Few questions from a Newbie

Penn

Hey all

Never had any interest in American Football until I started playing Madden 11. Going to try follow it this year, just have a few questions

1. When does the season start?
2. How do most people here follow it? Do you watch streams or torrents (I'm not looking for streams or torrents, just wondering what's the easiest way to keep up with it). Is there a Match of the Day type show you could watch?
3. How long does a player have to have the ball before it's counted as a fumble when he drops it?
4. What's the purpose of the 2-minute warning? I mean, is it literally just a warning to say there's only 2 minutes left in the half? Seems a bit excessive, I mean, they can see the play clock, surely they can see the game clock
5. Best Android/iPad apps for keeping up with the NFL

Cheers, and look forward to checking in here when the season starts

mikemac

Numbers on my keyboard are bust so have to type out the numbers

1. There is a game on September Eighth and then the rest play on September Eleventh
2. NFL Gamepass is a legal streaming service, it's excellent but pricy. Some here have Sky and ESPN and there are streams but I think it's worth paying for a good picture
3. One of the coaches here can explain it better then I can
4. Goes back historically to the games roots. Have a two minute warning so there was no confusion on timekeeping in the game. There were no electronic displays a century ago
5. Dunno, go to itunes and search for most popular

SSK

Barrington wrote: »

Hey all

Never had any interest in American Football until I started playing Madden 11. Going to try follow it this year, just have a few questions

1. When does the season start?
2. How do most people here follow it? Do you watch streams or torrents (I'm not looking for streams or torrents, just wondering what's the easiest way to keep up with it). Is there a Match of the Day type show you could watch?
3. How long does a player have to have the ball before it's counted as a fumble when he drops it?
4. What's the purpose of the 2-minute warning? I mean, is it literally just a warning to say there's only 2 minutes left in the half? Seems a bit excessive, I mean, they can see the play clock, surely they can see the game clock
5. Best Android/iPad apps for keeping up with the NFL

Cheers, and look forward to checking in here when the season starts

Pre Season starts next week so not long to wait Season proper starts 8th of September I think

Sky and Espn show the games, there's always streams flying around. Red Zone is good as its like a live version of MOTD, shows all the TDs as they happen. nfl.com has excellent highlights coverage which is updated quickly.

Depends on what the player is doing when he 'fumbles' really, a lot of the time its fairly ambiguous and controversial. Read more here

The two minute warning has a couple of different purposes. The main one is that coaches can't challenge any on field ruling made by the officials and that any review must be initiated by the officials themselves. Read more here

No idea about apps etc. sorry

Rick_

I have the free version of the official NFL app for my iPhone, lets you check news on your favourite team and the scores of all the games played every week, but if you pay for it you can get more out of it, but all I want it for is checking scores so it does me fine.

Also, Channel 4 show a game every Sunday night / Monday morning around 1am. If you've nothing to do on Monday you could always sit up and watch it live if you have access to Channel 4 on satellite or cable. If you have the sports channels then Sky Sports show plenty of matches every week.

Faker74

Barrington wrote: »

Hey all

Never had any interest in American Football until I started playing Madden 11. Going to try follow it this year, just have a few questions

2. How do most people here follow it? Do you watch streams or torrents (I'm not looking for streams or torrents, just wondering what's the easiest way to keep up with it). Is there a Match of the Day type show you could watch?
5. Best Android/iPad apps for keeping up with the NFL

Cheers, and look forward to checking in here when the season starts

Gonna stay away from the technical questions / those that have already been answered.

In terms of watching it, if like me, you are not a sky sports subscriber the NFL.com game pass is a pretty good option - its around €175 for the unlimited pacakage so thats full hd coverage of every game loads of highlights packages etc and I think you can go back and watch games from last season and maybe even the season before. An alternative to that is the single team package which is around €125/130 whic gives you live hd coverage of your favourite teams games and I THINK general highlights of others (not positive about this)


For mobile apps, I use the NFL '11 app (the official one from NFL) and ESPN score centre - the espn one is good cause it allows you to set up alerts for your teams so you know when there is a score etc.

Leslie91

Barrington wrote: »

Hey all

Never had any interest in American Football until I started playing Madden 11. Going to try follow it this year, just have a few questions

1. When does the season start?
2. How do most people here follow it? Do you watch streams or torrents (I'm not looking for streams or torrents, just wondering what's the easiest way to keep up with it). Is there a Match of the Day type show you could watch?
3. How long does a player have to have the ball before it's counted as a fumble when he drops it?
4. What's the purpose of the 2-minute warning? I mean, is it literally just a warning to say there's only 2 minutes left in the half? Seems a bit excessive, I mean, they can see the play clock, surely they can see the game clock
5. Best Android/iPad apps for keeping up with the NFL

Cheers, and look forward to checking in here when the season starts

(1) The 1st regular season game is thursday Sept 8.
(2) I have the team pass on GamePass to watch my beloved Bolts.
(3) A player has to have control of the ball and made a 'football move' or something like that to be said to have 'had possession'.
(4) 2 min warning is a great time to call a short halt especially if a team who is behind is driving.
(5) I've the free NFL one, Sporting News and ESPN scorecenter.

boccy23

Was the 2 minute warning not put in for TV reasons way back in the 60's / 70's, i.e. an additional add break.

I know why it is used now but was this not the origin of same?

Chardee MacDennis

Faker74 wrote: »

Gonna stay away from the technical questions / those that have already been answered.

In terms of watching it, if like me, you are not a sky sports subscriber the NFL.com game pass is a pretty good option - its around €175 for the unlimited pacakage so thats full hd coverage of every game loads of highlights packages etc and I think you can go back and watch games from last season and maybe even the season before. An alternative to that is the single team package which is around €125/130 whic gives you live hd coverage of your favourite teams games and I THINK general highlights of others (not positive about this)


For mobile apps, I use the NFL '11 app (the official one from NFL) and ESPN score centre - the espn one is good cause it allows you to set up alerts for your teams so you know when there is a score etc.

you can get full gamepass for 45 a month for 4 months now as well. think i'll be getting that one!

stevemac

1. Preseason games next week end.
2. I have the gamepass, just ordered the regular season one yesterday. €174, can be paid in 4 goes either. Sky had the 6pm and 9pm (our time) sunday games, thursday and saturday night games. ESPN had monday night games and channel 4 had the late (1am) Sunday night/Monday morning games last season. Assuming that its the same this year. The gamepass is great and worth it, but probable not if your just getting into it.
3. Different rules for QB, RB, WR etc here. Main exceptions that I can think of at the moment is that WR (or any player catching the ball) has to catch the ball and make a football move to show they have possession of the ball. Heres a catch that wasn't a catch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Q4tKnfaIY&feature=related . I think they may have changed the possession rules in the off season but not sure. With QB's there is a Tuck rule. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuck_rule
4. Yep, TV purposes from back in the 60's. Used now as basically an extra timeout and a sort of signal that the end of the game is near. It does mean that teams can't challenge a play, that it has it be reviewed from the booth, as a poster has said already.
5. There is an nfl gamepass app for for the iphone and android market. I have a windows phone so don't know if its any good. Price comes up as a fiver for me, but would assume its more if you haven't bought gamepass or you mightn't be able to get it.

adrian522

I find that the nfl and ESPN both have good mobile websites so I use these more than any apps.

And twitter of course,

You could probably get an app for a newspaper inyour teams city. NY times one is good for footballl coverage.

Black Swan

Preseason (beginning Thursday 11 August 2011):
http://www.nfl.com/schedules?seasonType=PRE&season=2011

2011 NFL Schedule (interactive):
http://www.nfl.com/schedules/interactive

Penn

Christ, expensive game to keep up with. Thanks all. I'll probably just try keep up with scores and highlights, and the Channel 4 games regardless of the teams, help me follow the game better. Cheers all

Chucky the tree

They'll be plenty of free streams for the big games, but if you want to follow a particular team then game pass is probably best, especially if you follow a **** team.

Juan Pablo

If you are interested in podcasts I find NFL Rants and Raves good, also ESPN have some good podcasts with ESPN Football today which is every Monday and Thursday and ESPN Fantasy Football Focus which at present is daily. About 45 min apiece. Rich Eisen podcast worth a listen too.

Hazys

Barrington wrote: »

3. How long does a player have to have the ball before it's counted as a fumble when he drops it?

I think what you may have confusion with is if a QB throws the football and the receiver catches but a defender hits him and then he drops the ball...when is it a fumble?


How a ref decides if that is a fumble or not, is the ref's interpretation of the event. Ideally what should happen for it to be a fumble is if the Receiver catches and has clear possesion of the football (aka the ball is not bobbling) and makes a "Football move" after the catch and then the defender hits him and knocks the ball loose it is a fumble.

A "Football move" is generally considered taking two steps with clear possesion of the football.


Every other fumble is somewhat straight forward. If the football is knocked loose before the runner's knee or elbow hits the ground its a fumble.

Let me know if that helps, or if you can think of another situation where the ball comes free and is not consider a fumble let me know.

mikemac

Yep, the podcasts are a good way of learning OP
Check out the suggestions given, especially ESPN Football Today
It should be going to five times a week next month

And if you have a console, playing Madden will help too

Renewed my gamepass yesterday, NFL Network sure like their ad breaks. Maybe that's standard for American TV
Anyway, you can watch every game for the last two seasons which is excellent

adrian522

Slightly off topic but do you find the quality of the archived matces to be lower than the NFL Network stream on game pass?

For me I can watch NFL network at almost full quality, but if I try an archived game at the same quality it stutters quite a bit.

My internet should be fast enough to handle it..

mikemac

It does stutter a bit
I was watching the Ravens at Chiefs in last years wildcard earlier and it was mostly perfect but degraded a bit now and again
But still acceptable in my opinion

But then remembering last season, Gamepass stuttered during live games also.

NFL Network on at the minute and it's perfect
God, Rex Ryan talks some amount of ****e

Penn

Hazys wrote: »

I think what you may have confusion with is if a QB throws the football and the receiver catches but a defender hits him and then he drops the ball...when is it a fumble?


How a ref decides if that is a fumble or not, is the ref's interpretation of the event. Ideally what should happen for it to be a fumble is if the Receiver catches and has clear possesion of the football (aka the ball is not bobbling) and makes a "Football move" after the catch and then the defender hits him and knocks the ball loose it is a fumble.

A "Football move" is generally considered taking two steps with clear possesion of the football.


Every other fumble is somewhat straight forward. If the football is knocked loose before the runner's knee or elbow hits the ground its a fumble.

Let me know if that helps, or if you can think of another situation where the ball comes free and is not consider a fumble let me know.

I suppose this is what is causing me confusion. It's a drop from Superbowl 45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se6S2lWX9cQ

Hazys

It looks like he has full possesion when he catches it but before he completes his 2nd step (football move) the ball is coming out...its v close tho could have gone either way.

titan18

Hi, does anyone know if the Sky games and playoffs are blacked out in Ireland on gamepass? I know they are in the UK but do we count?

stevemac

there not blacked out. They consider us different. Unless your in northern Ireland and then, yes they are blacked out.

Masked Man

titan18 wrote: »

Hi, does anyone know if the Sky games and playoffs are blacked out in Ireland on gamepass? I know they are in the UK but do we count?

You probably know it already but just to be sure, you have to buy the postseason separately to game pass think it costs ~€35.

titan18

Masked Man wrote: »

You probably know it already but just to be sure, you have to buy the postseason separately to game pass think it costs ~€35.

Ya,was asking cos I dont want to buy the playoffs now only to not be able to watch them cos of Sky.

Thanks for all your help

titan18

Sorry,again. I got Gamepass last night and it was working grand til I closed the browser(Chrome). Since then, I havent been able to launch it. When I hit launch or watch, it opens a new window and logs me out,turning me back to the schedule page.

Has anyone had this problem before or know how to fix it?

tallaghtoutlaws

titan18 wrote: »

Sorry,again. I got Gamepass last night and it was working grand til I closed the browser(Chrome). Since then, I havent been able to launch it. When I hit launch or watch, it opens a new window and logs me out,turning me back to the schedule page.

Has anyone had this problem before or know how to fix it?

Use Firefox. Chrome uses IE for a lot of things. Try clearing your cache on both chrome and IE if you still want to use chrome. One of the reason I hate chrome is the fact it needs IE installed on your machine as it piggy backs certain files and uses IE internet cache and history folders.

titan18

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

Use Firefox. Chrome uses IE for a lot of things. Try clearing your cache on both chrome and IE if you still want to use chrome. One of the reason I hate chrome is the fact it needs IE installed on your machine as it piggy backs certain files and uses IE internet cache and history folders.

Oh,ya,should have mentioned I've tried this in Chrome,Firefox and IE8. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Flash Player, was onto Neulion all day and changing proxy settings,deleting cache/history over and over again. Turned off firewall and anti-virus protection etc.

But all of that is useless as it was working last night,just not today, and nothing has changed bar that I closed the browser and it stopped working.


I'm thinking it's either ISP or router related, as it's happening on the desktop too

Torlac

Juan Pablo wrote: »

If you are interested in podcasts I find NFL Rants and Raves good, also ESPN have some good podcasts with ESPN Football today which is every Monday and Thursday and ESPN Fantasy Football Focus which at present is daily. About 45 min apiece. Rich Eisen podcast worth a listen too.

Totally agree

Neil3030

Troll banned for a week.

FastFullBack

Sorry to dig up an old thread but had a newbie question and I didn't want to start a new thread. I was watching an ESPN documentary last night about Wayne Gretzky's trade from Edmonton Oilers to LA Kings in the NHL back in 1988. It got me wondering about trades in general in US sports.

In last years hard knocks Vontae Davis was traded to the Colts. He seemed to have very little knowledge that the trade was going to happen and definitely did not have to power to reject it right? When he signed with the Colts what type/length of contract would he have signed. Was there any contract negotiations involved in this or any trade? What if he rejected the Colts contract. Obviously the Colts wouldn’t have agreed to the picks they gave up if they had any worries about his contract so what exactly happens a contract when a player is traded

Just wondering if the player has any power to reject a trade?

Like for Gretzky he was traded from a team that had just won 4 Stanley cups to a team that he ranked as 20th out of 21st. Did he have any power to say no, he wasn't going to go to the LA Kings and hold out for a better team instead?

taidghbaby

The team that the player is traded to takes on their contract as is, which was the case for Davis, or they can renegotiate a new deal like what the Bucs did with Revis, after the trade is done!

I don't know if the player has any right to veto it though to be honest!

jme2010

Penn wrote: »

Hey all
4. What's the purpose of the 2-minute warning? I mean, is it literally just a warning to say there's only 2 minutes left in the half? Seems a bit excessive, I mean, they can see the play clock, surely they can see the game clock

The two minute warning is just one of the many things I love about American Football. It can be a turning point in the game, especially if the score is close and the trailing team have possession.

One of the biggest factors about the two minute warning is that the clock is stopped after each play if the ball-carrier steps out-of-bounds, or a pass is incomplete. To maximise available time some teams will "hurry-up offense" and not huddle if the clock is running, or even "spike the football" and lose a down in order to stop the clock.

The most importing thing about the last 2 minutes is time-management. But really only a team that is behind will take full advantage of it

The two minute warning can change the dynamics of the game and result in huge rushes from a (trailing) offenses own goal line right into the end-zone. On the other hand if a winning team have possession you will see "running out the clock" tactics, such as the QB taking a knee on each down or making all run plays rather than passing to keep possession and the clock running down.

So that's just a fraction of info on the great art of employing a clever two-minute drill. It's so much more than a ploy for TV.

Any of the vets here can correct me on anything above, as I'm only following football for 3-4 years.

EDIT: Found this beauty of an extract from super bowl 42

In Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants executed a two-minute drill culminating in the game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots.[10] Taking possession with 2:39 remaining, the Giants' play calling broke down as:

11 called passes versus 1 called running play
7 passes to sidelines versus 2 passes to midfield

When plays did not stop the clock automatically, the Giants took action as follows:

The clock was allowed to run normally once, 30 seconds between plays
Hurry-up plays were run twice, average 15 seconds between plays
Time-outs were used three times, average 11 seconds between plays

For comparison, the six plays which stopped the clock by rule averaged 5 seconds between plays.

In total, the Giants' two-minute drill ran 12 plays for 83 yards in 2:07 of game time. By contrast, the Patriots' preceding drive (run without hurry-up) ran 12 plays for 80 yards in 5:12.

Son Of A Vidic

jme2010 wrote: »

Found this beauty of an extract from super bowl 42

In Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants executed a two-minute drill culminating in the game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots.[10] Taking possession with 2:39 remaining, the Giants' play calling broke down as:

11 called passes versus 1 called running play
7 passes to sidelines versus 2 passes to midfield

When plays did not stop the clock automatically, the Giants took action as follows:

The clock was allowed to run normally once, 30 seconds between plays
Hurry-up plays were run twice, average 15 seconds between plays
Time-outs were used three times, average 11 seconds between plays

For comparison, the six plays which stopped the clock by rule averaged 5 seconds between plays.

In total, the Giants' two-minute drill ran 12 plays for 83 yards in 2:07 of game time. By contrast, the Patriots' preceding drive (run without hurry-up) ran 12 plays for 80 yards in 5:12.

But what that extract doesn't tell is this, all that was irrelevant. One play decided the SB champions -1.15 left on the clock, 3rd & 5, Manning escaped a certain sack, wriggles free and passes to Tyree who makes a miracle catch. So you have skill, a fair bit of luck and add in a large helping of destiny and that's what stats never show.

jme2010

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

But what that extract doesn't tell is this, all that was irrelevant. One play decided the SB champions -1.15 left on the clock, 3rd & 5, Manning escaped a certain sack, wriggles free and passes to Tyree who makes a miracle catch. So you have skill, a fair bit of luck and add in a large helping of destiny and that's what stats never show.

True, but that's still over a minute before of plays and tactical clock management/ running out of bounds/ time-outs and no-huddles etc.

But I know what you mean. Every close game needs a bit of luck and that perfect moment that no amount of two-minute training drills would accomplish.

Son Of A Vidic

The other issue I had with the extract was.. you can't compare how one team plays when burning time off the clock. With how a team plays when going for the win and going into two minute drill mode.

Jolly Red Giant

FastFullBack wrote: »

Sorry to dig up an old thread but had a newbie question and I didn't want to start a new thread. I was watching an ESPN documentary last night about Wayne Gretzky's trade from Edmonton Oilers to LA Kings in the NHL back in 1988. It got me wondering about trades in general in US sports.

In last years hard knocks Vontae Davis was traded to the Colts. He seemed to have very little knowledge that the trade was going to happen and definitely did not have to power to reject it right? When he signed with the Colts what type/length of contract would he have signed. Was there any contract negotiations involved in this or any trade? What if he rejected the Colts contract. Obviously the Colts wouldn’t have agreed to the picks they gave up if they had any worries about his contract so what exactly happens a contract when a player is traded

Just wondering if the player has any power to reject a trade?

Legally the player cannot reject or veto a trade as they are under contract to the team (unless there is a clause in the contract specifically dealing with a trade - e.g. the contract might have a no-trade clause specifically preventing a trade).

In reality a player does exercise some control over how and where they are traded. These days most teams executing a trade for a player will include a clause that means the trade is null and void if the player fails to report to the new team. The players contract then reverts to their previous team. Often a player is traded because of a contract dispute or because the team is looking to re-structure the contract downwards and the player is resisting - in most cases the team executing a trade for the player will negotiate a new contract with the player's agent before the trade is ever executed.

Article about Brett Farve effectively vetoing any trade he didn't like when the Packers were trying to trade him -

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8094bd7a/article/favre-now-owns-a-unique-notrade-clause

Finally - a trade can be (or nearly be) scuppered because of the player's contract - a recent example of this was when Tim Tebow was traded to the Jets by the Broncos. Tebow's rookie contract contained a stipulation that any team he joined in a trade would have to refund to the Broncos a pro-rata portion of his contract (from what I recall it is now standard in all rookie contracts). As the trade was being processed the Broncos asked the Jets for $5million as per Tebow's rookie contract for advanced payments. The Jets balked at the cost and nearly pulled out of the trade. In the end both teams agreed to split the difference and while Tebow is now with the Pats after being cut by the Jets the Jets still have to pay the Broncos $1.5million for the second installment of the contract payment for the trade with the Broncos.