NFL Wild-Card Weekend thread

Parcells did.

 

In a way, it would seem to be better being the Lions. But then you always sit there and wonder what it all feels like. Of course, you also likely have no expectations so anything above that is gravy.

 

Isn’t it mandated that the Texans must play in the earliest possible window whenever they are in the playoffs?
Have they ever played a postseason game at night? Or on a Sunday?

 

They played a night playoff game at Foxboro during the Bill O'Brien era.
And got housed, of course. 2016-2017, I believe.

 

I was being flippant then googled and saw of the Texans 11 playoff games, 8 have been on Saturday, including all 7 of their wildcard round games.
They lost divisional games in New England in 2012 and 16.

 

Serious question: Figuring that a lot of adult Cowboys fans are those who jumped on the bandwagon as teenagers during the 1990s dynasty, and are now a full generation removed from any sort of measurable playoff success, is there ever a point where they fall into the "sympathetic loser" or "cursed" category along the lines of the Vikings, Saints, Lions, Browns, Falcons, or even the Packers? Or have they continued to be too douchey even in their mediocrity for that to happen?

Their case:
• 28 years since reaching a conference championship game (only four teams have longer active droughts)
• The 1996 dynasty-killing loss to the second-year Panthers
• Two divisional-round losses at home as the No. 1 seed
• A 3-5 record at home in the playoffs since 1997
• Romo's bobbled snap against the Seahawks
• "Dez caught it/didn't catch it" at Lambeau
• The comeback that ended in a walk-off loss to the Packers in 2016
• The back-to-back crazy-finish playoff losses to the 49ers in 2021 and 2022
• Today's blowout loss to the Packers
• And then, since 1997, nine seasons of either 8-8 or 9-7 that resulted in a total of one playoff appearance

I'm happy with them being stuck in this perpetual NFL purgatory. They earned it after several decades of obnoxiousness, and maybe it's part of the bargain with the Devil that Jerry Jones made in the early 1990s. Just wondering if there could ever be a point where the way the public views them starts to shift?

 

Hell no! They're football's answer to the Yankees. Especially when they're hyped beyond all expectations year after year.

 

When you grow up watching OJ and Plunkett in 49er uniforms on dreadful astroturf you get to enjoy the good stuff.

 

Do Raider fans deserve any pity? I think the fact that there is some glimmer of memory still from the "glory hole" days, makes the current Cowboy situation even more hilarious.

 

Once upon a time, I think even before the Patriots and Red Sox started winning and all Boston sports fans by extension became annoying, Bill Simmons suggested that a championship comes with a five-year grace period on criticizing the team or complaining about losing. You win, you don't get to complain about a damn thing for at least five years without someone telling you to shut the hell up.
That always sounded reasonable to me, although I'd maybe extend that to 10 for some franchises. If you ever said, "Man if we could just win one Super Bowl/World Series/Stanley Cup I would ..." and then you do, that buys a decade of goodwill. If the Lions win it all this season, for example, they are free to coast on that high until at least 2034 or 2035.

You do, however, get to be disappointed if your team wins and is set up for another title (or two or three) during the grace period and never cashes in. I think of the 2008-11 Phillies who only won one World Series, or the Brees-era Saints who missed at least two chances to win a second Super Bowl, or the Manning-era Colts who only got one championship. You don't get to complain for a while, but you can lament the fact that the moment was so fleeting.

 

Couldn't agree more but I'll piggyback on this by saying the dislike for the Cowboys--who, as Batman noted in delightfully intricate detail, haven't done fucking shit in almost 30 years now--is increased by an infinite amount by Jerrah. If they were owned by anyone other than the attention whore to end all attention whores--a creepy old man who somehow manages to embody every awful stereotype of the average NFL owner--then nobody would really give a shit about them. I don't think anyone really cares about the Yankees that much. It's sorta fun to watch them lose just b/c they usually spend so much money to do so, and there is some muscle memory from the '96-00 dynasty. But with George gone, there's really no reason to hate them. Judge is a pretty likable superstar who is properly hyped, unlike Jeter. Hell, with the Astros cheating their way to a title and the Dodgers signing every star on the planet to a $1 deal, the Yankees aren't even a top-two unlikable team in MLB.

If the Cowboys were just owned by some rich dude who stayed out of the public eye, nobody would take this type of glee in their annual failures. but Jerrah thinks he's a super genius despite the Cowboys never winning anything of note since he ran off Jimmy (that '95 title was all muscle memory and Switzer was just along for the ride...and if Neil O'Donnell isn't a stiff in Super Bowl XXX, the Steelers probably win that) and he never ever ever changes. It's glorious. If he was just some quiet rich dude, the Cowboys absolutely would have AT LEAST stumbled their way to an NFC Championship Game over the last 28 seasons, if not stumbled into a title. And if they didn't, they'd be like the Bears or Browns...pitiable, but not mockable. Instead, they're this, and it's great. May he never change.

 

You almost wonder if he thought adding Johnson to the ROH that it would lift the "curse."