Football season is here!!!

[bushido_man96]

Preseason games tend to be pretty decent to get, though, so you might get lucky.

[KarateKen]

The Lions and Giants were fined 200,000 dollars after the teams got into a fight during a joint practice. This is not good for anyone, and coach Dan Campbell needs to curb his team's aggression. That stuff can carry over into the season and lead to penalties and possible suspensions. Plus players can get injured. Punching a guy in the football helmet doesn't sound like a smart way to attack someone.

I am fascinated by Bill Belichick in the media. He will be doing weekly appearances on Pat MacAfee every Monday, then be on the Manning Cast on MNF. So, Monday will be Belichick day this season. If you want to get into breaking down the games at a deeper level and want more than the basic talking heads making predictions, Bill is great. I am more interested in watching him that I am most of the games.

[DarthPenguin]

The Lions and Giants were fined 200,000 dollars after the teams got into a fight during a joint practice. This is not good for anyone, and coach Dan Campbell needs to curb his team's aggression. That stuff can carry over into the season and lead to penalties and possible suspensions. Plus players can get injured. Punching a guy in the football helmet doesn't sound like a smart way to attack someone.

I am fascinated by Bill Belichick in the media. He will be doing weekly appearances on Pat MacAfee every Monday, then be on the Manning Cast on MNF. So, Monday will be Belichick day this season. If you want to get into breaking down the games at a deeper level and want more than the basic talking heads making predictions, Bill is great. I am more interested in watching him that I am most of the games.

It's a delicate balance though as you do want some aggression to succeed at the top level (look at Ray Lewis Ravens or James Harrison Steelers as prime examples).

Belichick will either be fascinating or sound bitter, i want to hear him though and decide! He could easily go either way i think!

[bushido_man96]

Fights at those joint practices are pretty common. Bunch of big, strong, alpha males lining up and beating on each other. Tends to happen.

Bill should be a lot of fun to listen to. I don't watch the Manning Cast, so I'll probably miss out. I imagine he has a wealth of knowledge to share.

[KarateKen]

Fights at those joint practices are pretty common. Bunch of big, strong, alpha males lining up and beating on each other. Tends to happen.

Bill should be a lot of fun to listen to. I don't watch the Manning Cast, so I'll probably miss out. I imagine he has a wealth of knowledge to share.

I don't think 200,000-dollar fines for them are common. Either the fighting got way out of control, or the league has enhanced the penalties for it.

On MacAfree show Belichick talked about this and said when he did joint practices and players would fight, he would ask the ref the throw the players out of practice, since that is what would happen in the game. Not sure how common that approach is, but I think it makes sense.

I never watched the Manning cast either and I am not sure if Bill will be third in the booth or just a weekly guest for a segment or two, but either way he will bring a new wrinkle to the show. I would tune in just for that even if I was not interested in the game.

[sensei8]

I'm not a Raiders fan whatsoever, but my wife is very much so a Raiders fan. So, the Raiders for the very first-time help training camps that the public was invited to on August 14th and August 20th for FREE!! Every seat was first come first serve in levels 1 and 2, meaning that levels 3 and 4 were closed.

What fans had to do was get in line on the Raiders website. First time I got in line I was number 7,167. So, I bailed out!! I gave up any hopes of surprising my wife with tickets for any of the training camps. Then the Raiders informed fans that tickets were still available for FREE. BINGO...I was given 2 tickets for the August 20th training camp, and when I surprised my wife with those tickets, she was beside herself with glee.

This is my first time inside of the Allegiant Stadium, and I have to say...WOW...A billions dollar stadium is a sight to behold. Due to my being in a mobility scooter, my wife had to get ADA tickets in order to sit in the ADA sections. So, we ended uo in section 107; great seats!!

Level 1 was packed out, but Level 2 was quite empty with fans sprinkled here and there. Training Camp was scheduled for 6:30pm to 8:30pm, however, it started to our surprise at 5:30pm.

Raiderettes were out in all of their glory and beauty. There were NFL referees and a chain crew. Concessions were aplenty. The foot-long Neon Hot Dog costs $17, we had a regular foot-long hot dog which costs a mere $9. Quite a show!!

Let us not forget, the Raiders players and coaches and whomever else was on the field. I must say that how the Raiders conducted their training camps caused me to have a ton of respect for them in every way imaginable. If this is how they train all of the time, there's no way that the Raiders should end up where they find themselves end of season to end of season looking outside in for the playoffs. Unless the Raiders are their own worst enemy where they are strong in the first half and blown-up on the second half.

They spit up the field running drills after drills. Each segment ended by the clock given to said drills, and were named by PLAY and its number, i.e. PLAY 10. Some PLAYS only lasted only 30 seconds and others just 1 minute long. Every aspect of football was drilled over and over and over. QBs, Running Backs, Receivers, Special Teams, Offense, Defense, and all of the others not mentioned here. There were NO REST TIME at all. The Raiders drilled non-stop the whole time they were on the field, and that was 3 hours.

My wife and I had a blast of a time; one we will never ever forget. Enjoying one another and the atmosphere that surrounded us. Seeing many fans dressed out in their tribute to the Raiders, with some dressed in the most amazing cosplay attire.

What saddens me is that I'll never be able to attend any Raiders home games ever. Not that I want to begin with but to go to a Raiders home game with my wife would mean everything to her...and to me. 2 tickets in Level 3 section average costs are $700 plus parking plus food plus souvenirs: a Raiders baseball cap costs $50. That would be one very expensive game to watch live. No, I'll watch the Raiders ON TV!! Unfair for fans who love the Raiders but can't afford a ticket to watch them live.

Raiders VS the 49ers for their last pre-seasons game are this Friday at home.

Thank you to the Raiders and the Raiders Nation for allowing fans to watch their training camps live those 2 days for absolutely FREE!! Hopefully, this will become an annual thing at Allegiant Stadium because that's the only way I could ever afford it, plus, it was a BLAST, and my wife's happiness is everything to me, and to see the glow all over her face is priceless. She took a ton of photos, and I took a lot of pictures of her in front of iconic things, like the Torch, for example. We had a picture taken of us with the Raiders mascot, Raider Rusher.

Sorry for the long post!!

For my wife, and for my wife only, I say...GO RAIDERS!!

[bushido_man96]

Although I can't condone your wife's Raider's policy , I think that's a pretty cool deal. Sounds like it was a lot of fun to watch.

[DarthPenguin]

That sounds like a lot of fun but i can't get over the cost for a usual game!! I knew it was a lot but not that much! They do really exploit you guys: as an example i have been to a few of the NFL London games, sat in Wembley (which is also a very fancy stadium) in the fancy padded club seats and paid £100 for a ticket (decided to spend a lot on them as it's not a common occurrence).

Is similar to the boxing and UFC ppv values: here i pay my satellite tv provider £20 usually for the big boxing ppv's and most of the UFC ones are included in my TV subscription, with rare ones costing £20. Then i see that they charge their US customers $99 for the same!

Sounds like an excellent experience though and hopefully it manages to become a yearly occurrence

[KarateKen]

Well the Lions are screwed. Sports Illustrated put them on the cover and predicted them to win the Super Bowl. Just when the Lions finally get good, SI decides to put the curse on them.

[bushido_man96]

Well the Lions are screwed. Sports Illustrated put them on the cover and predicted them to win the Super Bowl. Just when the Lions finally get good, SI decides to put the curse on them.

Well, you never know! They might break the curse!