Waiting most IMpatiently

Cue elevator music because that's how Friday afternoon is. There was a game. THE game. It's over. But I MUST watch it tonight without knowing any results. So here are some interesting escapist tidbits to fill the expanse from now until tonight:

Interesting piece on how huge rule changes in 1994 completely changed the NFL and propelled it to being the biggest game in the US. In essence, the NFL protected the quarterback and the receivers and turned it from a defence league into an offensive one. Smart move: offence is fun, defence is boring. At the time the NFL faced fierce opposition and accusations they were ruining the game: the end is nigh! Didn't quite work like that. Coupled with a salary cap and free agency the league has blossomed. The AFL could take a hint or two, especially regarding free agency. Players ability to move around and teams ability to trade them around is critically important. Have a hole: plug the hole: move on. The criticisms about Buddy moving to Sydney instead of Melbourne are stupid: if Melbourne hadn't already screwed up their salary cap through incompetence they could have, and should have, offered Buddy more. Plenty of pro-sports people move to loser teams for a payday: G. Ablett Jnr for example, or LeBron heading back to the Cavs. The problem isn't loser teams having less to offer, it's shocking management that means Melbourne Demons have hit their salary cap with 42 losers, while Sydney can exploit their situation and probably walk away with this years Flag. Who's stupid now?

Moving along...

For something completely different, the story of a guy that tries to weird things in the Madden games. In the first attempt in Madden 15 he attempts to beat the all-time sack record of 210 sacks: but rather than do that over a career, he is doing it in Clowney's first ever game. Can the Number 1 draft pick get 210 sacks in  single game? When you set the offensive line to be jockeys and make Clowney to be a demi-god then anything can happen:

Finally, technology is trying to reduce the human based fuckups of sports. Video review, laser guidance and now magnetic transmitters. The magnetic transmitter is placed in the ball and receivers around the field can detect the location and orientation of the ball. It's not perfect yet, but it's getting better.