Youāre welcome
American football is the ultimate triumph of marketing and branding. The NFL is brilliantly packaged and it becomes difficult not to get interested in it on cold, dark Sunday nights in November, December and January when thereās nothing else on. As an entertainment spectacle itās excellent and the fact that most games provide close finishes keeps the excitement to the end.
But strip away the razzmatazz that goes with the NFL and thereās very little left. Itās when you see it played outside an NFL setting, away from the hype and the well known teams and players that the sheer crapness of the sport itself becomes apparent. Outside of the quarterback position, thereās little skill involved. 20 300 pound men pushing and wrestling with each other in a line is not skill. Size is everything. Drug testing is a sham. Outside of the quarterback position there is little skill.
NFL Europe was a disaster. Without the packaging of the proper NFL, the game was exposed for what it is, desperate stuff, cringe-inducingly awful.
You can watch a hurling game at any level and appreciate itās skill and beauty. You can do the same with Association football and beasketball and to a lesser extent gaelic football. You canāt do that with American football.
I look forward to November when the power of the brand will suck me in again.
Bad start from Sanchez. Couple of decent completions and then a shovel pass on the run that was deflected and picked off. FFS.
Oh Mark.
Linebacker for the Colts went big risk/reward there. Got the reward with the pick 6, but a better throw from Cutler and I think there was a big play for the Bears there.
you sure sid? the spectacle is such a huge part of the game that it will always be conspicuous by its absence.
this may change the spectator experience but doesnāt affect the skill levels on show.
would you say the same about the hype machine sky generate every weekend?
I went to a few of the high school games played last weekend along with the notre dame v navy spectacle in the aviva.
some of the skill levels on show were average, with players struggling to collect any pass that wasnāt perfectly placed
some of the special team plays werenāt fantastic but Iāve always assumd at junior levels special teams were made up of the least skilful players available to a coach with the exception of the punt returner.
all that said, Iād happily compare it to any of the vocational school football games Iāve been to as far as skill levels go
Revis gets it back with a terrific pick.
Are you a Jet this year mate?
Streaming link lads?
There are a huge amount of dropped catches.Thatās basic stuff which would be meat and drink to any underage gaelic football player or Leinster schoolsā rugby player. Neil Gallagher in 10 minutes in the Donegal-Cork game displayed more skill than the average wide receiver displays in a season. What happens at the line of scrimmage is caveman stuff.
Rugby gets a hard time of it on this forum but both codes of the game are infinitely more skilful than American football.
Havenāt checked whether any of these work coz Iām watching it on Sky, but this should pretty much always be your first port of call.
This is my first option for streaming these days:
http://www.wiziwig.tv/competition.php?part=sports&discipline=americanfootball
RGIII with a TD throw.
Kerley returns a punt for my beloved Jets. Weāre on fire.
Richardson almost killed some poor Eagle there. :lol:
RG III looks like an absolute stud.
Vick has thrown 4 interceptions here and the latest one was returned for a TD. :rolleyes:
Starting this possession on our own 9-yard line with 6 minutes left and trailing 16-10.
Touchdown Eagles! 
Kurt Coleman with the interception and we should win this now. Fly Eagles. Fly.
Ridiculous calls by the amateur refs on the niners so far.