- The Republic of Ireland soccer team being inept from an organisational standpoint. DON'T SACK A ****ING MANAGER UNLESS YOU HAVE A BETTER REPLACEMENT!! DON'T HIRE SOMEONE WITH NO COACHING EXPERIENCE AND TELL ME IT'S A WORLDCLASS SET UP!! kghghggjhghghjhih;

- The "Golden Generation" of Irish rugby being rubbish when it counts;

- The Jets having a boom, bust, season on season cycle. And never, ever, never doing things the easy way;

- Not being able to get NBC or ESPN Fullcourt in Ireland and thus hardly ever getting to see Notre Dame play;

- The Knicks. Get it sorted lads;


I would add the BCS in there. But I actually just find it funny tbf. What a silly, silly system you guys have in place for deciding a national champion in college football.

NFL Coaches having no clue about field position or game strategy, for ex. regularly kicking a FG with 4th and goal from the 1 up 3 with not much time left (see CLE/AZ game).

Tommy Heinsohn.

NFL teams still not figuring out that it's very easy to replicate the Patriots aggression on offense by infrequently kicking FGs and instead playing for TDs most of the time.

NFL coaches punting at any point in the 4th quarter down 3 scores. The incompetence of most NFL coaches are what sours the quality of the game for me.

The absolutely retarted questions some reporters ask during press conferences or when sideline reporters (not named Tony Siragusa) open their mouth and give their "insight" when not reporting an injury.

Edit: I'm looking at you Jack Arute, Jim Knox, Todd Harris, and others

On the other side of that: When athletes answer a reporter's question with canned, generic answers.

"You guys made an incredible comeback there in the 4th, what do you attribute that to?"

"Our players just make plays. It all comes down to execution. We just gotta go out there and execute the plays. We just compete and don't give up, and we're just happy to get out of here with a win."


When athletes don't actually answer the question they are asked.

"What does a win like this mean for you?"

"Our players just make plays. It all comes down to execution. We just gotta go out there and execute the plays. We just compete and don't give up, and we're just happy to get out of here with a win. We're going to enjoy this one tonight and we're looking forward to playing a good team in _____ next week."

Basketball guys,

If a guy has 4/5 fouls, isn't he more likely to change his style of play, esp. low post players?

BCS!

Yeah, I don't really like sitting your stud for half of the 2nd half w/ 3 fouls though. So many people said Calhoun "outcoached" K in the '04 FF because they won and Okafor didn't foul out (lol)....but they were down 8 or 9 points with a few minutes left.

Simply, yes.

People who say "They got it right" when referring to the BCS.

People who say "A playoff would hurt the regular season" when referring to the BCS.

People who say "The regular season is a playoff in CFB."

People in general.

I'm also really tired of all the commercials. That's the only good thing about CFB season being over. I don't have to see those ******ed AT&T commercials 50 times a weekend.

tell me about it, I traded Reggie Wayne for WP in the middle of the season, and the rain is ruining Parker.

Tivo/DVR

If you can't stand commercials, like me, it is the ONLY way to watch sports.

Most announcers at the games are watching the field from their seats, not watching via the centerfield camera that looks over the pitcher's shoulder. It's much harder to tell what kind of pitch it is when you aren't using the centerfield camera.

One thing I'm really tired of: the term mid-major. You know who is a mid-major? Gonzaga. Memphis. You know, teams from middle of the pack conferences who are as good as major conference teams. You know who's not a mid-major? Every podunk little team that pulls an upset never to be heard from again. This annoys me way more than it should, but it's just so grating.

fyp for more specificity because they really do all suck

One of the few commercials that I don't mind seeing though imo:



or maybe one of those John Madden V-Cast commercials.


Having said that, bowl season will only be worse. You know you're going to get a bulk of the commercials catering to the sponsor of the bowl (can't wait for those GMAC commercials on Jan. 6th!)

Also, wtf is up with the GMAC and the International bowl going between the Orange Bowl and the BCSCG? Ooh yeah, let's watch Bowling Green and Tulsa play it out the day before the championship game. Can't wait. (This means of course that I'll probably eat my words in about a month)

woiwoiewuroiwuehjslkjdfalfdsadhfh corporate piece of crap bowl organizers and your "sincerity and passion for the game" insta-tilts me (I'm looking at you galleryfurniture.com bowl [though you don't exist now, but you get what I'm saying] and your ilk) Tired of it.

Sure, but for a lot of people the argument is "well i want to use him late in the game when it matters more". I think this is silly. If you use the player to get you a larger lead now, later in the game matters less. Wrt your argument, isnt a player still going to have to play that way when they come back in later?

Yeah, you're probably right. But then don't you think they shouldn't say anything if they don't know?

Exactly. AJ Ogilvy coming in to the game with 3 minutes left isn't going to worry as much about picking up a foul as he is with 10 minutes left. In the former case he's going to play more to his strengths, while in the latter case he's going to be more of an average player for the minutes left until the end of the game.

Pretending there's zero difference between the two cases is ignoring the fundamental humanity of the people playing the game.

EDIT:

Quote:

isnt a player still going to have to play that way when they come back in later?

No, and I can't decide whether I'm stunned or just annoyed that you'd take this perspective.

I agree with this, but part of it is because it's learned behavior. It's sort of like sac bunting in baseball or punting on 4th and 2 from midfield. I think there's some truth that these players are human, and they will in fact play differently regardless of whether it's ideal or not. On the flip side, if coaches wouldn't constantly make a habit of yanking a guy who picks up his 3rd with 6 minutes to go in the first half, the players might play with a little more confidence in those situations. That's how Nellie treats his players (at least the SJax and Boom Dizzles of the world), and it seems to be working for them.

New BCS threads.

Yes it might require some sort of "coaching" to convince him not to do that.

'stuff' is a universally accepted term in baseball. I have no idea why this bothers you.

Its not ignoring the inherent humanity of the game, but perhaps you are right that it MAY be a fallacy that human beings have free will and that coaches have any impact whatsoever on the beliefs and actions of their players.

It's not always as clear-cut.
I broadcast over 1000 minor-league baseball games but would still miss some. It happens.

I sat with a couple of players who were charting the pitches that day. On a few occasions one would ask the other, "Do you think that was his curve or a change?"

I really disagree with this.
I think there were a lot of missed calls before instant-replay. But many of the super-close ones we let slide by because we're used to such calls pretty much being able to go either way.
Look at the super-lateral play from Cal/Stanford in 82. If there was replay then the greatest play ever might have been overturned. It was close and the camera was about a zillion miles away though so who knows.

We are able to get a lot of wrong calls corrected now. Obviously most of the reviews/challenges end up merely upholding the original call anyway.

In a tangle of bodies and everything moving really fast and not having all the best angles I just don't see how it's realistic for the official to know every time if the ball came out the instant before the knee touched the ground, etc etc.
Plus all the super close-calls along the sidelines trying to get the one foot in-bounds for a complete catch WHILE he's jugglnig it some. It's pretty much impossible for the same set of eyes to watch the possession of the ball AND the feet at the same time.
Onsides kicks trying to determine if the ball was first touched before it went 10 yards can be really tricky for officials too.

This is why it's good to have replays for such close decisions. It takes annoying long sometimes but I actually think the fans have mostly gotten used to it and I do think it has made the game better.

Yeah, I don't get the hate for "stuff".

I'm not a big fan of 'filthy' and am even less of a fan of 'nasty' or 'sick'.

Maybe I'm just not modern or hip enough. 'Nasty' probably came into popularity i17 years ago with the Nasty Boys on the Cincinnati Reds so it's not like it's THAT recent. But it still strikes me as silly sounding.