Inside The NFL Football Program

[OhDaesu19]

To all the NFL fanatics here on OS,

I work on the football program Inside the NFL. I have received Steve’s permission to engage the OS community on behalf of INFL. Obviously OS is a sports gaming community but there are many die hard football fanatics here that I believe would be a great resource for INFL to make it a better program. Sort of how we have great access and interaction with the developers of certain video games but in this case it’s a football show.


Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Vincent Licata and I have been a member here on OS for over three years now. I frequent various forums here on OS but mainly post on the MLB The Show forum. On INFL I am aka Vin da Bookie, affectionately nick-named by QBKilla, Warren Sapp, as I occasionally make cameo appearances on the show. Unfortunately Warren Sapp will not be returning this season on INFL. I have many various responsibilities on the show, anywhere from supplying the talent whatever info they need including any stats or research, etc. I am directly responsible for all the picks on the show and also, as part of the editorial team, I am responsible to help come up with content/ideas for segments, etc.


One of the advantages of INFL is that we are on cable, which I guess is also a disadvantage, but we have the flexibility to do just about anything on the program that we want. And that’s where I’d like to tap into the fine football fanatics here on OS. I am looking for great stories that aren’t plastered all over every other sports/football program. We will obviously address the major stories/issues on INFL, like replacement refs, all the young starting QBs, Manning’s return, etc. but if there is a story that may be flying under the radar, something that’s different, maybe something local, something that’s not getting coverage on ESPN/NFL network 24/7, etc. then let me know about it. It doesn’t have to be a story, it could be topics that you would like to see the talent discuss on the show. It could be a guest that you’d like interviewed. It really could be anything. Something that would make our program better and also different from all the other football/sports programs out there.


At the moment I think the best way to start off is in a general fashion and have folks post any ideas in this thread (or PM if you like) and depending on the responses I will tweak it to get feedback on more specific topics and we’ll move forward from there.


I truly am looking forward to interacting with everyone here and with your feedback I am sure INFL will be a better show.


Thank you,
Vin da Bookie
INFL

[wwharton]

I'm going to sticky this at least for now. If you decide to create new threads as the season goes on to try to hit up the community from a different angle, we can take this down. Otherwise we can use this as a catch all for ideas.

Good luck... work on getting me free Showtime so I can watch the show again.

[OhDaesu19]

Quote: Originally Posted by wwharton

I'm going to sticky this at least for now. If you decide to create new threads as the season goes on to try to hit up the community from a different angle, we can take this down. Otherwise we can use this as a catch all for ideas. Good luck... work on getting me free Showtime so I can watch the show again.

Awesome..thanks! I don't even have free Showtime yet because I am a 1099 employee.....ha.

[SPTO]

Well i'm sure this has been spoken about in some form or fashion but it's an idea that I think doesn't get as much play because rightly or wrongly everyone has to more or less tout "the company line" but I think the question of whether the game has become TOO pass oriented and the influence of the spread read offense should be tackled. It may be leading to young QBs maturing faster because they're in passing camps during the summer and playing in offenses that air it out more in college but what about its influence on the game. I think the NFL has gone TOO pass happy.

So to boil it down I think it should be debated whether the game has gotten too pass oriented and is the spread (or derivatives thereof) really all that good for the game. it's flip side of the whole "dead ball" era in the '70s when it was 3 yards and a cloud of dust philosophy to football which ironically opened the game up to the passing game which has evolved to the quite frankly "video game" football of the current day NFL.

I believe Marino and Simms are on the show so it would be a good discussion in a lot of ways as Simms played the majority of his career in a more buttoned down offense (though he did get a chance to air it out a bit) while Marino for the majority of his career played in a more pass oriented offense though he had the experience of a more balanced type of offense with Jimmy Johnson late in his career.

Well that's just one general idea you can take it or leave it or hell massage it into something better. Actually it could be turned into a video segment as well perhaps do a video bit with some former head coaches/offensive coordinators/defensive coordinators and have their thoughts on the direction of the game.

[OhDaesu19]

Quote: Originally Posted by SPTO

Well i'm sure this has been spoken about in some form or fashion but it's an idea that I think doesn't get as much play because rightly or wrongly everyone has to more or less tout "the company line" but I think the question of whether the game has become TOO pass oriented and the influence of the spread read offense should be tackled. It may be leading to young QBs maturing faster because they're in passing camps during the summer and playing in offenses that air it out more in college but what about its influence on the game. I think the NFL has gone TOO pass happy. So to boil it down I think it should be debated whether the game has gotten too pass oriented and is the spread (or derivatives thereof) really all that good for the game. it's flip side of the whole "dead ball" era in the '70s when it was 3 yards and a cloud of dust philosophy to football which ironically opened the game up to the passing game which has evolved to the quite frankly "video game" football of the current day NFL. I believe Marino and Simms are on the show so it would be a good discussion in a lot of ways as Simms played the majority of his career in a more buttoned down offense (though he did get a chance to air it out a bit) while Marino for the majority of his career played in a more pass oriented offense though he had the experience of a more balanced type of offense with Jimmy Johnson late in his career. Well that's just one general idea you can take it or leave it or hell massage it into something better. Actually it could be turned into a video segment as well perhaps do a video bit with some former head coaches/offensive coordinators/defensive coordinators and have their thoughts on the direction of the game.

SPTO,
Yes it has been discussed in the past however I will bring it up for our next show. We haven't determined which segments that we'll be doing yet but I am pretty confident we'll have a segment on all the young starting QBs and this would be an integral part of that discussion.

The talent consists of Phil Simms, Cris Collinsworth with James Brown as the host. Dan Marino was a regular on INFL when the show was on HBO, we now are on Showtime . Traditionally INFL would have three "Insiders" plus the host. This year, with the departure of Warren Sapp, we will be rotating the third Insider and more than likely Dan Marino will be a that third Insider on at least one show this season.

Thanks for the suggestion.




By the way just so everyone knows, a lot of times an idea or a topic may not warrant a whole segment in and of itself however we periodically have a "grab bag" segment where we'll just toss out various questions at the talent in like a rapid fire format and they respond to it. For example James Brown would ask Phil Simms: "NFL - Too Pass Happy Now?" And Phil, who loves to hear himself talk, would pontificate till James Brown cuts him off and directs the next question at Cris Collinsworth.

[wwharton]

I've had a similar conversation (with myself, ha ha) about young QBs in general. I was actually surprised to hear that Carson Palmer was the only #1 pick to not start his first year... now we have 5 rookies starting for the first time, and smashing the old record (of two). My thought is that old school coaches had their systems and wanted QBs to learn how to fit into them. Today, it seems coaches are more willing to dumb down the playbooks and add things young QBs are familiar with, while putting more weight on the running game and defense to be the training wheels.

If we look at Flacco and Ryan's rookie years, they both were put into seriously run heavy offenses. A defense like the Ravens allowed for post season success, and it was really no different than Big Ben's rookie year... or even Brady's early years. Ryan spent the farm on Sanchez but then put him in a similar situation. We may be seeing now that he could've stuck anyone back there and wasted a lot on a stiff, but the formula worked. Then you've got Cam who had the entire offense built around his strengths.

Makes me wonder if some QBs that ended up flaming out or bouncing around the league would've come closer to their potential if they were in the league today, and allowed to play their way into the role with better structure and support... and why did it take so long for coaches to come around to this type of thinking?

[Qdiddy]

You guys make great points on how young QB's are starting more and more in their rookie year, IMO it's for two reasons 1. Like someone pointed out earlier with all the pass camps, spread off. In college etc, but also due to the "must win now" mentality that has taken over, coaches are way to pressured into starting that young QB "now" as opposed to developing them as in the past. Since QB is the glamour position nobody wants to hear "QB x will be ready in 2-3 years while the team is losing.

I think the NFL needs to be careful as this can backfire and greatly water down the overall quality of the game, look at the NYG nearly last in rushing last year and won SB, Pats and GB at bottom of D but best records in their conferences. This is the same road NBA went/is going down with the 1 and done phenomenon of college hoops, less and less "real" talent

Topic I would like to see discussed is real future of the game. With such factors as player safety, quality of talent, and the declining attendance, and how less youngsters playing due to injury risks is going to play into this. Thanks!

[Blue_Monkey]

Quote: Originally Posted by OhDaesu19

I am directly responsible for all the picks on the show

Not that this is shocking or anything but I'm just wondering why they have you to make the picks? You'd think it doesn't take a long time for Phil and Chris to decide I like this team over this one a few times for themselves.