Sports: NFL

[Tornado]

Have a Sun King and enjoy life.

I was just thinking the other day how Chicago fans should be eternally happy. One Superbowl and your team is immortalized as 'Da Bears. Is there any other team that is recognized on the same level for any sport?

[IAmBatman]

Da Bulls?

[Tornado]

Da Bulls is more than one season though. Da Bears is one season of greatness.

[Ninja Status]

Why can't Jay Cutler use the phone anymore?

Spoiler Alert!

Because he can't find the receiver.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Have a Sun King and enjoy life.

I was just thinking the other day how Chicago fans should be eternally happy. One Superbowl and your team is immortalized as 'Da Bears. Is there any other team that is recognized on the same level for any sport?

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Da Bulls?

Da Bears of '85 have all become forever immortalized in Chicago. Heck, Da Coach (Ditka) is still making boatloads of money based on his time with the Bears.

Chicago is a football town first. So if they win big, they live forever.

Da Bulls won 6 championships in the '90s and had a nice run. While they are popular in Chicago, the players of those teams aren't quite revered like the Bears of '85. Currently, Derrick Rose is quite the polarizing player. He and Cutler from the Bears are both similar in how they bring out some "interesting" discussions amongst sports fans in Chicago and neighboring areas.

The Blackhawks have exploded in popularity since their owner Dollar Bill Wirtz died and his son Rocky Wirtz took over. Since then they have sold out over 20K seats every game, won 2 Stanley Cups and went to another conference finals, losing to LA. They own Chicago now, they are incredibly huge and is our saving grace from the futility of the Bears. They travel well, as there have been as many Hawks fans in other teams stadiums as there are home fans. In fact, Nashville had to make it very difficult for Hawks fans to get tickets because they would make Nashville games like home games for the Hawks.

The Cubs have been lovable losers for so long and they have had a huge following around the country, but that might have been helped by WGN being everywhere and that's the station of the Cubs. But over the past several years, the bar has been raised and expectations have increased dramatically. There has been a total clusterfvck over the past couple years in debate between the new owners of the Cubs and the city of Chicago about renovations to Wrigley that would allow more signage and large screens behind the bleachers in the outfield. The Cubs want more income generating amenities but the rooftop owners across the street have been fighting back. Some people spent millions to put bleachers on the rooftops across the street and have been making big money. The previous Cubs owners made a deal with them to give the Cubs like 15% of their income, but the new owners want to put up stuff that would obstruct some of the rooftop views, so there has been a bunch of legal debate over the past couple years. The Cubs had made a decent concession as to the size of some of the stuff, but the rooftop owners were playing hardball, so now the Cubs basically said "F" you, now we are going to do it the way we want to and have already started demolition of the bleachers. Expectations are high, as the new people in charge of the Cubs have said that they needed time to rebuild, and now with the new manager and some promising talent in the system, time for the Cubs to win big has to be in the near future, or there will be a huge letdown, again.

While the White Sox have won a World Series, they still don't get the love that one would expect. They are more liked by the blue collar southsiders, but haven't been filling the seats blindly like the Cubs have. Weird for sure.

[IAmBatman]

Go Detroit. Lions and Tigers and um Pistons and Red Wings, oh my!

[dok]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

...That was the last time that happened in the long history of the NFL, until today, when the Ravens beat the Titans to go from 5-4 to 6-4. In the wild 2014 AFC North, every single team is at least two games over .500.

In completely related news, every team in the NFC south is 2 games or more under .500, and a Saints loss to the Ravens tonight would stretch that to 3 (and do the same for the AFC North, in the other direction). The 2010 Seahawks are the only division champ that has had a losing record in NFL history. Could we have a 6-10 division champ this season?

The Falcons are pretty much the heroes of this story, with their 4-0 record in the division and 0-7 record outside of it. It's not that much of a stretch to imagine them losing their next three to the Cardinals, Packers, and Steelers, then sweeping the Saints and Panthers to take the division at 6-10.

[Kinseth]

And every team in the AFC North would have 7 wins(7-4 or better).

[dok]

Originally Posted by Kinseth

And every team in the AFC North would have 7 wins(7-4 or better).

Yep, that's what I meant by "the same for the AFC North, in the other direction". There's a strong symbiosis between the AFC North's collection of four solid but not great teams, and the NFC South's Keystone Cops routine, allowing them both to be record-setting divisions. As in, the AFCN has a 10-1-1 record against the NFCS this year.

[Dad_Scaper]

Yup, that would be the first time ever in NFL history.

It is quite a feat - even to be this close - regardless of the bad-ness of the NFC South. As we football fans all know, (a) bad teams sometimes still beat good teams, and (b) all 4 teams play against each other and those outside the NFC South as well. Like Beckham's Spiderman catch last night, it's NFL history playing out before our eyes.

I hope the Ravens win, not just because they're my team, but because it's football history in the making. Still, in the absence of outstanding CB Jimmy Smith in the defensive secondary, they are on borrowed time. Fingers crossed for tonight.


Dok ninja: Yes, well, there have been bad divisions before. You are being a bit unkind to the AFCN in this calculation, though; as you know, even a good team will throw up an occasional stinker. The teams of the AFCN have been able to avoid that this year when playing outside the division. All four teams, all year long, so far. Doesn't matter who the opponents are, that's impressive.

[dok]

Of course upsets happen. The Steelers beat the Colts and lost to the Bucs and Jets, after all.

I don't think I'm being particularly unkind to the AFCN. I don't deny the incredible nature of the records, and it will be still more amazing if it carries through to the end of the season. But the fact that it's never been done before does go to show that it takes several things falling into place, namely:

1. All four teams being good at the same time
2. None of the teams being dramatically better than the others, so they can all trend towards .500 against each other
3. A soft out-of-division schedule

Obviously, the AFCN has gone 3/3 in these criteria. They also drew probably the weakest AFC division to play this season, Indy notwithstanding. The AFCN hasn't played many of their "strength of schedule" games; they are currently 1-2 with 5 more to play the rest of the way. Those upcoming games against the Broncos, Chiefs, Dolphins, Bills, and Chargers will be illustrative.

Things might have been even worse for the NFC South if they had had to play the NFC West this year instead of the NFC North. Which is kind of amazing.

[Aldin]

What an unusual game. It was a bit like those Buffalo Wild Wings commercials where some predetermined outcome is needed and the guy behind the bar dials up whatever weirdness is required to get there. It just felt like the Saints were willing to do whatever was necessary to not quite win the game last night. My favorite example being the pick six at the end of the third - I really thought that maybe the Saints would hold off a very good Ravens team until then, but after that... notsomuch.

~Aldin, who was kinda rooting for the Saints but also kinda rooting for the historic division standings