College Football or NFL

[Lake Gator]

On the question of college versus the pros, I've swung 180 degrees. I became a fan of football in 1958 at the impressionable age of 7, living in New England and watching the old NFL on black and white TV. (Two six-team divisions. East: NY Giants, Chicago Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, Washington Redskins, Philly Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers. West: Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Baltimore Colts, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams.) Watched some great players, teams and games played in snow, ice, rain, mud, wind, fog, cold and bright sunshine. I loved pro football but my interest diminished with the onset of free agency, indoor stadiums and artificial turf. Today I have no passion for the pros.

When life and the US Navy brought me to Florida in 1975, I caught a virulent case of Gator/SEC fever from which I've never recovered. There is no game like college football and no better place to experience it than the South. Go Gators.

 

[Circle City Gator]

I can narrow it down even more. I like watching Gators. With two active kids and a wife in law school, time isn't my own. I can carve out a game a week for Gator football, and if I find myself with time on a Sunday I might watch an NFL game if there's a team playing with a bunch of Gators playing, but otherwise, there's just not enough time in the day to plop down and watch hours and hours of football.

I'm not a football fan (though I do love the game). I'm a Gators fan.

 

[Double Gator Dad]

Not anti-NFL, but college football hands down, not even close....

- Coeds.
- Any campus, any level. Alumni and fan pride rule. Take in a FCS or D-2 playoff game sometime if you can.
- Tailgating is better, most NFL stadiums are in urban concrete jungles, while you have awesome campuses nationwide in college. Try topping The Grove for 'scenery' of all sorts, or the food down in the land of the corndogs. Ain't gonna happen in the NFL.
- Bands and fight songs. If I got sent to hell, no doubt Rocky Top, Hail To The Victors, Glory to UGA, and the Tomahawk Chop will be on constant replay, but when their bands play, it is tradition.
- Other traditions, Mr. Two Bits, running through the T, Touchdown Jesus, the Georgia Tech 'Ramblin' Wreck Ford Model A, Howard's Rock, 2001 in Columbia, dotting the 'I' in Script Ohio, etc.

However, one stands clearly above all the rest.....

- We Are The Boys at the end of the 3rd quarter. 90,000 swaying and singing in unison....nothing touches it.

I am with GWGator on this one for all the reasons he listed plus.........

Although it will reach the college game soon, the NFL has decided that they too are political crusaders. That is they ignore their own rules and policies to accommodate the political wave of the day. Case in point, players are not allowed to demonstrate in any way before, during, or after games. Well unless they want to play "hands up don't shoot' in St. Louis then it is perfectly acceptable.
We won't even get into the fact that that entire premise was based upon a lie, the point is that you either have rules or you don't.

I thought sports was supposed to be the place we could turn to get away from the political crap? The NFL disagrees which is another reason why I don't follow it that closely at all anymore.

 

[TheDouglas78]

I watch both, but prefer college due to atmosphere. Better coaching and more evenly talented teams in the NFL. But atmosphere and emotions in the College game.

They feel like two different sports. I prefer the offseason of the NFL to the offseason of college... just for simple fact that the college is really shut down for months except for NSD and a month of spring practices.

 

[gatormandan]

Can we figure out how to have two college football seasons per year? I hate the wait.

 

[Concrete Helmet]

I loved pro football but my interest diminished with the onset of free agency, indoor stadiums and artificial turf. Today I have no passion for the pros.

I didn't mind the artificial turf but free agency has done me in. When I was a kid I could name almost all of the players on just about any team because they usually stayed with the same team for years and each team had a distinctive group of players....today they often come and go from team to team so fast I can't keep up. CFB is based more in tradition, colors, fight songs and passion of generations of fans....

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Can we figure out how to have two college football seasons per year? I hate the wait.

I was thinking about this, so we move basketball to late spring and move baseball to never.
We then add several more football games but give the kids like every other week off during the season, which starts in June or July at the latest.

I really see no downside.

 

[Lake Gator]

I didn't mind the artificial turf but free agency has done me in. When I was a kid I could name almost all of the players on just about any team because they usually stayed with the same team for years and each team had a distinctive group of players....today they often come and go from team to team so fast I can't keep up. CFB is based more in tradition, colors, fight songs and passion of generations of fans....

Exactly. I loved defense and I still remember the Lions from 1961: Roger Brown, Alex Karras, Sam Williams, Darris McCord = original Fearsome Foursome; Wayne Walker, Joe Schmidt (my hero), Carl Brettschneider = linebackers; Dick "Night Train" Lane, Dick Lebeau, Yale Lary, Gary Lowe = DBs.

Am I sick??

 

[Concrete Helmet]

Exactly. I loved defense and I still remember the Lions from 1961: Roger Brown, Alex Karras, Sam Williams, Darris McCord = original Fearsome Foursome; Wayne Walker, Joe Schmidt (my hero), Carl Brettschneider = linebackers; Dick "Night Train" Lane, Dick Lebeau, Yale Lary, Gary Lowe = DBs.

Am I sick??

A little before my time but my Dad always told me about Bobby Layne whenever we watched the Lions play. Dad would say" they would pull him out of a bar about an hour before game time and the SOB would still throw 3 or 4 TD's ".....Dad was a Packers fan

 

[gatormandan]

I was thinking about this, so we move basketball to late spring and move baseball to never.
We then add several more football games but give the kids like every other week off during the season, which starts in June or July at the latest.

I really see no downside.

Not often I find myself agreeing with your posts.....this is a rare occasion...

 

[Lake Gator]

A little before my time but my Dad always told me about Bobby Layne whenever we watched the Lions play. Dad would say" they would pull him out of a bar about an hour before game time and the SOB would still throw 3 or 4 TD's ".....Dad was a Packers fan

Your Dad picked a great team to root for. The Packers use to play the Lions every Thanksgiving outdoors in the damp cold grey November afternoon. Even Vince Lombardi hated playing every year in Detroit. They were dogfights.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

College, and it's not even a fair fight.

College has better fans, better stadiums, better tailgating, more diversity among offensive and defensive schemes, more traditions, and players who actually give a sh*t. I hate the NCAA, but college football is the best thing in the land. NFL is boring. So boring. But I will say it's great for a nap on a Sunday afternoon.

 

[deuce]

Cap. is right on point!

I don't watch NFL anymore.

More importantly, I don't bet on the NFL anymore.

 

[Gatordiddy]

I cut my teeth on Joe Green, Ernie Holmes, LC Greenwood, Dwight White, Jack Lambert, Andy Russell, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, Rocky Bleier, Franco, Swann, Bradshaw, Stallworth and Mike Webster.
That's when you basically had the nucleus of a team from year to year.
Nowadays it's mainly hired guns...

At least we have the majority of the college boys for three or four years.
And I love it when the NFL guys will bet each other on the college games when their respective alma maters play each other.

And I really hate it during the NFL player introductions when some dipsh*t suckeye says ...THE ohio state university.

 

[t-gator]

College, and it's not even a fair fight.

College has better fans, better stadiums, better tailgating, more diversity among offensive and defensive schemes, more traditions, and players who actually give a sh*t. I hate the NCAA, but college football is the best thing in the land. NFL is boring. So boring. But I will say it's great for a nap on a Sunday afternoon.

I just wanted you to know I feel the same

 

[Lake Gator]

I cut my teeth on Joe Green, Ernie Holmes, LC Greenwood, Dwight White, Jack Lambert, Andy Russell, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, Rocky Bleier, Franco, Swann, Bradshaw, Stallworth and Mike Webster.
That's when you basically had the nucleus of a team from year to year.
Nowadays it's mainly hired guns...

At least we have the majority of the college boys for three or four years.
And I love it when the NFL guys will bet each other on the college games when their respective alma maters play each other.

And I really hate it during the NFL player introductions when some dipsh*t suckeye says ...THE ohio state university.

Russell. Lambert and Ham...maybe the greatest linebacking trio of all time.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I cut my teeth on Joe Green, Ernie Holmes, LC Greenwood, Dwight White, Jack Lambert, Andy Russell, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, Rocky Bleier, Franco, Swann, Bradshaw, Stallworth and Mike Webster.

Man, I HATED those guys but they were damn good. That defense, Lambert and Ham knocking teeth out. Green was an animal destroying the other OL. Lynn Swann making catches that looked like something made by CGI. Harris and Bleier pummeling people. That was a damn good team.

 

[gardnerwebbgator]

Man, I HATED those guys but they were damn good. That defense, Lambert and Ham knocking teeth out. Green was an animal destroying the other OL. Lynn Swann making catches that looked like something made by CGI. Harris and Bleier pummeling people. That was a damn good team.

Indeed. Those Houston teams Bum had that were right behind them in that division were damned good too. I've always thought that if the Oilers had been in another division and had been able to get home field in the Astrodome to play the Steelers one time, that they could have been in a SB.

 

[GatorBart]

Indeed. Those Houston teams Bum had that were right behind them in that division were damned good too. I've always thought that if the Oilers had been in another division and had been able to get home field in the Astrodome to play the Steelers one time, that they could have been in a SB.

:wobble:
I was an Oiler's fan growing up - QB Dan Pastorini (also the punter), WRs Ken Burrough and Billy 'White-Shoes' Johnson, and of course, RB Earl Campbell. NT Curley Culp and LB Greg Bingham on D. They just couldn't get by the Steelers. The one year I thought they had the best chance and the AFC championship game was just a deluge in Pittsburgh and the news headline the next day was 'Oiler's and water don't mix'. I think I cried over that one. Of course, without the Earler, they wouldn't have ever gotten close. He was a special player.