Quote from duke_toaster :

That last play should have been instant replayed, just as a belt and braces measure. British coverage of football is rather amusing, cutting to and from the studio to the NBC feed.

We don't have our own commentators (well, we do for radio), just Mssrs Michaels and Madden ... what were everyone else's local commentators like? It would be interesting to hear Mike Carlson do an actual colour commentary ...

Mike Carlson is a legend, it's just a shame that Channel 5's coverage of all American sports is ending (they'll cover the end of the NBA and thats it) hoperfully Sky take him on board or can the BBC actually jump on growing enthusim for the game and acctually get something set up on BBC 3........please.

Re: the game, well what a game. Steelers really played well in the first quarter, outlining a good offense to match their leading defense, and the interception return at the end of the 2nd was just fantastic, I've tried running 100 yards with full padding and 11 other guys wanting to kill you and only got to the 20.

But the key to this game was the amount of penalty's the Cardinals racked up. They gave up 48 yards in the regular season, 41 yards in the post season yet managed to give up a total of 91 yards in the first half alone. It's the invicible yards which normally cost games and well I think it cost the Cardinals.

Great game, and now can't wait till the next season, have tickets for the London game and although it means a travel to London village I think I can survive it.

Well done the steelers. Cardinals were very unlucky i thought and maybe deserves the win but yous had three people on Holmes and he still owned yous all. But the steelers played well and did enough to get the win.

Very exciting game if your a neutral like i was. Steelers QB just seemed to avoid every time the Cardinals came close to sack him.

So i think they deserved there win

Mon the Patriots,

Btw there is a General NFL Discussion Thread, i made it

Yeah, Roethlisberger's escape on that one near-sack was amazing.

That 100 yard interception was awsome. That was pure luck that he caught it. And then to add insult to injury he got all the way to the cardinals endzone.

Quote from Luke.S :

That 100 yard interception was awsome. That was pure luck that he caught it. And then to add insult to injury he got all the way to the cardinals endzone.

Disagree, it was a great catch and well defended by the Steelers. Normally the call would have been to defend the run in that situation but they managed to read the cardinals and defend accordingly. During the run he was protected well by the rest of the team and managed to bulldoze his way through. Considering he was a linesman it's not normal practise to run 30 yards let alone 100.

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Disagree, it was a great catch and well defended by the Steelers. Normally the call would have been to defend the run in that situation but they managed to read the cardinals and defend accordingly. During the run he was protected well by the rest of the team and managed to bulldoze his way through. Considering he was a linesman it's not normal practise to run 30 yards let alone 100.

His blockers had to bumpdraft him the last 15 yards. That boy was hurting bad. Hell, I think I'd want to lay down after running 100 yards in terror.

Quote from PAracer :

His blockers had to bumpdraft him the last 15 yards. That boy was hurting bad. Hell, I think I'd want to lay down after running 100 yards in terror.

Most of that was the 100 yard dash, but also he bounced on his head after being tackled which surely did'nt help things.

The catch wasn't luck, either. Defensive players are trained to keep one eye on the opposing QB and one eye on the guy they're supposed to be blocking. Some people are superhuman at it, like Troy Polamalu or Ray Lewis.

That 100 yard run interception run from Harrison was amazing. Everything about it was great, they first of all managed to get the interception, then the rest of his teammates managed to catch up with Harrison and made extremely important blocks. This set him of, but Number 11 for cardinals (Flistgearld of something) and another player managed to catch him up. But the power Harrison has made him get over the line. And him landing on his did look sore.

As madden says "there's a guy enjoying his oxygen"

How can running 100 yards tire out a pro athlete when football players (soccer players) can run miles and miles almost non-stop for 45 minutes before needing a break? Even if you take into account the extra padding they wear it's pretty weak. I know fat guys that would run further than that just to get to a hotdog stand, and they wouldn't struggle to get there.

You really have to factor in the constant head on collisions with other linemen for at least a accumulative of a hour. Massive hits from NFL linemen can easily drain the stamina of any athlete. That's why the NFL is so strict on how they can take down a Quarterback (sack) nowadays, and the full backs getting so big (Brandon Jacobs).

They do get alot running practice, but it usually defaults once they get into the weight room, or begin eating.

Big difference between a skinny guy who's job is to run up and down a field all day long and a 300 pounder who's job it is to plow through another 300 pounder without being pushed back.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

How can running 100 yards tire out a pro athlete when football players (soccer players) can run miles and miles almost non-stop for 45 minutes before needing a break? Even if you take into account the extra padding they wear it's pretty weak. I know fat guys that would run further than that just to get to a hotdog stand, and they wouldn't struggle to get there.

Most soccer players don't weigh 250+ lbs and wear heavy pads and helmets, or wrestle other 250+ lb guys for an hour or three before attempting to sprint 100 yards flat out. It's pretty stupid to compare soccer players to football players anyway.

Quote from mrodgers :

Big difference between a skinny guy who's job is to run up and down a field all day long and a 300 pounder who's job it is to plow through another 300 pounder without being pushed back.

They are missing a trick there really, they need hotdog stands at each end just incase one of the big dudes has to run a distance obese 6 year olds can manage without breaking sweat.

EDIT: It's a fair comparison DWB, because the amount of extra running soccer players do and the extra 30 minutes they do it for, that's not taking into account the stoppages in play which are much more frequent in football, would offset the additional weight of the footballer. It's common for a soccer player to run many miles in one half of a game and not be tired, comparing that to a fat bloke running 100 yards is perfectly justified and far from stupid. (I Americanised the names there, so sorry to fans of proper football who got confused, just replace the word soccer with football and the word football with handegg)

The sort of training a defensive lineman does and the sort of training a soccer player does are vastly different. I guarantee you a soccer player playing on an offensive line wouldn't do so well against James Harrison, and I guarantee you James Harrison wouldn't do very well as a soccer player in any position.

The entire point of being a soccer player is being able to run for 90 minutes without dying. The entire point of being a defensive lineman is to be able to use your weight to bowl another equally heavy dude over about 90 times in 90 minutes, not to sprint 100 yards full-tilt, and not to run non-stop for 90 minutes.

No use arguing DWB, it's the same as NASCAR vs. F1 racing or "our roads have bends and yours are all straight" or "American cars can't handle and ours can" or "we understand humor/sarcasm and you can't" that goes along with their "we are better than you" mentality. They don't understand the concept of something so they are right about it.

Quote from mrodgers :

No use arguing DWB, it's the same as NASCAR vs. F1 racing and their "we are better than you" mentality.

Agreed, although I do suspect a lot of 'stirring' is involved. Maybe some people just mock what they don’t understand.

BTW ATC Quicksilver joins the list for refering American Football to 'Hand Egg'

In college, we had a name for soccer players. We called them 'lawn fairies'.

I think a lot of the American distaste for soccer comes from the segment of American society that has embraced the sport. Many of us see youth leagues made up of upper middle class children that take a holier than thou approach and have families competing to be better than one another. In fact, mothers and fathers at soccer games adheir to a uniform just as strict as the players. They all show up in their lexus cars while dressed for the country club. In the end it comes off as being tacky and pretentous. For me, soccer families appear snobbish and elitest, while hockey, hand-egg, and baseball have a more grassroots, down-to-earth feel. If the attitudes of the kids playing, and their parents were to change, then I could see a bit more acceptance.

Kids running around in short shorts doesn't do much for the cause anyhow. Throw on some padding, and hit eachother! Get muddy, get bloody, and stop faking injuries.

Quote from PAracer :

In college, we had a name for soccer players. We called them 'lawn fairies'.

I think a lot of the American distaste for soccer comes from the segment of American society that has embraced the sport. Many of us see youth leagues made up of upper middle class children that take a holier than thou approach and have families competing to be better than one another. In fact, mothers and fathers at soccer games adheir to a uniform just as strict as the players. They all show up in their lexus cars while dressed for the country club. In the end it comes off as being tacky and pretentous. For me, soccer families appear snobbish and elitest, while hockey, hand-egg, and baseball have a more grassroots, down-to-earth feel. If the attitudes of the kids playing, and their parents were to change, then I could see a bit more acceptance.

This is a pretty dumb, "culture war"-ish sentiment. I pity you if you buy into it.

well i didn't really like the bruce springstein halftime show so much. im so confused with his last name

Hm?

Quote from pinoykid13 :

well i didn't really like the bruce springstein halftime show so much. im so confused with his last name

What????

The Boss was fantastic, a lot better than when The Stones did it and a hell a lot better than Paul McCartney. Long live the Boss.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

not to run non-stop for 90 minutes.

You mean 60 minutes right? For the record I'm not saying Soccer is better than Football (although I prefer it) I just thought players would be a bit more flexible and be able to run those distances if they needed to. I used Soccer as a basis for comparison because it's my favourite sport, I'm just trying to work out the inner workings of Football. So now I know a new bit of information, the players have very specific jobs to do, and they don't really make allowances for unexpected situations.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

You mean 60 minutes right? For the record I'm not saying Soccer is better than Football (although I prefer it) I just thought players would be a bit more flexible and be able to run those distances if they needed to. I used Soccer as a basis for comparison because it's my favourite sport, I'm just trying to work out the inner workings of Football. So now I know a new bit of information, the players have very specific jobs to do, and they don't really make allowances for unexpected situations.

I meant 90 minutes, which is how long soccer games are.

And yeah, I know you're not the thick type who'd try to arbitrarily assert the superiority of one sport over another, or whatever. It just gets a bit frustrating at times getting baited like that.

I'd be interested to see how someone like Larry Fitzgerald or Santonio Holmes would do at soccer, though.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

I'd be interested to see how someone like Larry Fitzgerald or Santonio Holmes would do at soccer, though.

Well they would probably destroy everyone, although if you put them up against the nutters from soccer they might get a good fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5XlldAOzdg

Eric Cantona was my favourite, someone in the crowd was mouthing off at him so he drop kicked the guy and punched him in the face.

Oh and this one was actually the kind of thing you expect in NFL, he put the dude in hospital and in my opinion should have been banned from soccer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jKf6VzL8Zo