BobbyWhioux

I often wonder how badly Aikman wants to just haul off and slug him during any given game broadcast.

Somehow some of it has to be pyschological/motivational technique for the benefit of the team itself. That's the only way it even sorta makes sense.

Basically. He's a pass rush specialist who isn't particularly good at run stopping (though better than he was when he started) so he's in the spirit of Kevin Greene et al. "just go get the QB"

It's as if Dixon was sat down during the review and made to watch a clip of Marcus Allen, and adjusted his technique accordingly. Much better dive the second time around, jumped too early on the first one

SF and Seattle work stiff. NFC WEST STRONG STYLE

Surely Norv would be down for another retread opportunity!

Sadly it still seems to be Asking Too Much. But, even more precious to us than our fiction of Athlete = Role Model, is our using of THE CHILDREN~! as an excuse to be sanctimonious about that which offends us, so cheering the competitive athlete only to turn on him when that competitive nature also manifests as jerkish behavior (enabled by the high salary he's paid in reaction to our demand for his playing services) will continue to be.

"Athletes Are Role Models" and indignance when they turn out to be "jerks", for whatever reason, is an ideal that refuses to die. It's funny, really. Several generations of shoveling dirt on top of it and that pale cadaverous claw of a hand keeps shooting up out of the soil, accompanied by a striking minor chord and a flash of lightning, ready to terrorize us again. Usually by selling us jeans and pickup trucks.

It's far more of a comment on sports in general than on Harbaugh, but prick though he is I'm not sure he even cracks the top 10 of Biggest Douchebags In Sports. His failure thus far to commit rape or vehicular manslaughter certainly hurts his overall Shithead Rating. I've still even got him behind Bonds in my personal list of Biggest Douchebags I've Rooted For. Your point is well taken, though.

Doubtful. It's more of a tourism issue, perhaps: this does potentially hurt any business looking to profit off of the out of market fan (hotels, etc) coming into the area and conducting intra-state commerce, and this is of course why you'll never hear about The Packers doing this because opposing fan tourism is so vital to Green Bay's economy the team literally cannot afford to do this from a business standpoint. After season ticket holders and the NFL's promotional cut, also, how many at-large tickets are still available that this is even an issue with? Probably not significant enough for any "regulate interstate commerce" argument (i.e. how many Floridians were going to want to come/be able to come to this game anyway)? The region Seattle is "limiting" its ticket sales to are the regions ticket sales would be limited to by geography/logistics anyway. It'd almost be like trying to argue Restraint Of Trade against a sports team because their stadium "only" has X thousand seats and tickets to sell in the first place. Manufactured Scarcities To Drive Up Demand is a time-honored capitalist tradition, after all. IANAL either, and any member of DVDVR Law who would like to swoop in and educate us please feel free to do so, but I imagine this is the case.

The comments section underneath any article of this nature are, of course, almost always an eyesore, but the people shouting conspiracy with regards to driving up the after-market/resale/scalper value with artificial scarcity do make a fun point.

The board where I first heard this story, it was a reported by a guy who believed Seattle was getting the idea from NHL teams/arenas trying to keep Blackhawks fans from taking over road games. In any event such attempts would be less feasible in the other major sports, since they have so many more games and ticket sales departments often use the featured opponent as the draw/selling point. Trying to black out out-of-town fans truly hurts business in those sports in a way that the NFL is (I assume) largely immune to. Also alleged the Broncos are attempting the same thing (and it also won't work; The Patriots are a Security Council team. They have fans in Colorado with Colorado credit cards already, they'll show up.)

I would assume the NFL would not care unless it put Seattle at risk of not selling out. Which, due to football's popularity and scarcity of game tickets due to how few games there are, is not a risk. The only "something to say" the NFL would have would be concerning it's designated portion of tickets for Corporate Sponsors and or good PR giveaways to kids via The United Way or whatever. They get those and can distribute however the shield chooses. Service businesses do reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, after all. This has probably been happening all year long with a bunch of teams and people are only bothering to report it now to help build heat for the championship match. EDIT: and again, the 49ers are one of the UN Security Council Teams; once a dynasty, ALWAYS an obnoxious fan base that manages to travel everywhere. Just like Pittsburgh, or Dallas, or Green Bay, or New England, or even still Oakland. Plenty of Bay Area folk relocate to Washington and Oregon, too. So it won't even work as well as one might assume.

Eh, 49er fans are still likely well represented in those states as holdovers from The Glory Days anyway They're older now, of course, but that just means they have the money and idle time to travel.

Pretty sure Peyton Manning's audible string included "ASSHOLE! ASSHOLE!" during that last possession. Now dreaming the Next Great NFL QB has Tourette's.

That PPK segment is pretty weak when the older age bracket kids aren't awkwardly and obviously checking each other out, honestly

And if Brady ties him at 4 rings, while having a 6-4 edge in conference titles, and the all-time record for post-season wins by a QB? More conference titles simply means Brady has LOST super bowls thus proving his inferiority to St. Joseph and that Brady can NEVER be his equal

Eric Weddle, meanwhile, looks eerily like Brian Wilson (pitcher, not musician) when he takes his helmet off.

And Joe Montana is unassailable as The Greatest QB Of All Time And Only A Moron Would Dare To Begin Argue Otherwise and it will remain that way even if they play football for a thousand more years

The narrative on Peyton has become ridiculous, IMO, and that's not just my Indy fanhood talking. First, it was all "He's gotta win one or he's a loser!" So he does and now it's all "He's gotta win more or he's nothing!" more or less. What a joke. At what point do you stop questioning someone who has clearly proven to be great at what they do? Does he need to undergo another four neck surgeries to satisfiy some sick threshold? It boggles the mind. It's symptomatic of the decline of journalism (and sports journalism being poor to begin with) serving the marketing interests and acting as storytellers instead of reporters (and selling units of the magazine/newspaper/driving website clicks with easily written fan debate bait like all time "Top Ten" lists that ask questions that can never be truly answered). Also our recurring failure as Americans to recognize and respect Team Effort instead preferring Individualization in our hero worship (i.e. "Peyton Manning winning" vs The Colts and/or Broncos winning).

I'm already sick of the "Tom Brady, who grew up watching Joe Montana, vs Joe Montana's old team for a chance to tie Joe Montana's Legacy of 4 Super Bowl Wins" two week build and it doesn't even exist yet.

Football makes for stranger bedfellows than politics.

Burn The Heretic It was all Jerry Rice. The 81 team had TWO "white guy with negative speed" WRs. TWO. WHITE WRs. NEGATIVE SPEED.

Burn The Heretic

It possibly hints that Aikman's Papa John's paycheck is larger than his NFL on FOX paycheck. Though both organizations seems like they'd be likely to lowball him.