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Post by BakFu on Mar 10, 2019 22:34:06 GMT
I could hear Goldberg's music playing right after that hit and JR commentating it. "SPEAR!! BAH GAWD HE BROKE HIM IN HALF!" Love how the Fijian player is still unnamed - it gives it a "parts unknown" heel vibe. And with that hard head, are Fijians the Samoans of the Rugby world? No kidding, eh? I think Fiji should get pyro before their matches! I didn’t want to post till I found that guys name, but the rosters were tough to find. I LOVE the South Pacific island teams, they play with a passion and heart you just won’t see anywhere else. Relative to other rugby countries, the island teams have tiny populations, but they produce amazing players! If you’ve ever seen a haka, a manu Siva tau, Cibi/I Bole, or sipi tau (pre game ritual challenge the South Pacific island teams do), it’s a strange combo of mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time. The island players are warriors, but also genuinely awesome, proud people! Imagine an entire team of people built like Mark Hunt who run like Olympic sprinters and don’t tire out! I got to see an all Maori all blacks squad play here in Canada, I was on the sidelines and could feel the ground moving while those guys did the Haka. I’m not superstitious, but that shit was incredible, it gave me goosebumps, it’s some powerful shit, and oddly, it made me almost want to run. Samoa was the same, saw a women’s side play here, they were so bad ass! You ever get a chance to check out a game live, do it! Pacific island teams have great fans, and you’ll see some hard hits and just great, talented, inventive players put on an entertaining match! |
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Post by OrochiGeese on Mar 11, 2019 2:26:55 GMT
Love the way you described the pre-game ritual challenges! That legit sounds awesome, as in literally would leave me full of awe about the energy in the arena. Really cool experience to be a part of.
And I'd love to watch a "Super Smash Rugby: Mark Hunt Melee" game as that's what it sounds like! 😀
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Post by NSL on Mar 11, 2019 2:53:07 GMT
As a rugby player myself, I usually have said that you're less likely to be injured in rugby than you are in American football.
To add to Bakfu's comments on rugby, the Pacific Islands all are special. Samoa, Tonga and Fiji have awesome contributions to the sport. I'd love for them to come together as a unified invitational touring team again like the British and Irish Lions.
Fiji have earned a reputation as being the boss in sevens, mainly for their possession play and wild offloads. Their influence in sevens is so great, it's common to see the sevens players also playing 15s and thriving.
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Post by BakFu on Mar 11, 2019 4:13:40 GMT
I'd love for them to come together as a unified invitational touring team again like the British and Irish Lions. Fiji have earned a reputation as being the boss in sevens, mainly for their possession play and wild offloads. Their influence in sevens is so great, it's common to see the sevens players also playing 15s and thriving. I've been preaching this idea to any poor sucker that would listen to me for more than five seconds for YEARS! Can you imagine how bad ass a Pacific Islands rep squad would be? Fiji has been a favourite sevens side of mine for years, it's fun watching those guys come so ready and capable to whup ass on a global scale year after year. Sevens are fun in general because it's cool to see teams you wouldn't otherwise see in 15's on an international scale, and see them actually compete (and sometimes even WIN) in some good matches. And OG, it was really cool being able to see (and feel) a live Haka, it's one of the highlights of my existence on this rock. What business does a prairie boy from Canada have seeing something that cool in his own backyard? Seeing video of Haka is pretty bad ass, too. One of the coolest (and most gutwrenching) performances of the Haka I've seen was for Jonah Lomu's funeral. Some powerful stuff. Check out the videos of ones from the games though, they just set the pace for the match and get you amped up! |
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Post by El Marsh on Mar 11, 2019 17:13:48 GMT
I don't know as much about Rugby as I'd like but I have seen a few All Blacks Haka performances and it is indeed the coolest, most intense introduction in the entire wide world of sports. The history there is pretty amazing.
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Post by Zealot on Mar 13, 2019 2:49:36 GMT
Okay. I'm officially scared of Cleveland's potential offense now with Odell Beckham Jr. joining the mix.
I feel like the karma train is coming to all those Yinzers who have shit on them for so long.
*gulp*
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Post by El Marsh on Mar 13, 2019 3:44:02 GMT
Yeah, now Mayfield has a terrific playmaker to throw to and Jarvis Landry can go back to being the #2, which suits him much better. They already have a good backfield but IF the NFL reinstates Kareem Hunt and he comes in fresh halfway through the season, that's going to be pretty damn hard to contain. Two good receivers, an elite RB, and a QB that can hurt you with his feet and his arm. *shudder*
I know there were some jokes that RotY Saquon Barkley was the entire Giants offense last year but now without Beckham and still playing next to the cleatmark-riddled corpse of Eli Manning, I think that will be more true than ever this coming season. Dude's going to end up wasting his best years playing for bums.
On a more personal note, I'm not particularly happy that the Chiefs have parted ways with both Justin Houston and Dee Ford. They both had huge contracts and ditching both created nearly $30m more salary cap space to work with but now the Chiefs have one remnant defensive playmaker (lineman Chris Jones, who is entering the last year of his rookie contract. They did use some of the new cap room to snag Tyran "Honey Badger" Mathieu which fills a massive hole in the secondary (I think Eric Berry is completely done, though he's still under contract at the moment) but they need so much more help, at all three levels of the defense. I know the Chiefs have that crazy high-powered offense (which I expect to regress a bit this year, namely because of a decline in RB quality and more footage out there of Mahomes' tendencies) but short of somehow improving that, I'm not sure it will be enough to carry them so deep again, particularly with a defense that could be WORSE than last year's 31st ranked unit.
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Post by Timberwolf on Mar 13, 2019 7:55:52 GMT
I'm doing a wait and see on my Packers grabbing 4 free agents before I offer my opinion. I'm not a fan of free agency. I'm a draft and develop guy, but I understand Green Bay signing these guys because there is no guarantee they'd fill those positions in the draft and Aaron Rodgers' window is closing.
The NFL should do the draft first, then use free agency to fill holes that they didn't get in the draft. But the players will never allow that in a CBA.
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Post by El Marsh on Mar 13, 2019 21:30:07 GMT
Well Eric Berry might not be done completely but he's done in Kansas City. Released after 8 years and a promising career all but ruined by injury. Berry, Justin Houston, and Tamba Hali were the Chiefs' defensive captains for a LONG time. Hali was released after the 2017 season and now Berry and Houston are gone. Changes NEEDED to be made on a defense that was next to last in the NFL in yds allowed but it's really the end of an era, one that saw league-best domination by all three players derailed by injury (though Houston at least is still serviceable; jury's out on Berry who opted not to have surgery on the foot injury that sidelined him for all but 4 games this season).
I really don't know what to believe. The Kansas City Chiefs can NEVER exist in any sort of balance. If the offense is great, the defense is dreadful. If the defense is dominant, the offense is abhorrent. With the exception of BOTH units being bad (see that 2-win season 8-9 years ago), there's just never any way that both units are equal in capability.
I think this is going to be the Vermeil-era Chiefs all over again. Explosive, entertaining offense complemented by a defense that may as well play blindfolded given how ineffectual they are.
I don't trust this team to draft well, hence my skepticism and lament that this decades' long stretch of futility will continue through next season.
But hey, we have Patrick Mahomes so I guess that makes everything great, right?
>_<
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Post by El Marsh on Mar 15, 2019 21:41:03 GMT
yeah, I think it's time to give up on sports for good
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Post by Zealot on Mar 15, 2019 22:31:06 GMT
Hey now. You still have Mahomes to cheer for.
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Post by Timberwolf on Mar 17, 2019 13:33:45 GMT
Baseball announced some rules changes for this year. One of the changes for 2020 jumped out at me. Pitchers are required to pitch to a minimum of 3 batters. That's stupid. I don't see a problem with one out specialists. Let them continue doing that.
Baseball is also thinking of banning the shift. Again, why? The shift is part of the game.
I don't think Rob Manfred has a fucking clue on running a baseball league.
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Post by El Marsh on Mar 17, 2019 18:07:37 GMT
*meltdown over*
So Johnny Manziel has a job again, this time with the AAF's Memphis Express. I guess there wasn't anything particularly damning about his dubious banishment from the CFL last month. Interestingly, he'll be coached by controversial former NFL coach (and Hall of Fame player) Mike Singletary. I'm skeptical that this will work out well for either party but I've been wrong before.
Speaking of the AAF, have any of you bought into any of the sports streaming services (ESPN+, DAZN, FuboTV, etc)?
If so, do you think them worthwhile in terms of content, quality, reception, etc?
It seems more and more things are going to that medium and I'm still very leery about paying to see sports that were on basic cable until a year or two ago. I'm just curious about whether those who use them are satisfied.
The only similar service that I've ever used is WWE Network, which I think is pretty great for archival fare.
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Post by El Marsh on Mar 17, 2019 18:16:10 GMT
Baseball announced some rules changes for this year. One of the changes for 2020 jumped out at me. Pitchers are required to pitch to a minimum of 3 batters. That's stupid. I don't see a problem with one out specialists. Let them continue doing that. Baseball is also thinking of banning the shift. Again, why? The shift is part of the game. I don't think Rob Manfred has a fucking clue on running a baseball league. They're worried about managers slowing down the game with pitching changes yet there's no real enforcement of a time limit for pitchers and batters to dally around readjusting whatever between pitches. Depending on the player, a 10 pitch at-bat can take anywhere from 3-9 minutes. Now do that 10 times a game and you have 30-90 minutes of straight up fidgeting. But surely THAT isn't a problem for the game's pace.....
I think something else that I saw mentioned is potentially cutting the number of warmup pitches that a reliever gets on the game mound. Currently, they get 8 warmup pitches. That's plenty and nowhere near "too many," especially considering that the bullpen mound is often at a different elevation than the game mound (the higher the mound, the harder it is for the batter to judge velocity and break).
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Post by Timberwolf on Mar 17, 2019 19:51:02 GMT
They're worried about managers slowing down the game with pitching changes yet there's no real enforcement of a time limit for pitchers and batters to dally around readjusting whatever between pitches. Depending on the player, a 10 pitch at-bat can take anywhere from 3-9 minutes. Now do that 10 times a game and you have 30-90 minutes of straight up fidgeting. But surely THAT isn't a problem for the game's pace..... See Ryan Braun of the Brewers. He has one of the longest fidgeting ever in baseball. I'm a Brewers fan, but I roll my eyes whenever I see Braun at bat. I'm like, just throw the pitch. If Braun is not ready, too bad.
If they are gonna put a pitch count on pitchers, they need to do the same for batters too.
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