**** sports

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes, it's possible that "the rest of the world" thinks the 7.03 billion people who didn't watch the Super Bowl aren't anywhere near normal.

I said "don't care about competition". I'm betting a good number of those 7.03 billion go nuts for World Cup Soccer, or Cricket, or Rugby, or the Olympics, etc

[Ban Kenobi]

Network television is a business. It only exists to get people to watch commercials.

The Super Bowl does television better than any tv show does.

What's the economic value of teh Marine Corps? Maybe we should consider cutting it if it doesn't make a profit.

[Ban Kenobi]

I said "don't care about competition". I'm betting a good number of those 7.03 billion go nuts for World Cup Soccer, or Cricket, or Rugby, or the Olympics, etc

But they rightly realize that football is a really boring sport where the action is constantly stopping. If you're going to watch a sport, you might as well watch something where the main attraction isn't commercial breaks and waiting for the clock to start again.

[Al B. Sure!]

What's the economic value of teh Marine Corps? Maybe we should consider cutting it if it doesn't make a profit.

The purpose of a military is to ensure national defense. It's an expense.

Police don't make a profit.
Public schools don't make a profit.
Firefighters don't make a profit.

[Imran Siddiqui]

But they rightly realize that football is a really boring sport where the action is constantly stopping. If you're going to watch a sport, you might as well watch something where the main attraction isn't commercial breaks and waiting for the clock to start again.

If you don't care for strategic maneuvering and don't understand American football perhaps this opinion is valid...

[Ban Kenobi]

The purpose of a military is to ensure national defense. It's an expense.

Police don't make a profit.
Public schools don't make a profit.
Firefighters don't make a profit.

If that were true our military spending wouldn't vastly exceed the level needed for national defense. The military is a jobs program to bring money to politician's districts and a means to impose our will on foreigners.

[Ban Kenobi]

If you don't care for strategic maneuvering and don't understand American football perhaps this opinion is valid...

Is football unique among team sports in terms of having STRATEGY? I find that to be a very dubious claim.

[Al B. Sure!]

If that were true our military spending wouldn't vastly exceed the level needed for national defense. The military is a jobs program to bring money to politician's districts and a means to impose our will on foreigners.

Our role has expanded beyond national defense to provide defense for NATO-member nations, participate in UN peacekeeping missions, and to be the world's leading crisis and humanitarian response force. Those capacities explain some of that excess. A strong military also serves as a geopolitical and diplomatic tool.

[Imran Siddiqui]

If that were true our military spending wouldn't vastly exceed the level needed for national defense. The military is a jobs program to bring money to politician's districts and a means to impose our will on foreigners.

How does this not make it an expense?

Is football unique among team sports in terms of having STRATEGY? I find that to be a very dubious claim.

Are you channeling your name-d sake?

American football has a far greater emphasis on strategic maneuvering than any other popular sport.

[Al B. Sure!]

Is football unique among team sports in terms of having STRATEGY? I find that to be a very dubious claim.

The level of strategy exceeds anything in most if not all popular team sports. Football is ****ing complex in ways that say basketball just plain isn't.

[Al B. Sure!]

Are you channeling your name-d sake?

Football has no strategy! It's all luck!

[Ben Kenobi]

Is this your attempt to be lamer than Alby?

Pretty sure Felch has a successful love life.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's one of those things that makes you hit your head when people say American Football only has "11 minutes of action" - the great appeal of the game is the strategic matchups on every single play, how each side sets up and the changes they make as a result of what they see to exploit a weakness or to defend against a previously unseen formation.

Seriously, its a computer wargamer's sport.

[Ben Kenobi]

It's one of those things that makes you hit your head when people say American Football only has "11 minutes of action" - the great appeal of the game is the strategic matchups on every single play, how each side sets up and the changes they make as a result of what they see to exploit a weakness or to defend against a previously unseen formation.

Seriously, its a computer wargamer's sport.

So your argument is that computer wargamers create compelling television?

[Al B. Sure!]

It's one of those things that makes you hit your head when people say American Football only has "11 minutes of action" - the great appeal of the game is the strategic matchups on every single play, how each side sets up and the changes they make as a result of what they see to exploit a weakness or to defend against a previously unseen formation.

Seriously, its a computer wargamer's sport.

The only way I can imagine they'd understand is if they played the latest Madden against challenging competition, learned everything on both sides of the ball from audibles to zone coverages, 5-2 defenses to shotgun trips right, etc. then realized that Madden is to real football as Civ5 is to real geopolitics; it's a simplified simulation that still leaves out a ton of stuff.

Football is ****ing complex.