Geez, and I thought Saints fans were passionate:

Edith Grove wrote on Jan 14^th, 2014 at 6:14am:

Saw that on the news this morning. They said he was just kidding and did come back and do a full sermon. But always nice to have the lord by your side.

SCL?
NELLIE?


(Reuters) - The Seattle Seahawks are protecting their raucous home-field advantage by denying California residents tickets to Sunday's NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Seattle, whose CenturyLink Field is the noisiest and most hostile stadium in the league for opposing teams, is limiting ticket sales to a few neighboring states and Canadian provinces, but not California, a ploy that has been endorsed by an unlikely advocate - San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh.
"I actually respect it - what you're trying to do for your team, put them in the best possible position to win," Harbaugh told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I respect that their organization does that for their team."
The top-seeded NFC West champion Seahawks have won 16 of their last 17 games at CenturyLink Field, where record decibel levels have been recorded during Seattle games.
Seattle is not alone in restricting ticket sales.
The Denver Broncos have made a similar move for Sunday's AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots to limit the presence of fans cheering for the visiting team.
The Broncos said they would only ship tickets to billing addresses in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota and western Kansas.
(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)

mojoman wrote on Jan 14^th, 2014 at 3:25pm:



But will Seahawks fans be spitting on the Calif. fans that do make it in ?   

mojoman wrote on Jan 14^th, 2014 at 3:25pm:

We do not play in the stands, we play on the field.  We have been hated since we upset the darling Rams in '02, and when Fredo Mangenius sold us out in '07.  We love hate, bring it.  I see the line is shrinking, must be something about Peyton....



PS:  Larry Fine is now a sports writer?  Did you know he was at Woodstock?

Interesting article regardless of the fact that it makes an excuse for the Saints' loss:






How much did playing on two coasts impact New Orleans Saints in playoffs?



Mackie Shilstone (NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune Archive)
By NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on January 17, 2014

Story by
Mackie Shilstone, Contributing writer


You can sleep when you're dead," echoed one of my U.S. Army Ranger Special Forces clients several weeks ago when asked how the Saints should recover from being weary (three games in 12 days) going into their Dec. 2 game at Seattle. The Saints lost that Monday night game 34-7 to the Seahawks and again last week at Seattle in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs, losing 23-15.

Could a loss of sleep have played a hand in the Saints' sluggish performance in both road games against Seattle? Keep in mind, the Jan. 4 NFC wild-card game in Philadelphia had a 7:10 p.m. CT start time, which meant that the Saints did not return home until around 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 5. The Saints next played in Seattle on Jan. 11. That's two games on two coasts. Lack of sleep -- the unseen "12th man" for the Seahawks -- may have played a role in the loss. Here's why:

For all us mortals -- excluding those armed forces who may be forced to fight for their lives and trained to handle lack of sleep -- sleep deprivation can not only affect our brain's normal metabolism, but also our cognitive function. It has been reported that 80 percent of the adult working population is sleep deprived.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) introduced the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire in 2005 for participants 16 and older. From 2005-08, 10,896 respondents 20 and older were surveyed. A short sleep duration was found to be more common among adults age 20-39, which accounts for the spread in age of nearly all NFL players.

Adults who reported sleeping less than the recommended seven to nine hours per night were more likely to have difficulty performing many daily tasks -- such as NFL players reacting to a quarterback audible at the line of scrimmage with loud crowd noise or remembering the snap count, much less not blowing a blocking assignment on offense.

In a recent New York Times story, "Goodnight. Sleep Clean," Maria Konnikova wrote, "Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain's physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor. ... It's clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking."

Konnikova cites the research of Dr. Sigrid C. Veasey at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology. "Recovery from sleep loss is slower than we'd thought," said Veasey. "We use to think that after a bit of recovery sleep, you should be fine."

It appears, based on new research, that might not be the case after all.

So, did the Saints' combination of three games in 12 days in the regular season and two playoff games on different coasts impact the team? According to Veasey, "When we're sleep-deprived we can't integrate or put together facts." Add that to the excessive crowd noise in Seattle, and there's a potential disaster in the making for the opposing team.

"Sleep deprivation," according to Dr. Piotr Olejniczak, Professor of Neurology and a sleep expert at the LSU Health Sciences Center, "decreases performance and causes sleep debt to occur. Chronic sleep debt can be severe."

The short- and long-term effects of crossing back and forth multiple times zones at all hours can take its toll on the human body, as I have witnessed in my 40-year career. Said Olejniczak: "We are trained to function in a specific circadian rhythm (our biological clock), which is regulated by our environment."

When we shift our biological clock, Olejniczak said, "we need a transitional period to adjust -- maybe two to three days." 

What would life be like if we did not require those seven to nine hours of sleep each night? Just think how much we could accomplish with all that extra time of about 2,920 hours a year. Maybe the Saints and most other traveling sports teams will solve the sleep-deprivation riddle before their next cross-country trip. 

It makes me sleepy just thinking about it.

Mackie Shilstone, a regular contributor to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, has been involved in the wellness sports performance industry for nearly 40 years. He is currently the fitness coach for Serena Williams and has trained numerous other professional athletes and consulted a litany of professional sports franchises. Contact him at mackieshilstone.com



http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2014/01/how_much_did_playing_on_two_co.html...

Some Guy wrote on Jan 17^th, 2014 at 11:51am:



SG ?

Jets tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. was initially accused of masturbating in a Target parking lot, according to an incident report from his drug possession arrest.

NJ.com obtained the police report from Nov. 19 that detailed how a female witness described parking next to a black Cadillac Escalade outside Target in East Hanover, N.J., and seeing a man inside the vehicle with his genitals exposed and his penis erect.

When police arrived at the scene, an officer found Winslow "slouched down in his seat and moving around," the report states. When the cop approached the vehicle, Winslow "moved into an upright position" and claimed he was looking for a Boston Market but got lost, NJ.com reports. His genitals were not exposed.

Authorities found empty containers of "Funky Monkey" in the car and plastic bags of synthetic marijuana labeled "Mr. Happy," along with two open containers of Vaseline, according to the official documents.

A rep for Winslow denied the NFL star was masturbating in a statement posted to Twitter on Friday, Jan. 17.

"Kellen pulled over to a parking lot to smoke what he thought at the time was a legal substance. He changed his clothes in his vehicle as to not smell like smoke when he returned home," Denise White, CEO of EAG Sports Management, wrote. "There was absolutely nothing inappropriate that took place and if there was police would have investigated further and charged Kellen which they did not. This will be the only time we will comment on this unfounded and ridiculous claim."

Winslow was charged last month with possession of Fubinaca, a form of synthetic marijuana. On Jan. 15, he pleaded not guilty in Morristown Superior Court, according to the New York Daily News. If convicted, he faces five years in prison. He does not face any public lewdness charges as of now.

Winslow was suspended without pay for four games in October after testing positive for a banned substance in violation of the league's policy on performance enhancing substances, the Associated Press noted. At the time, the 30-year-old said the positive test came as a "huge surprise" to him.

I hope the Seahawks get to the Bowl and get screwed by the refs so they can keep whining about their first Super loss!

gimmekeef wrote on Jan 17^th, 2014 at 3:59pm:

I just hope they get their ass kicked Sunday. Period..............Where's Munichilton? Can a brother get some 49er love around here?

munichhilton wrote on Jan 18^th, 2014 at 8:38am:

That's what I'm talking about!

Lets get this party started...

I've gone to church and prayed for a win...It turns out the Lord doesn't pick favorite teams, but it didn't hurt

Go Niners