The 1990 Raiders had a crazy streak of four games in a row where they scored exactly 24 points.

Not really much to add, I just find it really interesting. Has any other team had a streak like that?

(Source: you can see the first game here, and then use the Next Game button to see the others.)

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u/rookiebatman — 1 day ago

Rewatch rant: the worst thing about watching football from the 80's is "in the grasp"

(I'm in 1990 now, but apparently the rule wasn't changed until 1991.)

There's a rule in the NFL, which was passed in the 70's and is still on the books today, but which was most heavily enforced in the 80's. It basically states that a ref can whistle the play dead if a defensive player has the quarterback "in the grasp and controlled." I'm sure this was originally passed with the best of intentions, to protect quarterbacks from getting hurt, but it doesn't seem to have that impact at all.

I cannot think of any "in the grasp" call I've ever seen that didn't end in one of two ways; 1) the quarterback breaks free from the defender because they were obviously not in the grasp and controlled, but the ref already whistled the play dead, so it's a sack. Or 2) the quarterback is legitimately in the grasp, and they end up getting slammed into the ground anyway because there's no way for the defender to reverse their momentum in mid-tackle just because a ref blew a whistle. ...Neither of those outcomes do anything to protect the health or safety of quarterbacks, and I have never seen any other outcome. Nor have I ever seen a play where the ref called In the Grasp and then a defender was called for a late hit after the QB got pounded into the turf.

To my perception, the way In the Grasp was enforced during the 1989 season (and into 1990) was refs basically just decided whether they wanted the NFL to be touch football on any given play (one-hand touch, for that matter). There's a pretty good example here (the play starting at 36:55). It's not as good as one I recall from a 1989 game, where the commentator said, "oh sure, he was in the grasp by his shoelace," but I don't remember which game that was. In this one, Lawrence Taylor dives at Randall Cunningham and has one hand hooked around Randall's thigh for about half a second, before Cunningham dances away in his usual fashion. (And I've seem similar plays where that evasion was followed by a complete pass.)

To a 1990 referee, that's a sack. I would love for someone to explain to me how he could possibly have been "controlled" and still get loose that quickly.

u/rookiebatman — 2 months ago

"How to adult" question: how to find a cheaper car that's not total junk

I'm thinking about buying a car. I'm a socially awkward introvert, so I don't go out much, and I've just been using my roommate's car when available. Not having the freedom to come and go as I please is starting to get old, but I don't want to drop $10k (or maybe even 5) on a vehicle that I'll probably barely use. Driving kinda feels like an exhausting chore for me, so I tend to avoid any events or destinations that are more than ~15 minutes away.

I want to find a car that can reliably get me to a destination within that 15-minute radius a couple times a week, and not leave me worried about whether it's gonna start or not every time I get in it (and not have it be constantly at the mechanic). But I also don't want to overpay for a car that someone would buy if they have an hour commute to work every day.

Can anyone tell me what kind of hints or clues I can look for, to get a sense of whether a car with a low price will still be reliable for that kind of limited use?

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u/rookiebatman — 2 months ago

Trying to figure out where to spend the rest of my life after getting dumped (currently still living with my ex-girlfriend)

I'm 40M, with Aspergers/high-functioning autism. I'll try not to overshare too many irrelevant details, but the most salient points for this discussion are the following...

  • I sold my house and moved to a new state to be with my girlfriend (I know, it seems real stupid in hindsight), and then she dumped me a couple years later.
  • I grew up in a military family, and we moved every couple years, so there's not really any one location I think of as "where I'm from" or have a strong attachment to.
  • Because of issues related to my upbringing and being on the spectrum, there isn't any place where I have a community of friends or family members to go back to.
  • I'm living on disability benefits, so I don't need to worry about what place has a good job market in any specific field.

...So basically, I have absolutely no prior attachments to any specific city or area. I deeply despise moving, so I want to move out of my ex's place and settle down somewhere that I can stay for the rest of my life, put down roots, maybe find some type of community, and not have to worry about ever moving again.

The main thing I'm looking for is a place that has both low cost of living and low crime (I know it's rare, but not impossible). If I can find somewhere cheap, I can potentially still live off my savings even if I get kicked off of disability, which means I won't have to worry about reaching a point where it's like, "I can't afford this place anymore, gotta move again."

Any resources, tips, or methods anyone can offer about how to decide where to live, or how to make that process of moving easier for someone who absolutely hates moving, would be greatly appreciated.

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u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

Is there a resource to find more specific cost of living data?

I'm trying to make a decision about where to move to (inside the US, unless someone knows of an English-speaking country with golden visas), with cost of living being a very important factor. Is there any site or resource that doesn't just give general/average cost of living data, but instead allows you to tailor it to your specific "spending profile"? For example, a family with three kids who goes to a sit-down restaurant once a week and drives two hours per day, versus a single adult with two pets who eats fast food five days a week, etc.

Cost of living would be very different for those two profiles, and while you can get an idea which areas would be more or less expensive just going off of averages, you can't really make a very educated estimate about exactly how much you will be spending yourself when you get there.

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u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

More specific cost of living data?

Is there any site or resource that doesn't just give general/average cost of living data, but instead allows you to tailor it to your specific "spending profile"? For example, a family with three kids who goes to a sit-down restaurant once a week and drives two hours per day, versus a single adult with two pets who eats fast food five days a week, etc.

Cost of living would be very different for those two profiles, and while you can get an idea which areas would be more or less expensive just going off of averages, you can't really make a very educated estimate about exactly how much you will be spending yourself when you get there.

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u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

Is there any town or community or area (in the US) that's well-suited to Aspies or people on the spectrum?

I'm 40 years old, and my girlfriend of 5+ years recently broke up with me. I had sold my house and moved away to be with her, because I allowed myself to believe the lie that we would be together for the rest of our lives. So now I'm in a city that I have no attachment to if she's out of the picture, and I would really like it if my next move was to a place where I could settle down and be comfortable in my own skin for the rest of my life.

I know this is a longshot, but I thought it might be worth asking if anyone knows about a part of the country where high-functioning autistic people might not feel as isolated or alienated. I'm not even exactly sure what that would look like, but it would be nice if such a place was out there.

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u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

I'm gonna be starting an extensive rewatch of the 1990 season. Anyone want to join me?

I'm not a lifelong NFL fan, but I loved the sport as a kid (both watching the game and collecting the cards), and lately I've decided to "catch up" by revisiting some of those old seasons at length. Over the past eight months, I've been doing a thorough rewatch of the 1989 season, which is almost finished now. I've also read memoirs by Bill Walsh, Dan Reeves, and John Madden.

For the 1990 rewatch, I'm gonna be even more thorough, watching every single game that I can find footage of, even the preseason (though for some games, I will skip the commentary and replays in between snaps). I'm really looking forward to this, but the bummer about rewatching an old season is that the average football fan is watching and discussing the most recent season, not something from over 30 years ago.

So I figured this would be a good place to look for people who might enjoy watching some of the games along with me. I don't expect anyone else to watch every game like I am, and when I say "along with me," I don't mean that we have to watch at the exact same time. I just think it would be fun, if there's an exciting, nail-biter game (like the Bills vs Rams in '89 week 6) or a highlight reel play (like Randall Cunningham evading sacks and then throwing to a wide open receiver in the end zone), or watching history being made (like when Bo Jackson became the first NFL player in history to have two touchdown runs longer than 90 yards), to not be experiencing that in isolation.

Moments like that are what makes sports great, and they're meant to be shared, so I'm hoping to find someone who's interested in sharing them with me (specifically in the 1990 season for now, but I plan to keep right on rolling through at least the rest of the 90's).

u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

I'm gonna be starting an extensive rewatch of the 1990 season. Anyone want to join me?

I'm currently finishing up a lengthy rewatch of the 1989 season, where I watched about 130 games, and I intend to be even more thorough with 1990. I intend to watch every snap of every 1990 game that's been uploaded to Youtube. At one game a day, that should take me about 7 or 8 months. I won't necessarily watch the entire telecast for every game. For some of them, I'll speed things along by skipping through the commentary and replays during downtime, but I will at least watch all of the actual plays (and I'll usually slow it down in the 4th quarter if the game is close). For a few specific "featured" teams, I'll try to watch all of their full broadcasts, and maybe also the full broadcasts for whichever team is at the top of their division in any given week.

It would be fun to have someone I could chat with about this as I go. I'm not expecting anyone else to go all in like I am, but maybe someone else would enjoy watching one game a week or something like that.

I think I've already been spoiled on who wins the Super Bowl this year, but even so, please don't give me any spoilers on what happens during the 1990 season (or following seasons, since I expect to watch them eventually too).

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u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

The analogy of a "good shepherd" doesn't make any sense if Christianity is actually just about following rules.

My brother is a hardcore evangelical, and I remember one chilling conversation with him (back when he was still talking to me) where he said that he believed God's foremost, primary characteristic was not love or compassion, but rather justice or righteousness. I'm waffling a bit because I don't remember the exact word he chose, but the very clear implication was that he believed following rules was a lot more important than love or acceptance.

In some sense, I gotta give him points for honesty, because he was just saying what a lot of other evangelicals are thinking. They'll go to church and sing "they will know that we are Christians by our love," and then spend all their time and effort trying to make non-Christians follow a very Evangelical set of rules (by force of government), instead of just trying to love them the way Jesus loved prostitutes and sinners.

Since there's a huge crossover between the type of Christian who wants to force their moral opinions on everyone else, and those who believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible, it's really baffling why they think God would use the analogy of a good shepherd watching over his sheep. Sheep are notorious for being too dumb to understand things like rules or training, so being a shepherd has nothing to do with making sure your flock follow the rules.

Other than herding his sheep back in the pen at the end of the day, so they can be safe from wolves while the shepherd is asleep (an issue that wouldn't even apply to God anyway), a shepherd has nothing to do with administering or enforcing rules. They aren't training the sheep in obedience, they aren't raising the sheep to act a certain way, they very specifically according to the Bible aren't punishing the sheep who go astray. The good shepherd rejoices to bring that lost sheep back into the fold, he doesn't get angry at it for being disobedient.

How the fuck do they map that analogy onto a god who they believe cares more about holiness and obedience than love?

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u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

Verne Lundquist acts as offensive tackle while Terry Bradshaw demonstrates defensive line techniques

From the Eagles vs. Cardinals game, week 16, 1989.

u/rookiebatman — 3 months ago

I only recently finished Jury Duty, so I didn't read any of the discussion about it at the time. Apologies if something like this was already talked about back then. I saw a comment on a Youtube video about Jury Duty, which said "Now I want to see ‘Lone Pine’ starring James Marsden, with Ronald Gladden," and this was my reply...

I understand why they did Company Retreat, because they wanted to do basically "Jury Duty, again" and you can't do that with the same people. But I think it would legitimately be a delightful followup to Jury Duty if they actually made Lone Pine (or any other movie, for that matter), on a shoestring budget, with all the same actors from Jury Duty (with Ronald as an actor or director or whatever else). There's no hoax or prank, not trying to fool anyone, just having a good time making a cheap little movie. The TV show would be documenting the making of that movie, kinda like the episodes of Project Greenlight after the winner is chosen (but with the familiar faces from Jury Duty).

It won't be like that William Shatner prank show where they pretended it was a big Hollywood movie even though there were only like five people there. Ronald and everyone else knows that it's just a lark, but it would still be fun to see the gang back together, and see the behind-the-scenes of them making a movie together.

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u/rookiebatman — 4 months ago

I don't know anything else about this guy Billy Sims, I just thought the way he reacted to someone else breaking his record was a really classy way to act. The full game can be seen here, with the play that broke the record starting at 1:33:14.

Also worth noting that, in his rookie year, Sanders was just eleven yards shy of leading the league in rushing yards period (not just for rookies).

u/rookiebatman — 4 months ago