Hear, hear! (football thread)

[Colon™]

Last time there was a thread about football vs American rugby, I stated that one of the biggest advantages of football is it's unpredictability, in spite or because of the relatively low amount of goals that are made.

And I guess what I just read on BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4581374.stm

American football, basketball and baseball have millions of followers, but they can't match soccer for sheer excitement, says a team of scientists.

The reason is its element of surprise, claim researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US.

It's now scientifically proven that football is better.

[C0ckney]

well it's not like we didn't know that already.

[Imran Siddiqui]

But there was a twist in the tail.

When the scientists looked only at data from the past 10 years, English Premiership football and baseball swapped places.

One interpretation of the finding might be that soccer has become more predictable in recent years.

Mwa ha! Soccer has been less surprising in the last 10 years, so baseball is better .

[MikeH]

That would be conclusive if it didn't suggest baseball might be exciting...

Interesting that american football was so low.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

But there was a twist in the tail.

When the scientists looked only at data from the past 10 years, English Premiership football and baseball swapped places.

One interpretation of the finding might be that soccer has become more predictable in recent years.

Mwa ha! Soccer has been more less surprising in the last 10 years, so baseball is better .

That timeframe is too short to draw any conclusion from it. A mere statistical blip.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Colon
That timeframe is too short to draw any conclusion from it. A mere statistical blip.

You wish .

10 years is more than enough time to make a statistical evaluation.

That's what, like 25,000 baseball games and 10,000 Prem games? More than enough.

[MikeH]

10 years of the premiership, not 10 years of every league in the world...

[Agathon]

American football is the sporting equivalent of the Western Front in WW1.

And they are girls. Rugby (both codes) don't need all that sissy armour.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by MikeH
10 years of the premiership, not 10 years of every league in the world...

I realize that, but the Prem is usually held up as an 'exciting' league with lots of attacking soccer.

Oh, and as for padding. I'd like to see rugby players survive on an American football field with 250 lb men who can run as fast as a sprinter pummling into them. The reason that American football players wear padding at all is because Theodore Roosevelt threatened to ban the game because of all the deaths it caused unless it got safer for the participants.

And by your logic, I guess you think hockey players are girls. After all, they wear the same padding NFL players do.

[Japher]

If soccer is so great why do I like Football more?

[C0ckney]

because you lack taste?

[Japher]

hmmmm, how is that scientific proof?

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Well, that was just about the most horrible methodology I've ever read. They didn't even bother with looking at the games themselves, just the results. It's like saying a random number generator is exciting because you never know what you're going to get.

I'm a little disturbed that people from Los Alamos came up with this brilliant method of analysis...I wonder what else they're researching......

[reds4ever]

You want an exciting game? I remember one night in Istanbul last May...........

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Oh, and as for padding. I'd like to see rugby players survive on an American football field with 250 lb men who can run as fast as a sprinter pummling into them.

What makes you think an equally-heavy rugby player couldnt do the same speed, for longer? or faster without the padding.

And by your logic, I guess you think hockey players are girls. After all, they wear the same padding NFL players do.

Well i imagine the blade of an ice skate is more dangerous than anything in american football. Also it doesnt hurt as much to get slammed into grass/articicial, than into glass or ice.