Sherman and Revis bashing each other on twitter...

[Aseahawkfan]

That's part of it, but it's not the only factor. Trash talking and dissing your opponet has been around a lot longer than the internet, but it wasn't always part of the game. It's been a progression from what it was 40 or so years ago in every sport, from batters admiring their home run balls to spiking a football after a touchdown. Athletes didn't always try to show up their opponet, and selfish acts designed to draw attention to the individual like what are commonplace nowadays would earn you a spot on the bench if you tried the same thing back in the 50's or 60's.

I remember an interview, perhaps 25 years ago, with Wilt Chamberlin, and they asked him what was the one change he didn't like about the NBA since the days he played. I expected him to say something like the 3 point shot or traveling not being called on Michael Jordan. But his answer was that he didn't like the trash talking, and recounted all the physical battles he had with guys like Bill Russell and Dave DeBusschre, but that they always respected each other. Mickey Mantle always rounded the bases with his head down and never came back out of the dugout to take a bow out of respect for the pitcher. That all changed with Reggie Jackson in the 70's.

I accept the trash talking, the "look at me" demonstrations, the childish arguments between Sherman and Revis, et al, for what it is because I don't have any choice other than to boycott the sport. But I don't like it.

So you're one of them that wants to attribute to Michael Jordan's greatness to the refs? That's some bunk.

You bring up Mickey Mantle. What about Babe Ruth calling his own shots? Or Ty Cobb the trash talker who tried to hurt people? Or all the dirty play that used to happen on the football field where they actually tried to hurt each other? I guess that is overlooked by fans like you that believe in perception versus reality. The perception is they didn't used to trash talk each other. The reality is they used to bash on each other all the time even worse than they do they nowadays. It often was very physical to the point of trying to hurt a guy. Not to mention all the racist garbage in lockerrooms.

There is the illusion of a given time and the reality. You believe in the illusion when in reality the players are better to each other today than in the past. The game is safer and played tighter in almost every sport. There's a reason old school football players had missing teeth and looked like they were in a brawl.

The only difference between nowadays and then is advent of social media. If you had had social media and the level of media coverage you have nowadays, you probably would have found out a lot of nasty stuff about old school athletes and the way they conducted themselves. Old word was a dirty world where they brushed under the carpet drunkness, wife beating, womanizing, drug use, and all the other negative behaviors people worked so hard to keep quiet.

[Daber]

I think you fail to realize how much of our defense is predicated on what ET can do. His range allows us to play cover 1 in the secondary and let Chancellor hold a spot closer to the LOS to protect against the run. His deep coverage abilities also allow Sherman and BB to play strong press knowing their back is covered. Without ET we play Tampa 2 style defense that is prone to getting killed by the new zone read QB's. With ET we can keep guys close to the LOS to protect against those types of QB's.

As good as Sherm is, ET is the lynch pin in that whole secondary. His unprecedented range allows us to protect against the deep ball and get guys into better locations to stop the run.

Pretty much how I was going to respond, but you said it so much better. Usually the best players are the ones you don't hear much about. And, I really don't think it would be that easy to find another ET.

[ACES 13]

Pretty much how I was going to respond, but you said it so much better. Usually the best players are the ones you don't hear much about. And, I really don't think it would be that easy to find another ET.

You said it very well yourself. ET is the kind of player who does everything so well there is a tendency to take them for granted.

[RiverDog]

So you're one of them that wants to attribute to Michael Jordan's greatness to the refs? That's some bunk.

You bring up Mickey Mantle. What about Babe Ruth calling his own shots? Or Ty Cobb the trash talker who tried to hurt people? Or all the dirty play that used to happen on the football field where they actually tried to hurt each other? I guess that is overlooked by fans like you that believe in perception versus reality. The perception is they didn't used to trash talk each other. The reality is they used to bash on each other all the time even worse than they do they nowadays. It often was very physical to the point of trying to hurt a guy. Not to mention all the racist garbage in lockerrooms.

There is the illusion of a given time and the reality. You believe in the illusion when in reality the players are better to each other today than in the past. The game is safer and played tighter in almost every sport. There's a reason old school football players had missing teeth and looked like they were in a brawl.

The only difference between nowadays and then is advent of social media. If you had had social media and the level of media coverage you have nowadays, you probably would have found out a lot of nasty stuff about old school athletes and the way they conducted themselves. Old word was a dirty world where they brushed under the carpet drunkness, wife beating, womanizing, drug use, and all the other negative behaviors people worked so hard to keep quiet.

I said absouletly nothing about Michael Jordan's greatness being attributed to the refs. There were a lot of former players, such as Lenny Wilkens, Oscar Robertson, and Jerry West, that openly complained about him getting favorable no calls from the refs as Jordan began to overshadow their achievements and was almost universally praised by the media as not only the greatest player ever but the best athlete ever. When they asked Chamberlin what about today's game had changed that he didn't like, I expected him to complain about something other than trash talking, such as Jordan not getting called for traveling. I did not expect him to cite trash talking as the one thing that had changed about today's game vs. what it was like when he played that he didn't like.

Ty Cobb was a dirty player, no doubt about it. And pitchers frequently intentionally hit a batter in retaliation for a home run. My dad told me about a football player, back in the leather helmet days, that taped a board to his forearm, and knocked one of dad's teammate's teeth out, saying he was spitting them out like popcorn. That aspect of the game was the same back then as it is now. If players thought they could gain an advantage by breaking the rules and not get caught, they'd do it. But that wasn't my point. My point was about the general overall attitude, the trash talking, the taunting, celebrating even modest successes, like a first down catch or a quarterback sack. Heck, I've seen receivers celebrate a first down catch in garbage time when their team is down by 4 TD's! There was not this constant attention grabbing "look at me" type of behavior we see in the modern athlete. There was no motivation to get yourself on Sports Center.

The differences between today's game and that of years past runs a lot deeper than social media, which has only been around a few years. TV from the 1950's on had a much larger impact on sports than social media has in this century, taking games that were seen by a few thousand and turning it into an event witnessed by millions.

But I do agree with your last paragraph, but then again, that wasn't my point.

[NFLHITMAN]

Trash talk more is what I would like!

Did anyone see Doug Baldwin tweet to douchbag Harbaugh?

Trash talk baby!

Honestly Baldwin talks more trash than Sherman does lol.

https://twitter.com/DougBaldwinJr

[NFLHITMAN]

This is trash talking at its finest...

Doug Baldwin tweeted this pic to Douchbag Harbaugh on Valentines day...

Dbfresh ‏@DougBaldwinJr
Lastly, I wanna send a Happy Valentine’s day wish to an old friend. #FotoFriday #BonusPic pic.twitter.com/mUnZp6p0
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