the S+G social thread vers. NFL offseason = S+G offseason

[neveroddoreven]

Plus with 30 players on the field there is less room to escape a crunching tackle.

Not always. Some sevens games can become physical, and when there is only seven of you, you are more exposed as a single defender. Of course in general the game is not like that, and Im only speaking on a personal level of up to U18 level, but having playing against some of the best in the country at that level, I felt that you are under vast pressure to perform and there is no where to hide. Admittedly contact isnt near as heavy at most times, but you cant escape without looking like a dickhead because you are so open and isolated, and no one wants to look like a tackle shirking pussy.
I remember one 7s game we came up against the team who were the 15s national champions that year, and their most physical 15s players were in the 7s team, and at least 3 of them now play professional (1 has been capped for Fiji full international, in that year, another had played for US 2nd team) and those fuckers were not playing a traditional 7s game. They were far too powerful for us, but they got exposed later in the tournament by a better technical side.

Although nothing over here was as physical as when we played in new zealand, those damn islanders just want to hurt you. luckily we played more matches on the south island than north, tended to be less of them there.

 

[China Rider]

god dammit i played so shitty saturday, it was a real bummer, i blame too much valium/kpins

fucking 108, i mean it was a challenging course, but i struggled like hell to repeat my swing and the fast greens destroyed me

still had 6 pars, on the 1, 2 and 4 handicapped holes...think i had a good 3 quad bogeys and at least 5 triple bogeys

i post over on ekoostik hookah's forum and their front man(keys player) and bass player hang out there and the bass player thinks im cool as fuck and he's a big golfer and it's looking like there is a good chance i'm going to be playing a round with him when they come to the poconos in september

 

[axl blaze]

Although nothing over here was as physical as when we played in new zealand, those damn islanders just want to hurt you. luckily we played more matches on the south island than north, tended to be less of them there.

troof!

and hot damn, all this talk of rugby is making me wish I had somehow played in my sports hey-day... there just weren't any obviously available to a young man, obviously because I'm States-side. lacrosse was fun, and that was about as exotic as I got

unlike the typical former American football player, I think I would succeed more without that added bulk of your combined weight of all the football pads/helmet. although I think I'm a pretty big dude, there were a handful of US footballers whose arms could be twice as thick as mine:

I was tall, strong, but my best asset as a Linebacker was my speed/quick feet. all those pads get in the way, but don't get me wrong, if the sport didn't use them men would literally lose limbs on the field

the less padding the better imo. more chances to shake n bake, and then run over your for all Adrian Peterson:

(PS - damn, ya'll know how much it hurts for me to post that above pic of AP running over Rudi Gay of the Steelers, but that was one of the best RB-to-Defender hits I've ever seen. plus Steelers ended up winning the game, so no hatred )

PPS - seriously, if you haven't seen this AP quick pitch then BLA-DAYUM, then click here for the quick .GIF)

 

[Care]

^ Adrian Peterson in my favorite active football player, shame the injury he had in a meaningless game last season. He is about as close as you can get to athletic perfection, if only he were born with titanium knees : /.

 

[axl blaze]

yah I think despite his physical superiority, he is the kind of NFL player that could have not only played - but dominated - in any given era of the NFL. remember the NFL during the 90s where it was so much better because the hits were insane and they allowed for many opportunities for players to celebrate and swag it out, post-hits... oh those were the days...

but his seemingly God-like nose for football is only the foundation that supports his immense physical stature

 

[Busty St Clare]

Not always. Some sevens games can become physical, and when there is only seven of you, you are more exposed as a single defender. Of course in general the game is not like that, and Im only speaking on a personal level of up to U18 level, but having playing against some of the best in the country at that level, I felt that you are under vast pressure to perform and there is no where to hide. Admittedly contact isnt near as heavy at most times, but you cant escape without looking like a dickhead because you are so open and isolated, and no one wants to look like a tackle shirking pussy.
.

The main difference is the tackle zone is usually one on one, you don't want to commit too many to the ruck in sevens so the chance of being spit out the back but a whole forward pack is less. Also the channels you run through are twice the size so you have a lot more time to change your angles and not having to accept running straight into a two man tackle. I love my sevens but it is just shit and giggles.


The only change I would make to the NFL would be having just a single team for offense and defense and limited substitution. That way you would have extreme athletes who would have to not only tackle but also catch the ball. You would also create fatigue as a factor in games which does put a lot of pressure on the fat guys (and open the game up more for the little guys). At least in something like rugby you have a team of your best players and you need to find a kicker amung them, rather than having some token soccer player on your bench who is no hope of making atackle when the need arise. The only reason they have seperate teams is so they can sell advertising during the change over. They are trying to squeeze more ad time here by creating a manditory 30sec between breaks in play for scrums etc and it is worth an extra 30million dollars a season. I'd hate to think what an extra 5 ads a game would be worth to the NFL each season.

 

[ChickenScratch]

i don't drink when i play golf, golf is my anti-drug, one of the few things where i don't 'need' to be drunk or high

i blame too much valium/kpins

nice work.

 

[axl blaze]

good points, Busty. I really REALLY liked watching Rugby 7s matches. a couple years ago this rock n roll band I was in was asked to play this like Qualifying Round (for even the Olympics, maybe??) of Rugby 7 on 7 matches. I got to play in the Columbus Crew Stadium, where this rugby even was held, and although American soccer stadiums aren't quite the tribute to excess that American football stadiums are, but Crew Stadium is the first soccer-specific stadium built on US soil:

I used to live right off of the exit adjacent to Crew Stadium, Hudson St, and the local chapter of die-hard Crew fans are called the Hudson St Hooligans:

regardless, I still live about an 8 minute drive from that beautiful soccer stadium - GO CREW!

 

[China Rider]

nice work.

so i contradicted myself, happens to the best of us

i like to play on benzos, but not enough to have me feeling any sort of buzz, and well i guess i was playing with some unwanted sluggish swag

 

[ChickenScratch]

i was in a wedding party once and we got fucking hammered the night before the wedding. the morning of the wedding we were all playing golf early. i threw up about 100 times before staggering to the course with the shakes bad. buddy of mine gifted me a xanny football. threw it back with a gatorade and shot an 82.

 

[China Rider]

alcoholics make me sick

 

[ChickenScratch]

junkies make me sick.

 

[China Rider]

yeah i agree

like that trey guy

his playing makes me nauseous and gives me the shits

 

[ChickenScratch]

he was better, and more patient on heroin.

 

[China Rider]

finally have my tee time(1:45 friday) for beautiful shawnee golf resort, it's a fucking island on the delaware river, was constructed in 1911, sam snead was the club pro at one time....cost for 18 holes with cart, $22

 

[ChickenScratch]

bad ass, dude.

all my after work golfing partners are out of town this week, think i might do a solo 9 tonight.

 

[China Rider]

pfffttt you're playing alone!??!

i'm just kidding, i fucking hate losers who don't understand the beauty and satisfaction of solo recreation

when i used to work third shift i used to love getting out to the empty course at like 6:45am, a bag full of beers, hits from the pipe, and some ear buds flowing some hetty GD into my brain

 

[alasdairm]

that's a beautiful location, china rider. have you played there before? the holes look pretty uninspiring given the location...

alasdair

 

[China Rider]

i've never played there before

i'm just getting around to playing all the nicer courses in the region due to sick discounts

and yeah i agree, based on that picture none of the holes look very intimidating/unique

but no doubt that the course will be in excellent condition and despite looking generic, i'm sure will be exceptionally challenging...appears to be lots of water hazards

i just got back from the range and i don't even want to type it, but my old arch enemy shanks came back for a visit, i can't think of anything more depressing than the shanks

 

[neveroddoreven]

I'd love to be able to afford to play at the local course. I used to caddy there sometimes when I was younger and it charges £130-160 a round, depending on day. Payed pretty well which was nice in the summer. They held a Ryder Cup there in the early 80s and hold the odd qualifying event, most recently US open qualifier and the Senior Open this year just gone, which were good to go watch for a bit.
I really enjoy playing but dont anywhere near often enough to be considered good at this point. Due to money I tend to play the cheaper, fairly simple courses, but thats enough fun on a nice day anyway.

for size

NSFW:

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There's heather dotted all over this course and is a nightmare if you go into it. A few greens are half surrounded by it and its incredibly easy to lose sight of the ball completely, which happened a few times when I caddied, to the annoyance of the player.