NFL Team Recommendation for an Australian to follow and support.

Started by Destraex, September 15, 2017, 10:58:46 AM

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Destraex

Yes we have some rugby league teams here where the fans get out of control. Funnily enough the worst soccer and rugby league fanbases are the same ethnicity. Very firey people combined with another trait I will not mention because Ai do not want to be rude.

Tell me. Where is the NFL heartland in america. The real grass roots fan bases. I am guessing Minnesota is pretty close to more hockey than NFL fanbases.

"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

Destraex

Quote from: bayonetbrant on September 15, 2017, 12:13:08 PM
I have a greater connection to NC St football than any pro team, but as a Cajun, I'm duty-bound to cheer for the Saints and simultaneously programmed to hate Atlanta.


As for who an Aussie could cheer for?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australians_in_American_football

see if there are any connections on this list that strike your fancy
All these punters or kickers are pretty uninteresting.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

JudgeDredd

Quote from: Destraex on September 15, 2017, 10:58:46 AM
Recently became interested in this sport. We now get it here on free to air and I have been watching.
Enjoying it. Have little idea of what is going on. But still finding it entertaining.

I have very little idea of the states in the US and how good or bad they are. What their values are etc
I know Greenbay is the only publicly owned club right?

1) Minnasota Vikings - What can I say.. I like vikings. But these ones have horns?
2) Greenbay Packers - I like that it's public and have a friend that goes for them
3) Cincinnati Colts - don't know why
4) New Orleans Saints (But I hate the when the saints come marching in song) - I just like fleur de lis

I assume the Detroit Lions following is fairly small now? I kind of like their symbology. I like the Broncos symbol as well. Love horses.
I chose my rugby teams by animal rather than territory here when I was a kid and never looked back.
My son goes for the New England Patriots and has since found out his new high school teachers also do!

Any recommendations? Does anybody here follow NFL?
New England Patriots FTW
Alba gu' brath

bayonetbrant

Quote from: JasonPratt on September 15, 2017, 09:53:02 PMbut has devolved seriously in the past ten years. Not sure exactly why.

easy - look at the coaches that are gone

Urban Meyer
Phil Fulmer
Les Miles
Houston Nutt
Mark Richt
David Cutcliffe
Steve Spurrier

you lose that much coaching talent from one conference and there's no way they get better
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

JasonPratt

Yeah, but it isn't a vacuum! -- a lot of those guys were replacing classic coaches.

Sucky coaches being hired are a more positive reason. ;)
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bayonetbrant

Quote from: JasonPratt on September 16, 2017, 07:34:13 AM
Yeah, but it isn't a vacuum! -- a lot of those guys were replacing classic coaches.

Sucky coaches being hired are a more positive reason. ;)


Urban Meyer  -->  replaced Ron Zook
Phil Fulmer  -->  replaced an over-the-hill Johnny Majors
Les Miles  -->  replaced Nick Saban when he left for the NFL, so there's a legit classic replacement here
Houston Nutt  -->  replaced Danny Ford, who was over a decade removed from his title at Clemson, and had a losing record at Arkansas
Mark Richt  -->  replaced Jim Donnan, who was actually better than his reputation, but hardly an all-time classic
David Cutcliffe  -->  had 1 losing season at Ole Miss, replaced Tommy T when he jumped for Auburn, got Duke - Duke! to a conf title game
Steve Spurrier  -->  First time around was replacing Galen Hall under NCAA investigation, second time replaced an over-the-hill Lou Holtz


The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

OJsDad

Personally, I'd not worry about an NFL team and find a college team to support. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

JasonPratt

Quote from: OJsDad on September 16, 2017, 12:28:13 PM
Personally, I'd not worry about an NFL team and find a college team to support. 

QFT.

Quote from: Destraex on September 15, 2017, 10:33:30 PM
I don't really think I want to play PC games on it. But if I did it would not be Madden as that does not seem to be on PC.
Anything for PC recommended?

Old Madden for PC. ;) ...or maybe not, last one was 2008, and there could be some serious problems with it.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
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PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
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RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Destraex

Quote from: OJsDad on September 16, 2017, 12:28:13 PM
Personally, I'd not worry about an NFL team and find a college team to support.
The problem with that is we will not get any games here.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

BanzaiCat

Quote from: Destraex on September 16, 2017, 01:28:22 AM
Yes we have some rugby league teams here where the fans get out of control. Funnily enough the worst soccer and rugby league fanbases are the same ethnicity. Very firey people combined with another trait I will not mention because Ai do not want to be rude.

Tell me. Where is the NFL heartland in america. The real grass roots fan bases. I am guessing Minnesota is pretty close to more hockey than NFL fanbases.

When I first started writing FF articles back in 1999 or so, one of my first pieces was a primer on the history/roots of the NFL. That's a good place to start. 1920, I think was the start of 'official' league records but there were games going back for 30 or so years before that.

While this is a Wiki article, this will give you a good overview of where the NFL was 'born' and will probably go a long way to answering your question as to where the 'heartland' of the NFL is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_National_Football_League#Beginnings


Destraex

Wow. What a convoluted read. Thanks for that. It's really disheartening to read about all the racism early on. Especially since African American now make the majority of most teams, obviously being better athletically  than most ehites. All the various pirate tactics and cut throat poachings and buyouts.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

BanzaiCat

Yeah, it's Wiki, so it's not the best read. I'd have posted a link to the article I wrote but that site went dead a while ago unfortunately. No idea where it may reside now, if anywhere.

The racism thing isn't indicative necessarily of America, though I'd be curious to see how that evolved in other countries (namely European football, rugby, etc.). When I was over in the UK last I wish I had been able to reach a rugby or football game but didn't have the chance. I'd much rather watch that than American football, to be honest. I have a love-hate with it; my hate mostly stems from that each NFL owner and the NFL itself are all whores that will sell their mothers to tattoo an advertisement on their forehead if it'll make them a buck. I can't stand the advertisement overload. I'm sure there's an overload overseas too.

Destraex

Funny you should mention Rugby as a sport that is less commercialised.

Rugby Union, which is what I think you are referring to, had for most of it's life been an amateur sport. One that was not paid. Only Universities and Private schools generally played it here. Now when I say universities, I mean real university students, not people that universities get just to play sport. So a lot of fairly intelligent people were playing the game. It was kind of a badge of honour to represent your school or university, then your local club/county, state and then even your countries team. The local club competition would obviously get talent from anywhere, but here in Australia most not affiliated with private schools or uni would go to rugby league which is much more popular for the common man in Australia. It meant that the sport having little money did not have the profile for media that other sports like soccer/football had. The following more came from the people who supported the private schools and universities. People were very loyal to their clubs, rarely having cause to leave as far as I am aware. The sport is however world wide especially amongst commonwealth nations.
In the last 10-15 years however, it has been commercialised and professionalised. This has meant that their has been an influx of players to where the money is from other countries in Australia where I am. Our national team is now more like the Fijian national team and not doing much better either. I watched Australia VS Argentina last night and one commentator chatting in a lull mentioned of one of the Australian players "he scored a few tries a few months back against his native Fiji". I mean why the hell can you play for Australia if it's really fairly clear you are here for the money and then going back afterwards?
Rugby Union is a great game to watch but very rough on the body to play. Probably the hardest game to play on your body out of Rugby League. NFL and Rugby Union. The contact is rough and messy and you are often on the ground getting stomped on by big men. The rules are vast and complex as well. The referee's job is to keep the game flowing rather than to be exact with rulings. There are a lot of tactics in this game but NFL is the most complex by far when it comes to strategy/plays/tactics.

Australia (FIJI :P ) VS Argentina - Rugby Union


Rugby League This competition is fully paid and was created as a spin off to rugby union because working class players especially wanted to be paid when they played because of the time they had to take away from work to play the game iirc. It's the most popular sport on the east coast of Australia but is not very popular in the rest of the world. It's fast, clean and there are really only so many plays that happen because the nature of the game. It's predictable and really based on player skill rather than smarts. The players are not as heavy as rugby union players usually because their is less of a pushing game and more of a breakthrough and run game. Although both have this aspect.
It's so commercial now that I pretty much wash my hands of it apart from the state of origin series. It's very similar to the NFL with money, however they do have what is called a salery cap top ensure rich clubs dont poach all the players. This game is the game where most of the fighting (outside the usual soccer fighting) happens between fans. Some minority areas being especially hot headed. It's also where most of the in game fights happen and the parent fights etc. Not that it's a really big problem but it does crop up way out of proportion to the other oval ball codes.
This game has a very weak worldwide competition outside Australia. Some players convert back and forth from Union and League now. Currently since Australia has been doing badly in Rugby Union all the bandwagoners have left and it's not in a great state. Rugby League is the sport Jarrod Hayne who recently tried in the NFL came from.

Rugby League NSW vs QLD - Australian state vs state. One of the most passionate competitions in the world. Jarryd Hayne in centre.


AFL The kicking game that most of you boys got your kicking teams from Australia from. This game is very family oriented and the fans are fanatical about their local teams. They have drafts to ensure proper distribution of players. This game is a little like a giant game of kick forcings back. The field is a huge oval. It's expanding fast in Australia as mums and dads are tending to either go for AFL or Soccer in light of the chance of unjury in the Rugby codes. The islanders especially being huge at a very young age. So the Rugby codes are looking at implementing weight classes rather than age classes to bring the main stream back.

Club competition AFL


I am interested in NFL because of the tactics and strategy. That's the main draw card. All of the typical American style speciality in the field. Each player having one job primarily and not really being able to do other jobs. In most Rugby codes, most players can do most jobs to at least a reasonable degree. Out of all of them Rugby League is probably the easiest to play for kids because you can play it with almost no space almost anywhere. You can even have a fairly good game of Rugby League with just two players a side or even one. I suppose you could modify any game to be like that though.
"They only asked the Light Brigade to do it once"

BanzaiCat

Thanks for all that - it's an interesting read. Admittedly I don't know that much about rugby but I've learned a little here and there over the years. I watched a match on TV the last time I was in the UK and thought it was a hell of a lot more entertaining than the NFL. The major difference is there were so few commercials/interruptions in the action - it was all go, go, go pretty much.

Maybe my tolerance of American commercials are at a low; they're the reason why I do not watch network television any longer. I had stopped going to movies when they started putting in commercials. I just simply cannot stand the mouth-breathing, stupid, lowest common denominator aspect of them. And the NFL absolutely revels in that. Everything has to have a label from a sponsor, from the stadium to the halftime report and pre- and post-game shows, and on and on. It's annoying as sin.

To be fair I found UK commercials to be actually entertaining. No idea why that is, maybe because they don't have the filter that corporations in the U.S. have. So maybe I didn't notice how annoying they are over there. Here, though, they long ago went over that line with me. I'm shocked they haven't yet put ads all over player jerseys like they do in European football leagues.

One last thing (sorry for the long post). I only learned about the English Premiere League's structure a few years back and thought it was brilliant, how technically some low-scum team can technically advance from the bottom of the barrel to the tops. I wish American sports had a similar structure. I think in American football the only place I've heard of such a thing was in a video game (Blitz: The League).

bayonetbrant

Quote from: BanzaiCat on September 19, 2017, 05:47:57 AM
One last thing (sorry for the long post). I only learned about the English Premiere League's structure a few years back and thought it was brilliant, how technically some low-scum team can technically advance from the bottom of the barrel to the tops. I wish American sports had a similar structure. I think in American football the only place I've heard of such a thing was in a video game (Blitz: The League).

sadly, the disconnected structure of the NFL and their 'minor' league (college football) means you'll never get movement between them

the NBA could do wonder w/ sending shitty teams to the D-League tho

Ditto baseball and AAA
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers