Jan 122009
Rock Town Hall, here’s your place to talk football! All I ask is that you keep it to the pro game. Any quarterbacks discussed, for instance, cannot throw a worse ball than Eli Manning – and players can’t wear midriff-showing jerseys and those lame pants that show thigh. Please make a cursory attempt to tie your thoughts on the four remaining playoff teams to music. Enjoy!
what a great little clip. that’s the play that started a tradition of giving the giants fits on their own turf.
i had forgotten that larry czonka was supposed to take the handoff on that play.
what rock bands best exemplify each of the four remaining teams?
I’m out. I suppose I’ll pull for the Steelers, but my Titans were eliminated.
As my bandmate said, ALL of your teams can’t win ALL of the time…
It might be nice to see the Cardinals do something just because they seem to be total underdogs.
What’s the deal with the “bird” teams? Eagles, Cardinals, Ravens…
TB
Good question, regarding the rock bands exemplifying teams, Sat! Here’s what I can make of them:
Eagles: The ’70s Who, for their stubborn, sometimes pompous dedication to The Power and Glory of Rock, or Football, in this case
Steelers: Midnight Oil, with Big Ben as the effective-if-clumsy bald, Aussie frontman
Ravens: Early George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyer, on a given night capable of knocking off any headliner act with their still-vital bar-band ethos
Cardinals: Early ’90s comebacking Aerosmith, with some highly skilled veterans holding up a thinly constructed facade
As for rock bands that represent the four remaining teams? The Byrds (of course)!
Okay…
The Eagles for The Eagles (duh)
Lou Reed for The Ravens because its funny.
Black Sabbath for The Steelers because heavy metal, steely, lumbering…you get the idea.
Big Star for The Cardinals because they are strong, yet overlooked. Most people (including myself) are surprised to see them make it this far.
TB
The Eagles are nothing like their musical counterparts of the same name!
They’re more like a veteran band putting out an improbable return to form album after a bit of a slump, like “Some Girls” era Stones.
The Cardinals are a mostly younger band with an old guy fronting them….like Robert Plant on his Now and Zen tour.
The Ravens are like a punk rock band with a tough sounding rhythm section…no frills…alot of emotion…like early hüsker dü.
I second the motion that the Steelers are Black Sabbath.
I was at that Eagles Steelers game earlier this year, and after watching them yesterday, I feel the same way I did before: their pass protection blows. even the weakly chargers were penetrating on obvious pass downs. if you got mike tomlin in private and asked him what’s the first thing he needs to fix on this team, he’d definitely name his 0-line.
it’s great for them that willie parker is back. it takes a lot of pressure off ben.
Oh, i wouldn’t say that the team and the band are the same other than in name only. But that was just my lame attempt at trying to be funny…
I’d even agree that that your Stones comparison fits far better.
TB
no worries, lately.
as an iggles fan, i could not sit by idly and let that comparison stand.
my stones comparison may only be slightly more apt: these eagles are not as strung out as the stones were back then. at least, let’s hope not. sometimes, when i see asante samuel interviewed after games, i wonder.
How nostalgic to watch that clip and yearn for the days when the screen showed the playing field…no crawls, no constant score update, no statistics for the fantasy league fans, etc.
What’s the musical equivalent of a team like the Eagles that appears to be playing to spite its fans more than anything else? That seems to be the biggest motivation for Reid and McNabb, which I can’t help but think will only get you so far.
I’m pulling for the Phil-Pitt Steagles showdown, a Super Bowl 66 years in the making.
i want the birds to thump the cardinals GOOD.
there’s nothing worse than watching a bunch of guys wearing the uniforms of a perrenial joke franchise like the cardinals acting cocky and bad-assed on the sidelines during these games, as if winning playoff games is something at which they are expert.
it makes me want to puke.
i hope the eagles are pumped to put a hurtin on these wannabes.
ya know, with all due respect, Al,
i’m sick of all the whining (and i’m not saying you’re whining in your post above, but you bring it up) about the information that appears in the margins of the screen during a game.
i *like* knowing all that stuff. “back in the day,” I used to wonder all the time about what was happening in other games, and which players were playing. now i know.
and you know what else? all those graphics haven’t hindered my ability to see what’s happening on the field of play…not once.
I think the Steelers are mor elike the bands that play around Pittsburgh (or did). They’re like The Cynics or The Iron City Houserockers to me. Lean and mean, with big riffs and scorching guitars. They don’t look slow and plodding like Black Sabbath at all.
As much as it pains me to say it, until Cleveland gets a professional team I’m rooting for the Steelers.
2k, the stillers are my second favorite team: my parents live in stiller country and i’ve even made the trek to three rivers and heinz field to see games.
it pains me to read your post above.
the steelers are WAY too tough, WAY too DARK, to be compared to the page-boy haircut wearin’, paisley shirted, thin guitar soundin’, dandy boy cynics.
and besides, the only guys on that team who aren’t cement footed are willie parker and santonio holmes. i think my dead grandmother, may god rest her soul, could cover hines ward.
i like your assessment of the brownies, if in fact, you ARE implying that they’re not a professional team.
but as someone who has traveled in stiller fan circles i must ask: how on earth can you root for cleveland’s most bitter rival?
My interest in football is probably different than most people, and surely very different from yours, sat.
I really enjoying watching pro football and yet I don’t care about any particular team. Despite my Philly roots I don’t really care if the Eagles win. I’d just as soon they win and if you ask me who I’d like to see go to and win the Super Bowl, I’d pick the Eagles. But if they lose Sunday, when 0:00 shows up on the time clock in the fourth quarter, I’ll be “over” it long before the coaches shake hands.
So, when I’m watching, I don’t care what any other score is. I don’t care who’s passing for how many years in a different game. I don’t care if it’s the first ever time a game ended with a score of 23-11. [That info was conveyed yesterday; I missed whether it was the first playoff game or the first of any type of game with the score. This curiosity added nothing to my enjoyment of the game.]
If I could tune all this data out, I wouldn’t care. But I can’t and so they do distract from my enjoyment of the game.
But I’m not whining about it…much.
National Labor Foundation playoffs?
gotcha, Al! remember, i didn’t say YOU were whining, but there IS alot of whining about that particular feature…none of it makes sense to me. but you make a good case for the opposing point of view.
as intense as i can be about rooting for the philly teams while the game is in progress, i’m also over the loss pretty quickly. i know it’s just a game, though i wouldn’t go so far as to say that i “really don’t care” if the eagles win.
i’m also not as down on the players as most philly fans, who seem to think that nothing could be easier than playing football, without ever having played a down themselves.
Noise Liberation Front playoffs?
Maybe what a lot of the NFL players have been calling the league over the last few years, with the frequent fines and penalties for “excessive celebrations,” the No Fun League, is most apt for RTH relevance.
I think you mean “No League Fun,” Mod.
Mr. Mod, congratulations on the Eagles beating the Jints. I hope it will be a Eagles-Steelers Super Bowl. I think it would be the 1st time that the 2 teams came form the same state. Although I do favor the Steelers, it would be nice if the Phillies have an Opening Day clebration w/the Super Bowl winning Eagles charging on the field. You Philly fans would pfreak out.
Not that I give a damn, but the Bills (Buffalo) and Giants (NYC, sorta, for business purposes) played a memorable Superbowl.
Nice to have the weird scores in the game, that way Donovan doesn’t have to worry about what happens if there’s a tie score at the end.
Maybe Mod was thinking MiLF subconciously when he typed NLF and it means “Nobody I’d Like to Fuck.”
sat, it truly pains me that Cleveland doesn’t have a pro football team, and we haven’t in years. My kids grew up with no team, or this pretend pro team we have now. My pro sports attitude was changed by Art Modell. Pro sports franchises do NOT belong to the fans or the city. They are a PRODUCT and they belong to the owners. Being a fan of a losing team is for suckers. It’s like being a fan of Ford, and loving Mustangs. Since I live in a “small market” Ford has decided they will only sell me the four cylinder , for the same price as the cool 8 cylinder. Because I’m a “fan,” I’ll suck it up and pay it.
But I’m not like that anymore. They stole my team, moved it to another city and I burned all my Browns stuff. I pissed on the ashes. So now I know the score. I will never pay for a game, but I’ll go for free, and unless it looks like they will win, I generally find something else to do.
I went to a Stones show in Pittsburgh, and I had a blast. The people were fun, the city is gorgeous and so long as I stayed away from Iron City, I could enjoy lot’s of great PA beers. Those people still have their team and don’t know what a sham the NFL really is, so I can actually enjoy the team I used to despise like foot fungus.
The Cynics kick total ass, by the way. And Troy Polamalu looks really fast if you ask me. Either that or he’s a football magnet, because he always seems to be where the ball is. I like watching their defense. They take chances and hit hard. I think they can be burned deep, though. If you do burn them deep, they usually start sending everything they’ve got at the QB, so it’s fun to watch the havoc in the backfield.
Obviously, or not so obviously maybe, I think the Eagles have a real shot. There’s no pressure of expectations (they’ve been dead since the Cincy tie, remember?) and they’re playing very tough right now. Guess I still have to feel that the AFC teams have the edge, but maybe the Steelers and Ravens beat the crap out of each other and the Eagles continue to gain momentum. Plus the totally unexpected victory of the Phillies lends the year a kind of legendary possibility.
wow, 2k, with that attitude, i don’t know why you bother rooting at all.
the owners are caretakers of franchises that usually stay in the city over multiple owners. so in that sense, the teams usually DO belong to the fans and the city first, and the owners second.
but i understand where you, as a clevelander, could be coming from on this.
your reasons for becoming a steelers fan are lame. but they’re your own.
and look…no NFL team has *all* slow guys, okay? but the stillers have always had a reputation for being a power running team with physical RB’s like rocky blier, franco harris, and more recently, the late period, pie-eating contest winning, plodding version of duce staley and, of course jerome bettis. willie parker breaks that mold, but roethlisberger is a fucking clydesdale.
so troy polamalu’s fast? zippity doo da. i still think the steelers are black sabbath. and i saw the cynics a couple years back. i stand by my description above. no ass was kicked by them that night, except in the eyes of their stepford fans.
I’m not much of a fan these days. I used to get so mad at my grandfather for laughing when the Browns lost, but he always said, “That Art Modell’s no good. Paul Brown is the Brown they should have kept, and let that whiner Jim Brown go and just signed a big fast guy to punch Jim in the mouth every time he came to play in Cleveland.” But when you grow up a fan and you buy that crap the NFL sells, and they just take your team, you start to understand. I should have believed the old man when he told me that. So for me, football is for making money on my fantasy teams (another championship in the 14 team league this year!), and there’s Notre Dame and Ohio State for cheering. I cut the Indians slack for some reason. I like baseball and I suppose it’s the nature of the game to go see a game and see them lose about as often as they win, even if they’re good. I’m not a real Steelers fan, though. I sure as hell ain’t rooting for Baltimore, and I want to stay in my division.
I never saw The Cynics. They make great records. The Iron City Houserockers were pretty fun. Joe Grushecky is a pretty killer guitar player.
Oh, Roethlisberger and slowness? My favorite QB that I got to see on the home team was Bernie Kosar. I think he makes Big Ben look like Carl Lewis, so maybe I’m not the best judge of speed! Ben could make his line look better if he’d throw the damn ball, though. Santonio Holmes is fast, and if Ben is going to wait until the safety can get over to cover him, then he should probably just take the damn sack already.
Since my childhood team has tended to be also-rans since that sweet, sweet pair of back to back wins in ’97 and ’98, I personally usually just watch the game for the commercials.
2k, you’re more of a Brownies fan than you care to admit!
I admit to being harsh on the cynics…but not by much. there’s no accounting for taste, and i know i’m in the minority among folks like us, who dig garagey stuff.
when i was in pittsburgh with brother jt, we played with this band of kids…a trio…the drummer sat so low on his drum stool, he looked like a little kid behind the wheel of an old Cougar. his kit was black, with yellow flames just like the kind they trick up old muscle cars with. man…those kids were like the iron city version of blue cheer. long hair, plain white tees, blue jeans with patches, adn VERY good weed. they were livin’ the dream. we LOVED them. sure enough, the drummer had a steelers logo tatoo’d on his left shoulder: “only tattoo I’ll ever need,” he told me.
instead of black sabbath, maybe the steelers are THAT band.
48, you’re an orange crusher, huh? the birds and the donkeys play each other next year, ya know. if it’s a road game, i’m going to visit an old friend in denver. how do you feel about the new hire?
I find it encouraging. He did a good job here in Boston, both under Charlie Weis and on his own. I worry a bit about the learning curve of handling defense as well as offensive, because historically the Broncos have been a primarily defensive team, but I think he’ll do okay.