What a monster statement today. "It's still baseball season in Baltimore"

[El Gordo]

I pay attention to football after the WS is over. It's something to do while waiting for Feb and ST.

[Redskins Rick]

I dont criticize fans of football. I just don't care for the sport anymore. Especially

the NFL. Used to like it. Colts were my favorite team. But when the NFL powers

started shoving football down my throat on week nights other than Monday. I

believe enough is enough. I refuse to watch it. I am old enough to remember

when it was ten game season. For me it's just too much. I dont mind the college

game. I've always liked baseball. Birds been the team I cheer for over 50 years.

Dang you are old.

I remember 12 game seasons.

[Orioles0615]

I don't have that problem, perhaps it is your end.

I have the same problem...

[DrungoHazewood]

I dont criticize fans of football. I just don't care for the sport anymore. Especially

the NFL. Used to like it. Colts were my favorite team. But when the NFL powers

started shoving football down my throat on week nights other than Monday. I

believe enough is enough. I refuse to watch it. I am old enough to remember

when it was ten game season. For me it's just too much. I dont mind the college

game. I've always liked baseball. Birds been the team I cheer for over 50 years.

My fandom has evolved over my life and the only constant has been the Orioles.

First sport I ever followed was baseball and the O's in 1979, when I was eight.

Added the Redskins and the NFL about 1980 or 1981. Pretty die hard for both the O's and Redskins throughout my teens.

College football eclipsed the NFL as soon as I went to Virginia Tech, even though the Hokies weren't good while I was there from 1989-93. But I still followed the Redskins.

Mid '90s I started playing soccer and at the same time MLS started up and became a DC United fan.

Then Dan Snyder bought and subsequently destroyed the Redskins, and they quickly faded. Over the last ~15 years I watch the NFL only when I have nothing better to do. I'll occasionally come into work on a Tuesday and only from other people's conversations realize or remember the 'skins were on Monday night football. As I get older the exploding transformer robots with country music star fireworks extravaganza 4-hour pregame hype stuff got unbearable.

When the Ravens arrived I barely noticed. No offense to the fans here, but I'm almost two hours from Baltimore and grew up a Redskins fan, was young when the Colts left, so the Ravens don't even register.

With the Hokies losing a bit of luster the last few years (don't want to complain too much but 8-4 and 3rd-tier bowl five straight years can get tiresome) and college sports getting more... I don't know... big business? I've lost some interest there. I used to have front-row season tickets at Lane Stadium, got them when they were almost begging people to sign up in the mid-90s, then they reassigned everyone's seats by how much money you give to the athletic department and literally got moved 100 rows back. It's been a little disenchanting, eventually canceled the tickets. I still watch games on TV (nice win over Ohio State!), but it's not quite like it was.

And now with big-time coverage of the English Premier League in the US I've become a Tottenham fan and watch them more than the Redskins. Kids play soccer and will watch with me.

But through it all there's still the Orioles. Probably always will be my #1 team, #1 sport, everything else pales in comparison.

[malkusm]

Never realized you were a Hokie, Drungo. Seems there are a lot here. The win this weekend was as good as I've felt about VT football in 4-5 years.

The football bashing is a bit much in this thread for my tastes, but one sentiment I agree with is that the O's winning a championship would be bigger for me than the Ravens winning the Super Bowl (or any other sport-related event). I suffered through losing for most of my life. Not only do I want it because of my lifelong O's fandom but also because the team is so likable, from Buck on down.

[PeteU]

Bit of a false dichotomy here--no reason why people can't get equally excited about both sports.

I will say this. In terms of sports teams, the Orioles were my first love. I started following them in the 1989 "Why Not?" year. I was too young to remember the Colts leaving. Even though I grew up in Southern Maryland, I had no interest in following the Redskins (I have no real connections to any of the DC teams), and I was p'oed at the NFL in general for screwing Baltimore around for so many years. So I really didn't start following football until the Ravens came in 1996. A year later, I moved out of Maryland, so much of my Ravens fandom has been rooting from afar.

I'm definitely a big Ravens fan, and follow them faithfully. Watching them go all the way in 2001 and 2012 was an incredible, awesome, unforgettable experience. I can replay the Mile High Miracle over and over in my head and never get sick of it.

But as incredible and terrific as the Ravens Super Bowl runs have been, if the O's were to win the World Series, it would take the cake of all cakes for me. I would be in shock, beside myself, in a state of total euphoria. I'm not joking that it would be the greatest day of my life besides my wedding day and the birth of my kids. I know it sounds corny as all get all--taking enjoyment out of something that I have no direct participation in--but I really would feel it like it was a personal achievement. Because being an Orioles fan is a deep part of who I am, and when they win, I win.

[OrioleMagic79]

I don't get the infatuation with the NFL...outside of the NBA, it is seriously the most boring thing to watch that I can think of...well, of the major sports anyway.

I mean, let's put it this way...if the Browns beat the Patriots in week 5, people are like "Whoa, hey, look at that. So anyway, what happened in the rest of the games?"

Now, if NC State beats Florida State, the entire college football world is flipped upside down, it more often than not ruins Florida State's entire season, and people will talk about it throughout the end of the Bowl Season...and even into the next season like "will Florida State be able to escape (wherever NC State plays) with a victory, or will they once again suffer the upset and ruin their chances at a national championship?"

When you play so few games, every game should matter, and teams that are barely above .500 in football (like 9-7) should not make the playoffs...that is ridiculous...

I think I have watched about 15 minutes of the last 7 or 8 Super Bowls...and maybe an extra 3 or 4 minutes of regular season NFL games...I seriously don't get the appeal...

Now when it comes to college football, we are talking about something entirely different...I am glued to every single play...

Disclaimer: I abhor the Ravens. Everything about that organization makes my skin crawl...

[OrioleMagic79]

Bit of a false dichotomy here--no reason why people can't get equally excited about both sports.

I will say this. In terms of sports teams, the Orioles were my first love. I started following them in the 1989 "Why Not?" year. I was too young to remember the Colts leaving. Even though I grew up in Southern Maryland, I had no interest in following the Redskins (I have no real connections to any of the DC teams), and I was p'oed at the NFL in general for screwing Baltimore around for so many years. So I really didn't start following football until the Ravens came in 1996. A year later, I moved out of Maryland, so much of my Ravens fandom has been rooting from afar.

I'm definitely a big Ravens fan, and follow them faithfully. Watching them go all the way in 2001 and 2012 was an incredible, awesome, unforgettable experience. I can replay the Mile High Miracle over and over in my head and never get sick of it.

But as incredible and terrific as the Ravens Super Bowl runs have been, if the O's were to win the World Series, it would take the cake of all cakes for me. I would be in shock, beside myself, in a state of total euphoria. I'm not joking that it would be the greatest day of my life besides my wedding day and the birth of my kids. I know it sounds corny as all get all--taking enjoyment out of something that I have no direct participation in--but I really would feel it like it was a personal achievement. Because being an Orioles fan is a deep part of who I am, and when they win, I win.

This is how I feel about Ohio State football. I was born in the hospital during the Wisconsin v Ohio State game in 1979, mom and dad were on the way to a tailgate when she went into labor with me and the room I was born in was within sight of the stadium...

When Ohio State won the national championship, it sent a shot of adrenaline through my body and took over my emotions...so no judgment there...I totally get it.

I lived in Maryland from the age of 10 to the age of 22 (and Columbus, Ohio the rest of the time), so the Orioles became my favorite baseball team and I living in MD for the opening of Camden Yards, hosting the All-Star game, the most exciting years of Cal's streak, making the playoffs and getting pissed at Jeffrey Maier (sp?), and then the first few years of the decline...they are nearly as dear to me as my Buckeyes...

But the Ravens bother me. I knew a TON of people that didn't care a lick about them until they were in the playoffs and looking like they might win the Super Bowl in 2001...I can't tell you how many of my friends swore to me that they would never stop loving their Redskins or their Eagles, and then that season they became Ravens fans...to this day, they will completely deny what they said about their old teams and talk about how HUGE of a fan they were going all the way back to 1996...

Funny though, because I remember (as a guy that went to Western Maryland/McDaniel College for undergrad) how few people were actually around for training camp in those early years...

[OFFNY]

This is how I feel about Ohio State football. I was born in the hospital during the Wisconsin v Ohio State game in 1979, mom and dad were on the way to a tailgate when she went into labor with me and the room I was born in was within sight of the stadium ...

When Ohio State won the national championship, it sent a shot of adrenaline through my body and took over my emotions...so no judgment there...I totally get it.

I lived in Maryland from the age of 10 to the age of 22 (and Columbus, Ohio the rest of the time), so the Orioles became my favorite baseball team and I living in MD for the opening of Camden Yards, hosting the All-Star game, the most exciting years of Cal's streak, making the playoffs and getting pissed at Jeffrey Maier (sp?), and then the first few years of the decline...they are nearly as dear to me as my Buckeyes...

But the Ravens bother me. I knew a TON of people that didn't care a lick about them until they were in the playoffs and looking like they might win the Super Bowl in 2001...I can't tell you how many of my friends swore to me that they would never stop loving their Redskins or their Eagles, and then that season they became Ravens fans...to this day, they will completely deny what they said about their old teams and talk about how HUGE of a fan they were going all the way back to 1996...

Funny though, because I remember (as a guy that went to Western Maryland/McDaniel College for undergrad) how few people were actually around for training camp in those early years ...

I remember that 1979 season, when Art Schlichter was a sophomore, and he led the Buckeyes to an 11-0 record in the regular season. They barely lost to Charles White's U.S.C. team (11-0-1) in the Rose Bowl.

I was in 9th grade at the time. That same year, the Orioles made it to the World Series before bowing to the Pirates, 4 games to 3.

[Redskins Rick]

I remember that 1979 season, when Art Schlichter was a sophomore, and he led the Buckeyes to an 11-0 record in the regular season. They barely lost to Charles White's U.S.C. team (11-0-1) in the Rose Bowl.

I was in 9th grade at the time. That same year, the Orioles made it to the World Series before bowing to the Pirates, 4 games to 3.

I wonder how much Art had bet on for that game.

[OFFNY]

I remember that 1979 season, when Art Schlichter was a sophomore, and he led the Buckeyes to an 11-0 record in the regular season. They barely lost to Charles White's U.S.C. team (11-0-1) in the Rose Bowl.

I was in 9th grade at the time. That same year, the Orioles made it to the World Series before bowing to the Pirates, 4 games to 3.

I wonder how much Art had bet on for that game.

If Schlichter bet at all on the game, it was on Ohio State.

Ohio State led by a score of 16-10 until late in the 4th quarter, when U.S.C.'s Charles White made a Superman leap over the defensive line from the one yardline for the go-ahead (and what proved to be the winning) touchdown.

Coincidentally, I've done a lot of research on Schlichter's life. Very interesting story.

[Redskins Rick]

If Schlichter bet at all on the game, it was on Ohio State.

Ohio State led by a score of 16-10 until late in the 4th quarter, when U.S.C.'s Charles White made a Superman leap over the defensive line from the one yardline for the go-ahead (and what proved to be the winning) touchdown.

Coincidentally, I've done a lot of research on Schlichter's life. Very interesting story.

To me, it's a sad story and a waste of a talented individual.

[spiritof66]

Interested to see the size of the crowds during the upcoming homestand. This team has given its fans pretty much everything we could ask for, other than a down-to-wire division race.

[OFFNY]

If Schlichter bet at all on the game, it was on Ohio State.

Ohio State led by a score of 16-10 until late in the 4th quarter, when U.S.C.'s Charles White made a Superman leap over the defensive line from the one yardline for the go-ahead (and what proved to be the winning) touchdown.

Coincidentally, I've done a lot of research on Schlichter's life. Very interesting story.

To me, it's a sad story and a waste of a talented individual.

It's that, but it's also much more.

It's extremely sad, both for Schlichter (starting with his childhood), as well as all of the victims that he used and scammed throughout his adult life.

[Tx Oriole]

Dang you are old.

I remember 12 game seasons.

I am wrong. I just checked the 1958 schedule. It was 12

games.