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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2014 18:32:05 GMT
Well, when you consider that soccer teams also have 11 players on the field and the maximum number of replacement players authorised during a match is 6, it really makes that other game look like it is full of freeloaders and weaklings.
However, the closest international game to American football is rugby, which has teams of 15 players with the possibility of 7 replacements.
I am trying to imagine the amount of money spent on useless uniforms and equipment that could be better spent. Then again, each country has its priorities.
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Post by htmb on Dec 3, 2014 18:46:36 GMT
As I said, college football is big business, and while I certainly have my personal opinions about how it's organized, I won't be sharing them here except to say that most of the operation is financed through private funding and extra revenues generated are channeled into support of academics.
Also, players who do not play in games are not freeloading, but are typically valuable assets in helping to prepare for games while participating in lengthy daily practices.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2014 18:53:00 GMT
Nuff sed. You are very clear.
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Post by htmb on Dec 3, 2014 18:57:45 GMT
I kind of doubt I am all that clear. I don't typically defend college athletics.
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Post by bjd on Dec 3, 2014 19:20:48 GMT
However, the closest international game to American football is rugby, which has teams of 15 players with the possibility of 7 replacements.
I too thought of rugby, but from what I have learned from my son who played rugby for years, you can only be replaced if you are injured, not for a rest. I think in fact you have to be bleeding or badly injured. It's worse now that rugby has become professional -- when they were amateurs (until the 1990s?), they were smaller.
Sorry for the threadjack.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 4, 2014 3:25:50 GMT
Outstanding addition, Htmb! You really caught the pageantry of college football -- the pleasure of the fans, the gorgeous fall weather, the precision formations. Absolutely KILLER photos. You said this was to finish this thread. I admit it's a super wrap-up, but if you came across any more Gainesville goodies, you would share them, right, right, right??
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Post by htmb on Dec 4, 2014 3:29:05 GMT
Nuff sed. You are very clear. Mock me all you want, Kerouac, but please also keep in mind we are talking about 17 to 22 year old college kids, the majority of whom come from low income families. We are not talking about professional athletes. While less than half the team is on athletic or academic scholarships, that does not even begin to cover all their expenses. Many work and take out loans to pay for their education. They certainly do not get to keep the equipment they use, and their parents have no special privileges other than, perhaps, a couple of game tickets. Their bodies take a beating and many sustain injuries that hamper them physically and/or mentally for the rest of their lives. In my opinion, college athletes are not the ones who should be vilified, but rather the universities who use these athletes, the major donors who seek everlasting honor and fame through the naming of university facilities, and a segment of society that glorifies athletic prowess above education and integrity.
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Post by htmb on Dec 4, 2014 3:30:27 GMT
Bixa, we were posting at the same time. Thanks for your kind words.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2014 6:03:37 GMT
I was not vilifying the players at all. I just question the fact we are back to the tradition of gladiators and that people love it.
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Post by fumobici on Dec 4, 2014 16:49:32 GMT
I watched the football game and I enjoyed it. I like American football, although I think its days are numbered by liability for concussions that seem inevitable due to the nature of the sport. These major college players should be well paid though in the meantime, not cynically used as a profit center.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2014 17:41:43 GMT
When I went to USC, people like O.J. Simpson had university "jobs" like pretending to rake the leaves on the campus.
I wonder if any of the players would be any good at flag football. As long as they are all dressed like Robocop, they are just asking have been programmed to be slaughtered.
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Post by htmb on Mar 8, 2015 20:24:42 GMT
Spring has arrived on the University of Florida campus where the dog and I went for an afternoon walk.
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Post by htmb on Mar 8, 2015 20:35:15 GMT
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Post by mossie on Mar 9, 2015 15:14:20 GMT
Your spring has sprung a lot earlier than ours. I am jealous.
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Post by bjd on Mar 9, 2015 15:59:31 GMT
Yes,it's not that green here yet either. We had a lot of rain followed by a few days of warm temperatures, so daffodils and crocuses are out, but only weeping willows look like they're about to burst into leaf. You have to look hard to see the tiny leaves on anything else.
What are those bushes with the pink flowers?
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Post by lugg on Mar 9, 2015 19:04:14 GMT
Lovely to see your latest additions to this thread, Htmb , Mossie took the words out of my mouth - just a few Spring blossoms here , nothing like your pics depict of Florida spring time
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Post by htmb on Mar 9, 2015 20:32:54 GMT
What are those bushes with the pink flowers? Bjd, if you mean the flowers in two of the last three pictures, I'm not sure. I'll leave identification to those here who are more in the know. The other pink flowers are azaleas.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 10, 2015 5:06:32 GMT
So lovely to see spring has arrived on your doorstep! I don't recognize the 'other' pink bush flowers either. I did spot a Bottlebrush tree with some red flowers. The weather looks wonderful!
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Post by htmb on Mar 10, 2015 13:10:08 GMT
Good eye, tod!
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Post by tod2 on Mar 10, 2015 13:38:32 GMT
Htmb - I looked through my wild flower book and your pink bush could be: The Ribbon Bush (Hypoetes aristata) Described thus: Flowers in axils of leaves appearing to be in whorls - bright pink to magenta with darker purple speckles. Bracts with threadlike tips, calyx tube short, 4 lobed.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2015 18:30:19 GMT
What impressed me about all of the photos are the brick buildings. You did not need to say where you were because that architecture screams "university" anywhere in the country. I went to university at the opposite end of the country and any of those buildings could have been on my own campus. However, since I was in Los Angeles, I get to recognize the actual buildings where I had courses over and over and over again in movies and television series year after year, even though the fictional university can be in Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Georgia... or Gainesville.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 12, 2015 4:08:20 GMT
Oh, thank you for bringing us Gainesville in a new season! No Spring azalea showiness here, so this delightful addition to the thread was like a trip back home for me.
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Post by htmb on Mar 15, 2015 20:32:42 GMT
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Post by htmb on Mar 15, 2015 20:40:27 GMT
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Post by htmb on Mar 15, 2015 20:49:40 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 15, 2015 21:05:12 GMT
This is all right on the campus, Htmb? How wonderful! Stellar photos -- I particularly like all the alligator/turtle ones. Is that a garfish in the 4th pictures, #142? You've aced it on the bird pics again -- that eagle is a prize winner.
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Post by htmb on Mar 15, 2015 21:37:43 GMT
Yes. All right on campus. The first bird picture (I'm pretty sure it's a hawk) was in the middle of campus outside one of the classroom buildings (Little Hall). The other shots were at Lake Alice, about 1/2 mile away.
The fish does look like a gar, but I was really too far away to tell.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2015 18:43:07 GMT
Even though I know about Darwin and all that, some of the skinny birds just look too skinny for me. And 'Miss Suntanned Perfection' in the blue shoes looks like gator bait in more ways than one.
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Post by tod2 on Mar 17, 2015 8:10:15 GMT
Fantastic photos Htmb - I have studied my bird book and can only conclude your beautiful perched bird could be a male juvenile Black Sparrowhawk. The male is a smaller bird than the female. My book says it has adapted to exotic plantations although it's natural habitat is forests and ravines. If it were an eagle the yellow gape would be longer and extend beyond it's eye.
Whatever it is you got a a damn good shot!
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Post by htmb on Mar 17, 2015 21:24:19 GMT
Thanks very much, Tod. I appreciate you trying to identify the bird. I tend to think is was a red-tailed hawk. They are very common in north central Florida.
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