With the the regular season starting this Thursday (8:30 PM EST) with Farve’s Vikings taking on the NFL champ Saints in New Orleans this is bound to be an awesome season. Here are some facts about the league that you may not have been aware of.
During a slow game the heat on the sidelines can quickly become more entertaining then what is happening on the field. Here are the best examples of mascots getting it on MMA style…no matter how unnatural it seems.
He gives him a nice little thumping towards the end.
It’s a bit long and pretty staged but impressive nonetheless.
But then a weird thing happens…a frog jumps in…and then a dog?!?
After watching an entire season of football and all the instant replays that go along with them I began to wonder when all the non-sense began. Doing some research I found out the first televised use of instant replay was during the December 7th, 1963 Army-Navy game.
Oddly enough this game was originally to be played on November 30th but because of President Kennedy’s assassination on November 22nd the game was rescheduled. Kennedy was a huge fan of the Army-Navy game attending the two previous years as the the official pre-game coin tosser.
So the first ever replay to be broadcast was Army’s Quarterback, Rollie Stichweh’s touchdown in the forth quarter of their 21-15 loss, which he faked a hand-off and ran off-tackle for the score. Announcer Lindsey Nelson fearing the viewers wouldn’t realize it was a replay stated, “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!” The run was played back at full speed.
Unfortunately the tape of the original replay has been lost and will never be able to be replayed again but I did find some footage from that game to give you an idea of the footage that was taken during that time period.
It was replayed at the original speed, with commentator Lindsey Nelson advising viewers “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again!
UPDATE: Watching the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics I heard mention that instant replay was “invented” by CBS during the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley:
On the slopes, two skiers came westward from Hanover: Tom Corcoran ‘54 and Chick Igaya ‘57. Corcoran placed ninth in the slalom event, a race which is believed to be the origin of instant replay when CBS producers were asked for a tape of the race by officials, to settle an argument.
This was use by officials to determine the winner of the race and was not used during a broadcast. The Army-Navy game was the first use of instant replay viewable by the audience whereas the Squaw Valley use was the first known use for officiating.
I found this ESPN poll to be pretty funny. The majority of the nation feels pretty much the same about the Super Bowl this year as any other year with the exception of a few states. Obviously Indiana & Louisiana (and fine Mississippi too) are going to be more excited this year. Why Utah is more excited as well beats me…anyone know better than myself?
The interesting thing about this poll is that the only state which seems to be a Debbie Downer is Minna-so-dah. I guess they just can’t get over that loss.
I mean really guys, you haven’t been to the Super Bowl in 34 years and each of the fours times you managed to make it you lost anyways. So what may I ask is “worse” about this year? Is it that you came so close…or is it the realization that your one-time QB (I’m mean really…he’s been there one year!) is actually human?
So what say you Minnesota, grab some popcorn and a muffaletta sandwich and come join us all in South Beach on Sunday.
With everyone except Peyton’s mom jumping on the “Who Dat?” bandwagon, we thought we’d point out some other annoying slogans. Yes, yes…Raider Nation and Cheeseheads aren’t quite slogans but they are annoying enough to be included as a whole. What other sayings or slogans annoy you most?
