What a silly sport

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Is that because it takes longer to play than the lifespan of humans??

Is a book boring because it takes a few days to read?

[Elok]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Is a book boring because it takes a few days to read?

No, but book-reading isn't a sport...

WRT the original post, I'm not big on football but this Superbowl was a bad example of the sport. It was held in a miserable rain that made the ball and the field slippery to the point of low comedy. I actually enjoyed it more that way; it was like watching the three stooges as both teams dropped the ball and hydroplaned on their shoes. Plus it was impossible to predict who would score next. At least for the first quarter, it was. Once they learned to slow down and be more careful it was just an unusually one-sided game of football, like most superbowls.

I don't care for sports in general, but football's better than most. Certainly better than soccer, the game which gives such an advantage to the defense that most games are decided by penalty kicks. Or hockey, where you can't tell where the puck is at any time unless you're an experienced Canadian accustomed to spotting small black lumps against vast fields of white due to years spent foraging for polar bear scat to eat during long winters on the frozen wastelands of the north. And baseball...well, baseball gets picked on enough.

And according to Wiki, it's called football because back in the day any sport played by peasants on foot was classified as 'football' to distinguish it from mounted aristocratic diversions such as polo, fox-hunting, and trampling servants.

[Arrian]

I like Soccer, but agree things are too favorable for defense. The offsides rule might be a good place for some revision...

It's not hard to follow the puck in hockey, is it? Granted, I've not really watched since the lockout...

-Arrian

[LordShiva]

Hockey doesn't use a puck.

[Victor Galis]

Football (in the European sense of the word) is not too defensive. It's good to have a game where scoring actually means something, rather than have a game like basketball where it's a real miracle if the defense manages to prevent scoring.

[Arrian]

Haha, yeah, yeah. Ice Hockey.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

Cricket is quite a silly sport. No sport should have breaks for tea.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Victor Galis
Football (in the European sense of the word) is not too defensive. It's good to have a game where scoring actually means something, rather than have a game like basketball where it's a real miracle if the defense manages to prevent scoring.

It's really not an either-or proposition. I agree basketball is too offensive (heh). I don't like bb at all.

Soccer is at the extreme other end of the scoring spectrum. To say that it's a tad too defensive a sport is not to say that it should be changed such that scoring would be rendered a meaningless event.

-Arrian

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Arrian
I don't like bb at all.

I agree, baseball sucks

[Imran Siddiqui]

American Football
Baseball
Soccer
Ice Hockey
Basketball

[Elok]

Originally posted by Victor Galis
Football (in the European sense of the word) is not too defensive. It's good to have a game where scoring actually means something, rather than have a game like basketball where it's a real miracle if the defense manages to prevent scoring.

Scoring means very little in soccer, as it's an event which occurs maybe four times per game, if that. It's much more profitable to irritate the other side into committing a foul, at which point you get free kicks--each of which is worth as much as a normal goal. The game is weighted against the offense to a ridiculous extent; a defender can almost always run faster than an attacker who has to maintain control of the ball as he runs, the field's so damned big you have about ten seconds to prepare once you see the ball cross midfield before it'll be in range to kick, and the goalie has substantial privileges and powers (as well as a large restricted area) to frustrate anyone who gets through the defense.

I remember my few times playing soccer as a kid. I would always play defense and laugh as the soccer-camp kids tried to evade me with their sissy-jigging maneuvers. Twiddling the ball behind your feet just means I hit your shins instead, and I can effortlessly kick the ball back out towards midfield when you wince, then go back to scratching myself. And on the off-chance that someone else on your team has crossed the vast wasteland of green with you, the guy covering him will be on him like a hawk the moment he gets the ball. If we screw up badly and you manage to kick for the goal--ha ha, goalie can use his hands! Your only hope (unless he's utterly inept) is to try to fake him out, but faking him out takes a split second of time you won't have due to the fact that defenders like me can easily outmaneuver you. You can try to take the ball back from the defenders when they get it, but since the defenders basically sit on their butts until they're needed and even then they mostly move sideways, while attackers have to schlep the ball across half the length of the field...

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Elok
Certainly better than soccer, the game which gives such an advantage to the defense that most games are decided by penalty kicks.

Now you're being extremely silly. This isn't true, but if you chaps had your way, there would be two balls on the field and the goals would be 20 yards wide.

Now basket ball ...

tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL

Goals every few seconds - where's the fun in that? Where'e the novelty, where's the interest, the rarity, the challenge?

A goal in football (the real sort as enjoyed by the world rather than the rugby-derivative called American Football) is worth waiting for.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


Now you're being extremely silly. This isn't true, but if you chaps had your way, there would be two balls on the field and the goals would be 20 yards wide.

Now basket ball ...

tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap GOAL

Goals every few seconds - where's the fun in that? Where'e the novelty, where's the interest, the rarity, the challenge?

A goal in football (the real sort as enjoyed by the world rather than the rugby-derivative called American Football) is worth waiting for.

While in American football, it's:

fap-fap-fap-kick
fap-fap-fap-kick
fap-fap-fap-kick
fap-oops GOAL

[Dinner]

I suppose my main complaint is that a sport named "football" should be played primarily by applying one's foot to the ball in some manner.

Football is called football not because you are kicking the ball with your foot but because it is played "on foot" instead of on horseback like polo which was very popular when football was invented.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Football is called football not because you are kicking the ball with your foot but because it is played "on foot" instead of on horseback like polo which was very popular when football was invented.

Source please.