John Madden Passes at 85

[boozeman]

This ass wipe is getting way too much attention.

 

[boozeman]

 

[Genghis Khan]

We will never have another John Madden.

Quintessential Madden.

As an aside, I'm beginning to think I have some sort of sickness. As soon as I noticed it was the eagles playing, I checked the score and immediately was disappointed to discover the eagles were winning.

 

[bbgun]

looked like an Irish Setter or mix

 

[Cotton]

 

[Smitty]

Titans twice, Seahawks twice, Pats twice, Steelers twice, Ravens twice, Lions twice (if you include Barry), Chiefs twice (Mahomes twice!). Brady twice, once with Bucs, once with Pats.

EA may need to consider how many fucking fans the Cowboys have. I would buy the game just cause a Cowboy was on the cover, frankly.

 

[Smitty]

I do think Terrell Owens was on some sort of alternate edition one year, a couple years back, in a Cowboys uniform, cause I think I have it on Origin (PC).

 

[Smitty]

Him and people like Dickie V are a dying breed. It's unfortunate. That's entertainment.

"Cooler than the other side of the pillow". - Stuart Scott

These are the greats.

Yeah, Dickie V was the voice of a generation of Duke-UNC basketball greatness.

He's already basically retired, I know he does games now and then, but not really anything big anymore. Very sad.

 

[Smitty]

it truly felt like he was a Cowboys employee as a commentator. A lot of what I love about the Cowboys is stuff he perpetuated - the sweat stains, Nate hitching his pants, Nate jumping out of swimming pools, talking about Moose, talking about Erik Williams nastiness…Do other teams fans - 49ers or Packers - have the same bond with Madden as we do?

I think he was a big, big Packers and Favre guy as the 90s wore on and the Cowboys began to fade. I think there's probably a bond there at least.

 

[Smitty]

How about this happy horseshit?

Some people just do it for the attention and to be assholes.

 

[Smitty]

How about now?

Like this asshole.

 

[boozeman]

Some people just do it for the attention and to be assholes.

And some of them are truly drunk on their own stupidity.

 

[Smitty]

The worst guy in that booth was Paul Maguire, who kept calling Emmitt "Emmitt Thomas."

MaGuire wasn't in the booth with Enberg and Trumpy.

 

[bbgun]

MaGuire wasn't in the booth with Enberg and Trumpy.

He definitely called one of the Dallas-Buffalo Super Bowls. He was mixing up Emmitt with Thurman Thomas.

 

[Smitty]

He definitely called one of the Dallas-Buffalo Super Bowls. He was mixing up Emmitt with Thurman Thomas.

The last one, apparently. I rarely have re-watched that one since it's such a shitty game that we basically slogged through and barely won.

The first two I've watched a million times and it's definitely Enberg and Trumpy together, the two of them.

Enberg also died, back in 2017.

 

[data]

The last one, apparently. I rarely have re-watched that one since it's such a shitty game that we basically slogged through and barely won.

The first two I've watched a million times and it's definitely Enberg and Trumpy together, the two of them.

Enberg also died, back in 2017.

I guess I'm not the only one that doesn't fully enjoy watching SBXXX. I love watching the Packer NFCC, though. For SBXXX, I just remember Enberg and MacGuire knob-slobbing and not-so-secretly rooting for Pittsburgh all game.

 

[Smitty]

I guess I'm not the only one that doesn't fully enjoy watching SBXXX. I love watching the Packer NFCC, though. For SBXXX, I just remember Enberg and MacGuire knob-slobbing and not-so-secretly rooting for Pittsburgh all game.

The team was springing leaks like the Titanic. Watching that game is too much of a reminder how they were coming to a crashing halt as a dominant or even a good NFL team, and that their contending days were over.

In fact it was even kind of obvious in the Packers game. You could see them laboring to finish that one.

In the Steelers game you just saw a team with a handful of super talented guys that just didn't have the energy to really compete anymore. Too many holes in the roster from free agent defections with poor drafts failing to fill it back in, too many guys who had been-there-done-that before, and had stayed out partying too much the week before, too many guys on drugs, too many guys making too much money to really care for the game, too many guys had too many miles and injuries to get that far into the season at the same level of play (look at the team week 1 against the Giants for a comparison). And the coach was old and tired himself more than anyone, with too much college success to really be living or dying with the outcome of that game.

They were just going through the motions and it showed. Jimmy never would have let them do that - but fair enough, part of the reason Jimmy wasn't there coaching them was because he didn't want to do it anymore either and needed a break, needed out of Dallas.

The Steelers were a team, and were playing like a team, and gave us all we could handle. Scraping by one win in that fashion is nothing to be ashamed of, but the frustrating part of it all was that you could see the Cowboys, as a team, were spent and everyone watching knew it.

Troy Aikman was merely 29. Emmitt was 26. Irvin was 29. Sanders was 28.

The team was starting to age but a competent general manager would have figured out how to re-tool that team, sacrifice a down year or two, move on from some unproductive aging players, get draft picks, draft well, and gear up for another run around 1998 or so until 2002. With a Jimmy-quality GM I suspect you could have seen Aikman and Smith playing well into their mid-30s and winning division titles for Dallas. Maybe another late-career Super Bowl run. Deion was one who should have been jettisoned for a haul way earlier - he was just one position - a corner, and one who didn't even get many interceptions by that time, he was super, super expensive, he would have brought in a treasure trove of assets, and I don't think he was a very good influence at that time in his career.

Instead Jones clung to the core like grim death and the team withered on the vine. And that Steelers Super Bowl was really the last gasp. Going 10-6 in 1996 and again in 1998 on the backs of aging stars who couldn't be great by themselves anymore was just painful, and a reminder that they should have been supplemented with new stars instead of just trying to plug leaks around them to replicate 1993 again.

 

[bbgun]

The onside kick made it closer than it had to be, but they more or less completely shut our offense down in the second half. We were basically holding on for dear life. You asked for miracles? I give you the FBI Neil O'Donnell.

 

[data]

The team was springing leaks like the Titanic. Watching that game is too much of a reminder how they were coming to a crashing halt as a dominant or even a good NFL team, and that their contending days were over.

In fact it was even kind of obvious in the Packers game. You could see them laboring to finish that one.

In the Steelers game you just saw a team with a handful of super talented guys that just didn't have the energy to really compete anymore. Too many holes in the roster from free agent defections with poor drafts failing to fill it back in, too many guys who had been there done that before and had stayed out partying too much the week before, too many guys on drugs, too many guys making too much money to really care for the game, too many guys had too many miles and injuries to get that far into the season at the same level of play (look at the team week 1 against the Giants for a comparison). And the coach was old and tired himself more than anyone, with too much college success to really be living or dying with the outcome of that game.

They were just going through the motions and it showed. Jimmy never would have let them do that - but fair enough, part of the reason Jimmy wasn't there coaching them was because he didn't want to do it anymore either and needed a break, needed out of Dallas.

The Steelers were a team and were playing like a team and gave us all we could handle. But the frustrating part of it all was that you could see the Cowboys, as a team, were spent and everyone watching knew it.

Troy Aikman was merely 29. Emmitt was 26. Irvin was 29. Sanders was 28.

The team was starting to age but a competent general manager would have figured out how to re-tool that team, sacrifice a down year or two, move on from some unproductive aging players, get draft picks, draft well, and gear up for another run around 1998 or so until 2002. With a Jimmy-quality GM I suspect you could have seen Aikman and Smith playing well into their mid-30s and winning division titles for Dallas. Maybe another late-career Super Bowl run. Deion was one who should have been jettisoned for a haul way earlier - he was just one position - a corner, and one who didn't even get many interceptions by that time, he was super, super expensive, he would have brought in a treasure trove of assets, and I don't think he was a very good influence at that time in his career.

Instead Jones clung to the core like grim death and the team withered on the vine. And that Steelers Super Bowl was really the last gasp. Going 10-6 in 1996 and again in 1998 on the backs of aging stars who couldn't be great by themselves anymore was just painful, and a reminder that they should have been supplemented with new stars instead of just trying to plug leaks around them to replicate 1993 again.

Even the postgame celebration was kind of a turnoff. The first song the PA played after the final gun was ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ Beatles. What the fuck?

Of course, Switzer and Jerruh‘s awkward speech with We did it our way, baby. We did it. We did it. We did it.

Even Irvin’s post game interview with his ‘this isn’t the last chapter, this isn’t the end’ made me think oh shit, this is the end.

Even the SB champion hats were ugly

 

[data]

…and the Gatorade bath sucked, too

Thank goodness it was the Steelers we beat, though. A little bit of retribution against that franchise.