I originally didn't understand the game of football well but after playing Madden enough, I understood it and started watching football on TV. My teams are the Rams and the Bears. I'm happy so long as one of them goes go the playoffs. But the Rams never really have any hope of going to the playoffs, so I root for the Bears.

The "star" quarterback of the Bears, Jay Cutler, got injured with a groin injury today. Does anyone know approximately how long a groin injury takes to heal? I'm assuming many weeks. Anyway, if he isn't able to recover and play again soon, the Bears don't have much chance of going to the playoffs, since they go up against some tough teams that they could probably barely defeat even with Cutler.

Also, those who think football isn't for geeks have it all wrong. Football is a game of statistics these days. You have Quarterback ratings, all kinds of jargon such as pass-rushing, etc. And I used to manually program the players in Madden differently than the EA people had them programmed, which is something you can do without modding or hacking the game.

I'm watching DEN at IND right now. As a longtime Broncos fan, this game is driving me f#&$ing insane :-P

It depends on severity, for instance Danny Amendola on the Patriots had a complete muscle tear; he came back in that game but then missed the next 4 weeks. He came back but missed this weeks game again (different injury). Typically, you can come back after 2-4 weeks but you won't be 100% cutler. Fortunately, Cutler doesn't rely too much on his running so as long as his Linemen can keep him upright he should do OK if he came back in 2 weeks.

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets

PS> Indy looked pretty good last night. Can't believe that Denver is only in a Wildcard spot right now with KC still undefeated.

Football (NFL) and basketball are two of the sports I absolutely can't get into. I love hockey and soccer (real football!!!), and I enjoy playing baseball, though I have a hard time watching more than a couple innings unless I'm actually in the stadium.

There are definitely tons of tactics and statistics involved in Football, but the actual play between the whistles doesn't interest me enough. It's too stop/start to get into a rhythm.

I do like football but it isn't really my choice of sport to watch. The NFL has gotten pretty bad in my mind where it almost seems scripted in some games. College football seems more exciting for me to watch but the NCAA seems to a huge scam also.

Now Baseball. That is my sport. Plus if you want stats and numbers then that is the sport. They have a stat for EVERYTHING. Theirs also dedicated people on some teams now that go and so the advanced numbers to try to find the hidden gem players. I am the biggest baseball fan and I didn't miss one single game or inning on TV for my team for all 162 games.

But theirs just something in football that I haven't quite understood what makes it so popular. The hitting? Watch hockey theirs more "violence" in that that is actually legal, which BTW hockey is my 2nd favorite sport.

Groin injuries really depend on severity and how much the player has to move around. In Cutler's case being pretty essential to the team is probably a factor in possibly coming back sooner, though I wouldn't really consider him a top tier quarterback. On the plus side, that means another quarterback could probably still do decent for the team because the bears have a generally good team this year.

All that said, I am a Packers fan, so suck it.

I just heard that Cutler will probably be back in 4+ weeks. What possibly might be worse is that Bears defensive player Lance Briggs will be out for six weeks. I'm not getting hopeful of my team going to the playoffs.