Why do people care about Superbowl?

[Elok]

You watch sports for the arguments? I mean, we have them over here too, but nobody seems to enjoy them except insofar as it gives them an excuse to hate the ref for his bad call, and something to blame a loss on. For people who actually enjoy arguments, we have cable news.

[MOBIUS]

Jonah Lomu

He even played a season for the Cardiff Blues!

[MOBIUS]

You watch sports for the arguments? I mean, we have them over here too, but nobody seems to enjoy them except insofar as it gives them an excuse to hate the ref for his bad call, and something to blame a loss on. For people who actually enjoy arguments, we have cable news.

Well, isn't that what ice hockey is - one big 'argument'...?

It shows passion for the game if the players get stuck in a bit - obviously not too much that they get sent off or injure someone.

I used to be like you and look down on sport in general, but it's great fun. You should embrace it, even if just a little bit.

[MOBIUS]

Shane Williams

One extreme to another:

Lomu:

Height 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Weight 125 kg (19 st 10 lb)

Williams:

Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight 80 kg (12 st 8 lb)

How can watching that not get the adrenaline pumping!?

[Elok]

I've actually warmed to it considerably over my life. But I think this is about as warm as I'm going to get. I really can't make myself care who wins.

[MOBIUS]

See, I'm a bit further along the curve: I care who wins, but I'm not particularly bothered if my team loses.

But then, when you like teams like West Ham and the Cincinnati Bengals, you need a thick skin!

[Cort Haus]

Somewhere in between, I think. I've only ever seen World Cup and Olympic games (they don't play anything else over here AFAIK). I'm told that all football/soccer games have what I think of as a great flaw--people only score a goal once every fifteen or twenty minutes. Now, perhaps instead of just drifting across the field back and forth like a black and white tumbleweed in a shifting wind, the ball's supposed to be bouncing around like a pinball as skilled players coordinate their movements to cut each other off and intercept the ball and whatnot. But I don't see how that's going to be a significant improvement. Either way, ninety percent of the game will effectively be dead time that contributes nothing towards the final score. You'll just replace an idle nothing with a frenetic nothing. You've got World War I in a stadium, the vast majority of their furious, valiant efforts are futile. Kinda depressing.

However, I do like mocking and egging on Europeans and other "soccer weenies" as much as the next red-blooded American. And I don't really "get" sports in the first place, so my opinion's of very little merit. I'd probably invest more energy in figuring these things out if they didn't strike me as a goofy sublimation of primitive tribalist instincts that I thankfully don't possess. Why should I cheer for one group of overpaid entertainers over another, just because that one group happens to be based in a city near me? I'd only care who won the Superbowl if I were friends with one of the players, and then I'd care for his sake.

As it happens, I think NFL football is a much more impressive and compelling visual spectacle. I can watch them duking it out for up to three minutes before realizing I don't care who wins. And that's the most serious opinion I have about professional sports.

Ah, so it is as I thought. A combination of impatience, ignorance and chauvinistic trolling, designed to attract whoops of approval from fellow nationalists - has has indeed happened.

One thing worth mentioning though, the comparison to WW1 is unsustainable. In fact, the trench warfare metaphor may best be applied to rugby, where two front lines push against each other on a relatively static front. I've no idea how Handegg works, so I won't comment on that. Football though (as most of the world understands the word) is much more fluid and dynamic. You might only see tumbleweed but what is actually happening is a contest of possession, control, passing, movement, interception and tackling. It's not necessary to have goals every few seconds like basketball (tap tap GOAL! tap tap tap GOAL!) because what happens in between is very much part of the contest.

[MOBIUS]

I'd say American football is the same with the WWI analogy: they even call the offensive and defensive lines 'the trenches'. The comparisons don't stop there, because again, most of the action is at that relatively static front, with the occasional breakout through the line reminiscent of going 'over the top', or outflanking sweeps... Instead of tanks, they've been known to call on the use of fridges instead (showing my age!).

And it doesn't end there, the teams can call upon their 'big guns' and 'artillery' of their quarterbacks who can throw 'screens' or 'bombs' etc, etc...

[Elok]

Yes, yes, I'm sure it's very subtle n'stuff, but when the opposing efforts cancel each other out the vast majority of the time, it's not the slightest bit interesting. You wind up with what looks like a giant game of kick-the-can. Like NASCAR, it might be exciting for the individual players, but it's some boring, monotonous **** to watch. The fact that you can get your rocks off watching the intricate complexity of their sissy-jigging is nothing to be proud of.

[rah]

This reminds me of the classic Carlin routine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_yq4L3M_I

[Al B. Sure!]

I note how all this talk about soccer or hockey not being all that good is called 'stupid ignorant American nationalism' but when Asher goes on about how great hockey is or any of you Europeans talk about how great soccer is, suddenly it's not ignorant.

Interesting...

In fact, I never described any hatred towards hockey or soccer approaching the level Asher has towards basketball. Yet he gets a free pass and I don't?

[Asher]

It's not ignorant because we all understand (and most of us have even played) football and soccer and basketball. While you clearly don't undersrtand and have never played hockey. That's why you're ignorant.

[N35t0r]

Also, we understand that Asher hates basketball because a basketball player once turned him down.

[Asher]

Not true. In fact, basketball players are the type of repressed homosexuals that make passes on me in the gym.

[N35t0r]

I don't know... From the time i played basket, I must say that they weren't very repressed...