04/19/24
November 01, 2012
SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
An adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Send In The Clowns
Submitted in honor of this evening's Kansas City/San Diego NFL game:
Send In The Chiefs
Ain't it a bitch?
Is there a God?
Norv staying employed for years
Against all odds.
Send in the Chiefs.
Where's the Commish?
Has he no shame?
Letting Turner continue on
Above all blame
Where are the Chiefs?
Send in the Chiefs.
Loss after loss
To inferior teams
Won't help the Bolts to make
The courageous call, it seems.
Strength and godspeed, Brady Quinn,
The moment is yours.
Lead a signature win,
To help slam the door.
Wade Phillips smiles;
He's been through this.
Publicly crucified,
And then dismissed.
But where are the Chiefs?
There ought to be Chiefs.
Quick send in the Chiefs.
It's Thursday; they're here.
Don't give up hope,
Be of good cheer.
We won't always be cursed
By Norv's career.
Just send in the Chiefs.
And what of the Chiefs?
Well, maybe next year.
posted by beaverboard at 02:15 PM on November 01, 2012
Watching the Lakers these last two nights reminded me of the day I got NBA 2k13 and was trying to figure out the controls while playing with the difficulty set too high. I'm sure they'll figure it out but the first couple games have been painful.
posted by tron7 at 02:23 PM on November 01, 2012
Submitted in honor of this evening's Kansas City/San Diego NFL game:
That's the Thursday night game?
Is Thursday night where they dump the crappy matchups so they don't pollute Sunday? Has there been a good game on Thursday this year?
posted by grum@work at 02:35 PM on November 01, 2012
Their preseason over/unders were 8 and 9, respectively. I guess the NFL network took the overs.
posted by tron7 at 03:11 PM on November 01, 2012
In a division where the division champ went 8-8 last year and the Chiefs were slated to be somewhat improved (I may have seen a couple picks for them to win the division this year?) from their 7-9 record, it's not that odd of a selection since it's sort of a rivalry game that had playoff implications at the start of the season. I'm pretty sure it's blacked out here, so it's not like I'm going to be able to watch it anyway.
posted by LionIndex at 04:00 PM on November 01, 2012
Not a huge fan of Thursday games anyway. I was OK with Monday, still not great with Sunday night games (after watching all day Sunday, I really get overloaded by Sunday evening). Thursday, though, seems like too quick a turnaround for teams, especially when it comes to injury recovery.
Thursday games also suck for fantasy football. Nothing worse than a player laying an egg Thursday so you can dwell on it until Sunday and fixate on what a hole it's started you out with for the week. Last week I had he Vikings defense, who promptly earned me negative 2 points.
posted by dyams at 04:04 PM on November 01, 2012
Yeah, unless they start making the schedule so that teams only play Thursday night games when they come off a bye week, I really don't think they're good for the players.
posted by LionIndex at 04:13 PM on November 01, 2012
Is Thursday night where they dump the crappy matchups so they don't pollute Sunday? Has there been a good game on Thursday this year?
I believe that in launching a full season of Thursday night games, the NFL made the point that doing so ensured that every team would get a prime time game this season. The Chargers have actually already had three (Monday night of opening week against the Raiders, a Sunday nighter against the Saints, and a Monday nighter against the Broncos). Considering that ESPN and NBC get actual choices on what teams to showcase in their prime time match-ups (with NBC even even more flexibility through use of "flex" scheduling, while ESPN is stuck with the choices it makes at the time the NFL season schedule is set), it only makes sense that Thursday night games will be more likely to feature at least one crap team.
To the question of whether there has been a good game on Thursday this year, there was Bears-Packers in Week 2 (good on paper, crappy game) and Seahawks-Niners a few weeks ago (decent match-up, but fairly one-sided affair). Looking forward, Saint-Falcons on Nov. 29th looked good on paper before the season started (and the Saints were proven to be pretty awful) as arguably did Broncos-Raisers on Dec. 6. Otherwise, you see a bunch of games featuring teams that were probably not getting exposure to prime time otherwise (Jags, Panthers, Bucs, Costs, Bills, Dolphins, Browns, Rams, Titans, Chiefs), albeit sometimes against a decent enough team on the other side.
posted by holden at 04:51 PM on November 01, 2012
@beaverboard, that's great!
posted by billsaysthis at 12:35 PM on November 02, 2012
Sports Announcer R.J. Lewis Looks Into His Crystal Ball