In my experience, when it comes to namecalling there's not much point in the debate anymore. Sports are supposed to be fun and entertaining. I've been the person who gets too worked up over something like that. Not worth it.



A Manning by any other name would still throw a football as gracefully? I should have known it was Eli from the age you quoted.

But the debate about individual talents versus team success is more interesting on a broader scale than the "my quarterback could beat up your quarterback" stuff. Even then, it's hard to tell a story completely with stats, though! Quality of teammates, ability to come through in high-pressure situations, quality of opponents, these are things that don't crunch down into either the stats or championship equations.

Take a hockey example. My favourite team is the Vancouver Canucks. They have a goaltender, Roberto Luongo. I don't know if you know hockey, but the goalie is almost as important to a hockey team as a quarterback is to a football team. Luongo has lights-out fantastic regular season stats. The Canucks have been the best regular season team in the NHL for two straight years with him in net, and a few years ago he broke a record for wins in a season. Excellent goaltender.

But four years ago, come playoff time, the Canucks lost in the second round and Luongo gave up a bunch of goals in the deciding game. Three years ago they lost again in the second round to the same team, and Luongo again gave up a bunch of goals in the deciding game. Two years ago they made it to the championship round and Luongo was brilliant in three of the seven games, posting shutouts or only allowing a goal, but in the other four games he allowed lots of goals, including the high-pressure seventh winner-takes-all game, so the Canucks lost again.

Even though he's a fantastic goaltender, the fans were not forgiving of his apparent lapses in the clutch. Some fans argued that it was the whole team's fault, some argued it was just his fault. Last year the team gave in to fan pressure and pulled Luongo in the playoffs, now he's asking for a trade, it's a whole thing, blah blah.

And hockey fans argue the hell out of it. They fill message boards with vitriol and namecalling. They go back and forth and back and forth and no one ever convinces anyone else. It's just shouting in an echo chamber. They beat the dead horse over and over. People get really worked up. Football fans aren't the only ones who do it.

I just think people should be having fun with it and trying to be half-ways civil. If your sports team or a player you like doesn't do well, that's no reflection on you. If someone else doesn't like your team or your player, so what? Discussion is cool, but all the yelling and the endless back-and-forth repeat of the same arguments over and over with the same people, Christ on a pogostick. I just really don't think you're going to get much out of this that you didn't already get in the last two posts. And if it just devolves to you and rt and Joel and Cannoli saying the same things again, will you make another post in a few days?

I dunno. Feels like some people devote way too much time and effort and anger into something not-that-important. You could at least restrict it to one argument-filled post per game played instead of three-per-game, no? :p