Super Bowl

[Apollo]

Re: quotes. When you said that the quotes were unnecessary, I thought you were telling me that after all the Raven-bashing I had done, I didn't really need to post more inflammatory stuff. I had no idea you were agreeing with me!

Well, I do have to say that the Ravens played a good game. They completely outplayed the Giants. All I was saying was that the Giants obviously weren't prepared mentally, had a lousy gameplan, and were very disappointing.

I wasn't really saying it the way you made it sound, I was criticizing the Giants. If they had played well, I don't know if they would have won. But it certainly would have been interesting, at least.

For all of the bashing I've done, the Ravens are a very good team, as far as playing goes. In every other category, I find them very lacking.

 

[Zadok001]

"They completely outplayed the Giants."

Yah, like THAT took effort. Talk about a slaughter! The Giants (a misnomer if I've ever heard one) must have felt like Finkel facing down a 'Dillo Cloaked Rith. _Crunch_. I watched the game at a friend's house, and found to my great dismay that the first ten minutes of play lacked a SINGLE completed pass.

The Ravens may be a good team. But they sure didn't need to be to win that game. (Though seeing 3 touchdowns in 36 seconds was SOME good. )

(As an aside, the add with the car in the tree was brilliant. "Next time, let out the clutch a bit slower." So, so true...)

 

[Spiderman]

Turd Cutter: What dirty plays are you talking about? This game seemed fairly clean, at least compared to the playoff games.

About Survivor 2, see my thread about that (you might have already posted there, I don't know yet).

Apollo: I agree, if perhaps the Giants were better prepared (and maybe they were and maybe they weren't, we're only guessing here), it would have made for a more exciting and closer game.

Zadok: Heh, some columnist in the Post didn't like that car commercial. Since I only watched the second half, I didn't see a lot of commercials but I didn't think ANY of them were particularly good. The ones that were faintly amusing were the "What are you doing" and the Riverdance one with the overweight guys (and I can't even remember what THAT one was for).

 

[TURD CUTTER!!!]

Turd Cutter: What dirty plays are you talking about? This game seemed fairly clean, at least compared to the playoff games.

Most of the game was played clean, but there were those unnecessary hits that they had made in their other 15 wins

The Giants were way off of their game, and i do agree that it would have been interesting if both teams were playing their best game.

well, just a few months 'til the next season starts. as a washington, dc native, i'm hoping that the redskins do better this year. they might go all the way, (not likely) but i can hope

can't think of anything else to write

 

[Apollo]

After doing some digging, I found in, an old Sports Illustrated article, the events leading up to Modell leaving Cleveland.

Some years before the move, Modell negotiated rights to controlling Cleveland Stadium. Under the agreement, he would pay some $200,000 annually to the city of Cleveland. He would have to perform all maintenance, but would be able to lease the stadium to the Indians, would not have to lease it from the city, and would collect all money from concessions, souvenirs, and similar services. He thought this deal was so cushy, he didn't let his parteners in the Browns in on it. He created his "Stadium Company" to control the stadium. That way, he could lease the stadium to the Browns. Since he only owned 51% of it, he would essentially be taking money from his partners! Life couldn't get better.

Unfortunately, in his brilliance, Modell never actually inspected the stadium before agreeing to the deal. A short time later, while performing some minor maintenance to the bathrooms, he found that the structural supports were eroded to the size of pencils. Now that he got around to actually checking the place out, he found that the whole thing was in disrepair. His stadium company was forced to take out massive loans to pay it off, and then still more loans to pay those off. Eventually, he was forced to sell off the concession rights just to pay off interest on loans.

Then, Mr. Modell had a stroke of "genius." He decided to sell the stadium company to the Browns. He owned 51% of the team, so he could force them to accept it. The company's massive debts would go over to the Browns, so essentially he would be unloading 49% of the debts he had accumulated onto his partners. Not only that, he would be taking bundles of money from them in the sale! Life was good again.

For some silly reason, his partners in the Browns didn't appreciate this. They took him to court and sued. Upon review of the sale for the court case, there was a "minor" discrepancy. It seems Modell had bought a piece of land in the nearby suburb of Strongsville for $300,000. He then sold it to the stadium company for $3 million. Then, when selling the company to the Browns, he valued the land at $3 million. An appraisal found the land to be worth about $325,000. Naturally, the courts didn't take kindly to his games, and he lost the case.

Now, Modell was desperate. He appealed to the city to make him a new revenue-generating stadium and bail him out of his own stupidity-induced debts. Naturally, the city refused (the old stadium was servicable with some basic repairs), and Modell used it as an excuse to pack his bags and run off to Baltimore, who was offering him boatloads of money to essentially be a mercenary.

And once again, life was good in Modell's own little world.

 

[Spiderman]

Turd Cutter: Oh, okay, but in your post that I was questioning you made it sound like the Ravens made dirty plays IN the Super Bowl, not in the games leading up to it. I'm witcha now...

I'm also more of a Redskins fan and find it rather amusing that the highest payroll team couldn't make the playoffs (with Snyder thinking that since he owns the team, he knows what's best for it).

Apollo: Interesting. The Sun (and maybe the Post) did a sampling of sports columns from around the country before the Super Bowl and after the Super Bowl and it was interesting in that in almost all of the selection, it was pretty much the majority opinion that the "despised" team won. From the sampling, it appears a lot of sports columnists don't like the Ravens

 

[TURD CUTTER!!!]

i agree with spiderman. it seems to me that only people in the washington-baltimore area like the ravens. when the ravens got to the super bowl, just about everybody in the washington area jumped on the baltimore bandwagon. it sort of pissed me off. i hope that they won't do as well this season, because i despise the "most despised team"

as for the redskins, i hope that their new coach helps the redskins at least get to the playoffs. i, too find it hard to believe that the highest payroll wouldn't make it to the playoffs. the redskins weren't extremely good before snyder came, but the skins have gone downhill in snyder's "infinite wisdom"

isn't the washington-baltimore area just blessed with football team owners?