buckey said:

Of course. Is that a rhetorical question?

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Shakin' Down the Thunder said:

Your PTSD is valid. No disagreement with your comments. None of us really know what will happen as anything can happen. Just trying to make as much of an educated guess as I can. With that said, I still think the x-factor is Freeman. I know I'm biased, but who is coaching better than Freeman since the week 2 loss?

As for Denbrock, I do have 2 concerns:
1. Stop calling those damn screen plays on 3rd down! Screen plays are hit or miss and there's only one option. I'd be fine with a standard RPO on 3rd and medium. Otherwise, call a regular pass play and give RL options.

2. 3rd/4th and short. RL got stopped on a 4th and short. What bothered me about his call was that everyone in the whole stadium knew RL was going to get the ball. The RB going in motion fooled no one. I would have preferred RL be under center. Cut the distance between RL and the first down marker. As we saw a UGA player made contact with RL in the backfield. I can't imagine being able to stop RL doing a QB sneak on a 4th and inches scenario. Besides when it's 4th and short. The offense has greater risk than the defense does, usually. If the offense fails they lose the possession. If the defense fails, well they get another chance to stop them from advancing. That means the defense will often gamble go all out focusing on stopping RL and ignore any fakes.

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christophero said:

Rick was fired but I cannot remember why, He got caught lying about something. Sark did okay and then jumped ship to USC first chance he got.

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raulduke_007 said:

Im a Real Madrid fan, Ramos, Pepe, Alonso, were very physical with Messi. I would still take CR7 (his Champ's League KO performances were unreal) over Messi but Messi took some physical beatings in El Clasico. The height of the rivalry back when Mourhino was coaching was peak hatred. I remember that 4 game stretch where RM & Barca played in a 3 week stretch (La Liga, Copa Del Rey, 2 Champ's League Semi games) that was peak futbol.

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Kung-fu kicks and riot police: the day Maradona got Barça brawling

With Barcelona facing Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final on Saturday, we look back at the same fixture in 1984

www.theguardian.com

banmate6 said:

I did say if you magically teleport them together, of course the modern players would win. In most sports. Football too.

I think Maradona could play and thrive in the Messi era. He had incredible speed, was much stronger, and, as you noted, more talented. I don't believe Messi on contract would have survived the brutal hacking of the Maradona era.

Maradona was built like a tank. Modern sports science would have made him a more awesome specimen. Messi back in the day wouldn't have the hormone therapy that got him bigger and stronger. A few tackles, he's out of the game...and I doubt he had the psyche of Maradona to persist in the face of blatant hacking.

Diego also might have gotten better substance treatment...cocaine did him in.

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banmate6 said:

Soccer is where this really resonates.

Pele was a top athlete in the 60s and 70s. Could run 100 meters in 10 seconds. He'd reap modern gains.

Franz Beckenbauer a great defender of the same era said he would probably be much less competitive in the modern era...as even the best sports science would not improve his slow speed.

Modern day Messi, considered the best after Pele and Maradona, needed hormone treatments to build up a skinny body...and would have been brutally hacked to death back in their day, as he lacks their toughness.

Modern soccer has lighter balls, cleats, aerodynamically tuned to produce more goals...refs DEFINITELY protect players from violence now. I played at semipro with a lot of pros growing up...these guys drank, smoke, and had no special diets for the most part. The ones who focused on fitness really stood out...but not all were as talented.

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banmate6 said:

I did say if you magically teleport them together, of course the modern players would win. In most sports. Football too.

I think Maradona could play and thrive in the Messi era. He had incredible speed, was much stronger, and, as you noted, more talented. I don't believe Messi on contract would have survived the brutal hacking of the Maradona era.

Maradona was built like a tank. Modern sports science would have made him a more awesome specimen. Messi back in the day wouldn't have the hormone therapy that got him bigger and stronger. A few tackles, he's out of the game...and I doubt he had the psyche of Maradona to persist in the face of blatant hacking.

Diego also might have gotten better substance treatment...cocaine did him in.

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sjb75 said:

Read what you wrote.

"10 seconds."

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savvyandsassier said:

Yeah, it is difficult to compare players across rather large swathes of time, in fact it's purely imaginary. To the point of beyond even futility, just silliness. The best way to imagine it, perhaps, on the purely hypothetical plane, is to imagine some time warp or whatnot, that you travel to in an Einstein spaceship, and there's a football field, and a stadium all ready and waiting, or a basketball court, or a soccer field, and both sets of players, even though the guys from a previous generation are still alive in the form of like, 60 year old men or something, and then they just square off, and you really don't know what would happen, one just assumes the more modern players would win. Jordan vs Lebron is the most frequent example of this sort of thought exercise, even though basketball hasn't really changed that much at all. And I don't see any reason why prime Lebron kicks prime Jordan's ass.

The big thing that stands out is just a higher skill level, simply from practicing more, and in soccer players just have more ball skill now. The bar is higher. Like if you took Maradona vs Messi, which is about as perfect a hypothetical matchup with a pretty wide gulf of time separating them, Maradona to me looks more naturally gifted with just some special god given talent more than Messi, but Messi is technically better. And while he's gifted too, he's a more a product of his circumstances and development, is what I might guess, but who the F knows. The entire ambient world you grew up in, even outside their respective training regimens and regimes, is simply different, in ways that are impossible to quantify, but do of course define you as a living person. So like you say, older players would need some time adjust to the more highly practiced modern players. But they're not genetically superior, not enough time passed for that. If of course, you could suspend the constraints of existential reality and do something like that.

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NIN Irish said:

Soccer doesn't resonate with me in any way, so when you mention soccer I don't bother reading.

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NDinNJ said:

Duke is an academically respected school, just odd. Wonder what classes Leonard was taking that couldn't be transferred.

Transfer credit blues: Notre Dame football QB Riley Leonard still 'a little behind' in degree work

Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard, 22, majored in public policy at Duke with a minor in markets and management studies.

www.southbendtribune.com

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banmate6 said:

Soccer is where this really resonates.

Pele was a top athlete in the 60s and 70s. Could run 100 meters in 10 seconds. He'd reap modern gains.

Franz Beckenbauer a great defender of the same era said he would probably be much less competitive in the modern era...as even the best sports science would not improve his slow speed.

Modern day Messi, considered the best after Pele and Maradona, needed hormone treatments to build up a skinny body...and would have been brutally hacked to death back in their day, as he lacks their toughness.

Modern soccer has lighter balls, cleats, aerodynamically tuned to produce more goals...refs DEFINITELY protect players from violence now. I played at semipro with a lot of pros growing up...these guys drank, smoke, and had no special diets for the most part. The ones who focused on fitness really stood out...but not all were as talented.

Click to expand...