the fun out of the game, someone needs to step up on this one–the team should be going after anyone that they can catch for throwing the snowballs, and suspending their ticket privileges, whether season ticket holders or single game ticket buyers.

And if the team doesn’t go after the guilty parties, then the league needs to step in with fines for the team, and/or suspensions–hell, make them play in front of an empty stadium.

A bit harsh?  Well, just wait until some of the fans start pouring some water or beer on the snowballs to make them ice balls–or putting batteries in them, or something else more solid than snow.

And you know it will happen–and then someone is really going to get hurt, or worse.

Fan’s Choice Hall of Fame Semifinalists

by | Nov 29, 2009 | Hall of Fame

Earlier this season, the Hall of Fame and Van Heusen announced that fans would finally have a voice in the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection process.  While unclear what role the fan voting at FansChoice.com would actually have, the results of the first round of voting were announced late yesterday, after the actual 2010 Hall of Fame Semifinalists were announced.

There were a total of 11 differences between fan voting and the actual semifinalist lists.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, the results expose some flaws in the way voting is being handled on the Fan’s Choice site.

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2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame Semifinalists Announced

by | Nov 28, 2009 | Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2010 Semifinalists were announced on Saturday, with four players who are eligible for the Hall for the first time joining 21 others who have all been semifinalists at least once before.  The list was culled from an original list of 131 players, coaches and contributors.

The four first timers include WR Jerry Rice, RB Emmitt Smith, WR Tim Brown and CB Aeneas Williams.

Looking back at last year’s list of semifinalists, only two players not elected last year fell off the list–G Bob Kuechenberg  and QB Kenny Stabler, both of whom failed to make the cut last year in their final year of eligibility, and now can only be elected by the senior committee (Kuechenberg last played in 1983, but was on injured reserve for the 1984 season).

Also making it back to the list of semifinalists this year are WR Cliff Branch, Coach Don Coryell, and LB Rickey Jackson.

No big surprises on the list, from where we stand–Branch and Coryell being minor surprises, along with possibly the omission of Gary Anderson (in some people’s eyes)–and at this point, all of our 2010 finalist guesses and actual inductee predictions are still in the running.

What were everyone else’s thoughts/surprises from the  list?

No Fun League Strikes Again with Captain Morgan

by | Nov 12, 2009 | No Fun League

During the 3rd quarter of last Sunday nights Dallas Cowboys/Philadelphia Eagles game, Eagles TE Brent Celek scored an 11-yard touchdown, and promptly struck a pose intended to mimic the pose of Captain Morgan on their bottles of tasty spiced rum.

Celek was penalized 15-yards (thanks to teammate Jason Avant), but the league has now come down even harder–for once not fining the player involved, but announcing that any future similar poses would result in “significant” penalties.

The problem, in the league’s eyes, is that they caught wind that Captain Morgan had quietly been trying to encourage players to strike the pose, promising charitable donations made on behalf of the players that struck the pose.

“A company can’t pay a player to somehow promote it’s product on the field,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Yahoo! Sports this week. “Every league has the same rule. … It’s come up before, companies trying to use our games and then players for ambush marketing purposes.”

Of course, in the end, Captain Morgan still is getting plenty of publicity–while Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, a non-profit which helps retired NFL players with various hardships after leaving the game, will likely now not get some sizable donations that may have been heading their way.

While it makes a certain amount of sense that the NFL wants to limit the kind of celebrations that may be rewarding players–especially if they’re not getting their cut–but one does wonder if it will be a difficult one to police.  After all, what’s to stop a company from making their logo the image of someone spiking a ball, or dumping Gatorade on someone, or some other common celebration that already exists?

And don’t even get me started on the league allowing celebrations in some stadiums that wouldn’t allowed in others…<cough>Lambeau Leap<cough>

Hall of Fame or Not: Hines Ward and Cliff Branch…

by | Oct 28, 2009 | Hall of Fame

We’ve had a lot of good Pro Football Hall of Fame debates here, and I’m sure these names have come up in the comments before, but I thought I’d give them their own thread…

So, for some reason, I’ve got a Google Alert set up to notify me whenever they find pages related to Hall of Fame stuff.  I get a lot of junk, but every once in a while, there are some interesting nuggets.

Case in point…

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