The Ashes

I think it is very important that everyone takes anything said by a Packer backer with a huge grain of salt. He may have facts straight, but they are all known to have problems when it comes to opinions and football.I may live in Wisconsin and I am married to a Packer fan, but I am originally from Massachusetts and my loyalties are still with the Patriots and in baseball I am a Red Sox fanatic.

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Facts don't lie or have an agenda. Facts are just facts

We may have rose-colored glasses when it comes to discussing our chosen team, but unless our other football related opinions have some bearing on the Packers, they're very good and unbiased. There are only 3 teams in the NFL I absolutely hate and loathe with a passion:The Vikings
The Cowboys
The PatriotsAnd those were in no particular order, so don't think your team is spared my sights by those two other teams. I even held my nose and picked Tom Brady as my first pick in Fantasy Football last year, and what does he do? He gets injured in the very first game and sits out the rest of the year!

Hi, poor deprived friends from across the Pond.I am an avid American football fan, but, for now, I have only one addition to make: There used to be two competing professional football leagues: the American Football League and the National Football League. The first 3 or 4 Super Bowls were basically exhibition games between the champions of the two leagues. I think it was in the late 1970's when the NFL finally bought the AFL, and all its team franchises were simply incorporated into the NFL.That's where the two conferences come from.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

The AFL-NFL merger took place in 1966, and was technically a merger, though the AFL was required to pay the NFL, while the NFL name and logo were retained.The AFC and NFC conferences are a holdover from that, though many teams now in existence were not in either the AFL or the pre-merger NFL, and quite a few that were have changed conferences from where they were historically. The basic requirement is that each conference have the same number of teams, and they be spread relatively equally across the country.

Merger was in 1970.The agreement to merge was signed in 1966, but the leagues retained separate schedules until then except for a meeting of the leagues' champions starting in January, 1967.

Yeah, you're right. I really should do more than spot check. Thanks!

Phewph!! Quite a response!! Some excellent and detailed explanations for me to peruse and question. As well as some team loyalties and rivalries coming to the fore.All good stuff!! And I will be back with more of my own ignorant ramblings all too soon.But at the moment I am still reeling from the fact that I have been pretty much talking to myself in this thread, nominally about cricket, for the past several weeks and yet the moment Gridiron is mentioned we suddenly have a flurry of eager participants. I despair at the injustices the world heaps upon me!!!!! Me too. Yuck.

No problem.One reason they couldn't merge right away was because they needed the federal government to pass a law making it legal (exempting them from anti-trust laws). In order to get this exemption, Commissioner Pete Rozelle promised that if the merger was allowed, no existing professional football franchise of either league would be moved from any city. But, to be fair, he didn't double pinkie swear promise 'never, ever'. They also had to allow time for some of the teams to make changes in or switch their venues as a team's regular stadium was required to seat at least 50,000 (no more Bears at Wrigley).

Well, to be honest, you answered my questions well enough for me to get a grasp of the game, and inspired me to take a quick tour around Wikipedia on the subject. I also read, with at least a little suspense, your posts on the match(es?). So, while I wasn't responding, I was very much lurking in the shadows watching your every post.Congrats by the way!

Well, it could be argued that the league didn't move any team, the owners of the teams decided to move on their own...and the cities that lost teams got teams back...

Hi, Straggler. If it makes you feel any better, I also spent some time learning about cricket because of this thread.Curiously, as soon as you put up a thread about cricket, I've had a number of "incidents" with cricket. At our lab party, my adviser and his wife tried to explain how to play cricket. Then, some people were playing cricket in the parking lot across the street from us just last week. Then I accidentally opened a web page with some pictures of people playing cricket on it...It's as if I can't get away from cricket: it's sucking me in!

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)Darwin loves you.

My life has had purpose and meaning after all! Spooky. Maybe it's a sign? Don't fight it. Let it "in". Open yourself to it and the glory of cricket will reveal itself to you.Stay Happy.Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.

I dont really like American Armoured Tackleball....

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- xongsmith

Yes plural. Even a cricket match doesn't last weeks!! But the series of matches did. It ended up 2-1 to England with two drawn. So even if not quite a convert I seem to have opened the door to the sport for you. I will setttle for that. Cheers!

I play fantasy football, and in fact, our draft is next Tuesday. I like to read through weird things on Wikipedia as I waste time at work, and I read through the article on Fantasy Football. At the bottom, where they have related links, I noticed they have a page on Fantasy Cricket. Have you ever heard of it, and/or do you ever take part in a league?