More like that I exist and Angelina Jolie exists, and since I don't know the future, I guess it is possible for her to give me a blow job. It is just that the Lions going 5-0 happened first.

With the state of parody in the NFL today, sometimes I feel when watching the sport, that someone slipped a roofie in my Yingling and raped me.

I wake up in the morning with a sore ass and a hangover wondering what the fuck happened.

The Lions are supposed suck, that is just the natural order of life. When they do this it makes me question Dawkins.

And here with the mention of Detroit I thought this could be an awesome hockey thread. Instead it's just shitty football.

The rules aren't any more complicated than most sports, once you take the time to learn them. It basically boils down to scoring, like most sports. The rest is just regulations defining what you can't do in order to score, and what the punishment for breaking a rule is.
The best thing about hockey is that it has the best parts of any game (skill, agility, speed, strength, strategy, etc.), but at a faster pace, and with fewer interruptions.
For me, watching football is really nothing much more than watching a bunch of guys try to make a consecutive hundred metre dash in opposite directions. In full body armour so they survive when a 160 kilo obese guy jumps on their face. Which of course just slows everything down that much more (both because fat guys are slow, and because armour reduces flexibility and movement from energy efficiency).

Or for those who seriously want to compare the differences between cricket and baseball, try:

http://www.dangermouse.net/cricket/baseball.html

I stopped watching NHL when they started putting adds under the ice. I mean for fucks sake, the boards arn't enough, the commercials on TV arn't enough, naming the fucking arena after a company isn't enough?

If they start putting adds on NFL fields I WILL stop watching the NFL.

They should name every arena/stadium the same fucking thing "Corporate Greed Stadium/field/arena"

Seriosly assholes, if you want money so much skip the fucking game and just have nothing but adds.

Do those fuckwads understand that it is no different than some robo call at home?

I want to watch the sport, is that too fucking much to ask?

No, you are talking about stadium names. I am talking about actual adds physically on the field of play. College does it, but the NFL, so far does not. The NFL does have names like "Fed X field, but "Fed X is not painted in the end Zone or at the 50 yard line. The naming rights merely force the announcers to say the name "Fed X".

I don't give a fuck, adds under the ice are like some fuck wad talking on their cell phone during the movie.

And that is what will come next. You'll go to a movie and there will be a corporate bug at the side of the screen during the entire movie.

Thanks for the update, but what does that have to do with the lack of introspection big business has?

Making money is one thing. But excess  selfish reasons is immoral. How much is enough?

These bastards don't want limits on themselves, but don't mind putting limits on those at the bottom or middle, and STILL want more.

Don't pester me with your adds. I am aware you are out there. Dont club me over the head. Don't stalk me everywhere I turn and look. ESPECIALLY when you are NOT a mom and pop shop.

Corporate adds have become like a religion by itself. It is a corporate Big Brother. You can't escape it. It is to me just as oppressive as any religion and just as dogmatic as any politics or religion.

It does not foster a free market, it fosters the same sheepish behavior religion and politics have. It is merely a different form of dogmatism.

I have enough adds on my TV, on my computer, in my mail box, when I drive down the street. ENOUGH, it is just as bad as religion.

Right, and because of that it too, needs the same checks and balances on it that religion and politics have. ANYTHING left to it's own devices can go off the rails.

I don't however, think all business owners have this mindset, just far too many. I have worked for owners who do care for their workers.

AND I do blame myself and the middle class for allowing this to happen. We allowed ourselves to get complacent every time a bubble passed and falsely assumed that because things were "tolerable" that they would improve long term.

I wish it hadn't gotten this far, but America has a short term memory. We didn't learn from the airline bubble. We didn't do anything when factory after factory and union after union got busted. We didn't do anything after the dot.com bubble. And now this.

It is too much and has been too much for far too long. I do not want to see a "recovery" allow the same complacency that simply throws more crumbs and band aids at the market, only to see another bubble down the road make things even worse.

I think it is bad enough now, I only hope we don't forget how bad it is, even if a recovery happens. I do not want to see any recovery allow the pay gap and cost of living grow, simply because we have more jobs. That will simply be throwing more crumbs at the problem.

We need to think, as the middle class and poor class, long term. We need to make it clear that our vote counts too. We need to stand up to class bullying. We need to make it clear that we exist too. We do not have to put up with more of the same. We don't have to accept crumbs and crappy wages. We do not have to accept them buying off OUR congress.

We need to get BACK to the anti-monopoly concept of the founders, including making our vote count, instead of having one class have a monopoly on our politics.

NO MORE. This is our government. It is about time we stand up for ourselves. It is about time they learn that they are not the only ones with the right to vote.

Their lies and fear mongering wont work any more. The lie that we(bottom and middle) are lazy wont work any more. Their lie that we want to rob them, wont work any more. Their lie that we want to end the free market wont work any more. Their lie that higher taxes will kill jobs, when over the past 50 years the evidence shows things were better when the tax rate was higher on the rich.  Their lie that they cant afford it wont work anymore.

WE DO NOT WANT TO END THE FREE MARKET, we merely want to end the abuse and the class monopoly on our politics.

NO MORE. I've had enough. 

Oh boy, you are talking about graphics, even without the adds the x-box first down crap is annoying too. I am actually talking about painting adds physically on the field.

I have seen "All State" painted on the field goal net in College football. THAT is what I am talking about.

ENOUGH of both. The adds between play and the corporate names that announcers have to say SHOULD be enough. If they actually start painting adds on the field like they paint under the ice in the NFL I will stop watching. They are already teetering for me. When the NHL did that, they lost me.

I am currently hanging on by a thread because the players didn't get bullied by the owners. It's nice to see the employee win for once.

Oh, and the NBA players are striking now. The season has lost the first two games. GO PLAYERS. Put those bastards on the fence.

My guess is it isn't about money (from the pov of someone advertising their company in EVERY CONCEIVABLE MANNER) and it isn't about greed (at least in the sense of 'enlightened greed') so much as it is about the uniquely American trend of marketing being almost completely out of control and inordinately spent on. I believe that at some of the companies advertising with NHL, NFL, and Nascar, they could easily cut over half of their advertising without feeling a slightest drop in sales. So, from that angle, if it were really about greed, than most corporations would not "smear their logo feces" all over stadiums because they likely loose whatever money they spend in doing so. After all, all they are doing is putting a brand logo somewhere in view of millions people watching a game from a camera. I don't know what half-baked research supports this sort of corporate behavior, but I don't think it is as anywhere near conclusive as people in charge of advertising budgets often seem to assume.

I'll refer you to

http://www.profitjump.com/articles/0214-advertising-myths.html

I think as aggressive as marketing and advertising has gotten in the past 30ish years, it will be at some point.

So Cricket is just like  gay group sex?

YOU THINK?

BINGO!

Our market is NOT on the consumer level. It is on the marketing level, because the companies are more concerned about keeping up with the Jones's than pleasing the consumer. They are great at telling you you are happy, but their goal isn't to make you happy, but to make their CEOs and shareholders happy.

Marketing is a needed part of business. But when it becomes more important than the product , consumer or worker everyone gets fucked besides the people getting paid to dream up the scams and the people who invest in the scams.

A good economy isn't about solely making a buck. It is about providing and building, not extracting, or tricking.