Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Tim Halligan]

Jon Hodgson wrote on Sun, 17 August 2008 18:11

So who's going to sign the petition to make Tiddly Winks an Olympic Sport?

It's probably more likely to become an Olympic event before NFL "football".



Cheers,
Tim

[bblackwood]

American football will never - NEVER - be as popular as the rest of common sports as it requires too much money to participate, plain and simple. Basketball, soccer (football), baseball, etc all require virtually zero investment to play - a ball and maybe a net or stick is all you need to get started in your back yard. Football requires not only a special ball, but also the proper pads, all of which is prohibitively expensive.

[Tomas Danko]

A way to get chicks with mininum effort and still seem to be a true athlete, perhaps?  

Horse Jockeys are extreme athlete's, but it doesn't seem to pay off just as much in that regard...

[Snapshot]

Well, American Football or in some countries its known as Gridiron Football, is being played around the World. Check out "Football, Not Just America's Game" on Associated Content (on the web). These players are dedicated to the sport. They pay for their own uniforms, equipment, team dues, etc. You might also want to check out "Coaching American Football in Germany" on the Bleacher Report (also on the web). Oh, Russia has American Football too.

[ssltech]

bblackwood wrote on Sun, 17 August 2008 09:09

American football will never - NEVER - be as popular as the rest of common sports as it requires too much money to participate, plain and simple.

Formula One.

Cricket is more popular than 'Football'.

Keith

[bblackwood]

ssltech wrote on Mon, 13 July 2009 11:17

bblackwood wrote on Sun, 17 August 2008 09:09 American football will never - NEVER - be as popular as the rest of common sports as it requires too much money to participate, plain and simple. Formula One.

Even fewer participate in F1 racing than play football.

One would even argue whether auto racing is a 'sport'.

Quote:

Cricket is more popular than 'Football'.

Further proving my point. Like baseball, cricket can be played with relatively low investment.

[ssltech]

bblackwood wrote

ssltech wrote bblackwood wrote on Sun, 17 August 2008 09:09 American football will never - NEVER - be as popular as the rest of common sports as it requires too much money to participate, plain and simple. Formula One. Even fewer participate in F1 racing than play football.

That's irrelevant, surely? Your comment linked expense with lack of popularity; number of participants has nothing to do with anything.

Formula 1 is VASTLY more expensive than football, yet is followed all over the globe. The TV audience for live Formula 1 races is right up there with the world cup for Soccer.

-And good Soccer players teams -I'm almost certain- cost a lot more to populate than Football teams. Real Madrid just spent $130,000,000 just to secure the services of a single player... and that's before they even BEGIN paying his approx. twenty-million-dollar-per-annum salary. -That's ONE PLAYER.

Now I don't follow American 'football' because I can't abide the interminable stop-start 'ten-seconds of    scrambled-activity-followed-by-ten-minutes-of-committee-meet ings' interrupted play. It seems that most US 'sports' have to RUIN the flow by some means or other... "Time-outs" in Football, Basketball, Hockey etc. and "yellow-flag laps" in their motorsports. It makes for convenient insertion of commercial adverts, but for the love of Pete... If you have to pay 'brains-swapped-for-boobs' blondes to wear revealing outfits, dance, smile incessantly and do back-flips while waving shiny glittery bits of tinsel, if you have to give away Tee-Shirts fired from a cannon, if you have to pay some fool to dress up in a silly 'mascot' costume all in the name of just to keep the crowd amused and entertained... Here's a newsflash... the game isn't very interesting.

There's none of that at a Soccer match (for example), and yet the crowd WORSHIPS the game.

American 'football' is simply not a very good game. -THAT is why the rest of the world really doesn't care.

It's just tedious, -sorry.

Keith

[bblackwood]

ssltech wrote on Mon, 13 July 2009 13:56

That's irrelevant, surely? Your comment linked expense with lack of popularity; number of participants has nothing to do with anything.

Of course it does, if you're trying to foster interest. Racing has been around for over one hundred years, the fan base is built in. All it takes to race is a car.

Quote:

-And good Soccer players teams -I'm almost certain- cost a lot more to populate than Football teams. Real Madrid just spent $130,000,000 just to secure the services of a single player... and that's before they even BEGIN paying his approx. twenty-million-dollar-per-annum salary. -That's ONE PLAYER.

Again, you're talking at the professional level.

A sport's popularity starts with the children playing it in backyards, streets and schools - amateur players. Soccer, cricket, basketball, baseball - all can be played with virtually no financial investment. Not so with football.

Quote:

American 'football' is simply not a very good game. -THAT is why the rest of the world really doesn't care. It's just tedious, -sorry.

Football is one of the most popular sports in the US because we enjoy it. Just because you don't doesn't dismiss it as 'good' or potentially popular the world over.

My point still stands; on an amateur level - where sports are indeed born into a culture - football is generally cost-prohibitive. Even here in the US (where football is king) most colleges and universities don't participate in football due to the costs involved relative to virtually all other sports.

[PRobb]

bblackwood wrote on Sun, 17 August 2008 09:09

American football will never - NEVER - be as popular as the rest of common sports as it requires too much money to participate, plain and simple. Basketball, soccer (football), baseball, etc all require virtually zero investment to play - a ball and maybe a net or stick is all you need to get started in your back yard. Football requires not only a special ball, but also the proper pads, all of which is prohibitively expensive.

Another difference is that with basketball, soccer and baseball, the weekend warrior can go to the local park and play a game that bears a fair surface resemblance to what they watch on TV.

An Aussie friend describes football as the all American sport- a series of committee meetings wrapped around short periods of extreme violence.

Disclaimer- I like football.

[ssltech]

Brad,

>>all it takes to race is a car

Almost nobody watches DTM, or BTCC, or the Beetle Cup, so why then are THOSE sports not globally popular? -There are millions of people drive BMWs Mercedes, Volkswagons, but nobody cares to watch touring cars. -That position doesn't appear to hold water, since I wouldn't think that ANYONE could get hold of a formula one car for under a couple of hundred million dollars (and you need at least TWO to enter a team).

Yet -while almost nobody drives a Sauber, a Williams or a McLaren- they tune in in monstrous numbers to watch them race.

Sometimes it's NOT about participation.

Also, I'm not saying that the rest of the world won't like American football because I don't think it's very interesting... I'm saying that the rest of the world won't like American football because THEY don't think it's very interesting. -There's a difference.

'Football' is over-hyped in my opinion, and cannot hold the fan's attention compared to many other sports. -That's why there are cheerleaders.

And the number of occasions that some immensely convoluted 'rule' is invoked, just makes things less enjoyable for those in the crowd, who don't have the benefit of TV commentary.

Keith

[bblackwood]

Keith, guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think comparing racing to most sports is a stretch at best, and I've outlined why I believe what I do otherwise. All you seem to be interested in doing is attacking the sport because you don't care for it, creating 'facts' from your opinion.

Red cars, blue cars.

[bblackwood]

PRobb wrote on Mon, 13 July 2009 14:55

bblackwood wrote on Sun, 17 August 2008 09:09 American football will never - NEVER - be as popular as the rest of common sports as it requires too much money to participate, plain and simple. Basketball, soccer (football), baseball, etc all require virtually zero investment to play - a ball and maybe a net or stick is all you need to get started in your back yard. Football requires not only a special ball, but also the proper pads, all of which is prohibitively expensive. Another difference is that with basketball, soccer and baseball, the weekend warrior can go to the local park and play a game that bears a fair surface resemblance to what they watch on TV.

Yah, that's a good point as well.

[ssltech]

Agreed, we just have differing outlooks.

-But -while I have no interest in the game- I'm not actually attacking it. -merely pointing out that most of the world doesn't care for it, and probably never will.

Sport is a tough definition, but US 'football' also falls short of many people's idea, since each side basically has TWO teams, and alternates them when it suits... there's so little sustained 'playing' etc. -I'll leave it there, because otherwise it'll probably seem as if I'm attacking it even more.

Shake hands and differ?

-Keith

[PRobb]

I am primarily a baseball fan. But I do like watching football. The hook for me is the athleticism. Watching a receiver go over the middle and make a leaping one handed catch knowing that as soon as his finger tips touch the ball he's going to get smashed by a 250lb freight train is amazing.

[Samc]

ktownson wrote on Sat, 16 August 2008 21:37

It won't be that long before the game is a major sport across the world.

I can just see the kids in Africa, South America and Asia putting on their body armor, helmets, special boots and training in their multi-million dollar facilities....





















Hahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah  ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahaha....whew.