Does anyone actually understand what is going on? Rugby seems to be full of arcane rules which a referee continually has to explain to the best players in the land. Cricket is a game of extreme subtlety. But American football is so ridiculously abstruse that most of the time seems to be taken up with chatting and arguing every time there is 10 seconds of play. All I notice is that it seems to be very TV advertising friendly - you can have ads every couple of minutes. From where I'm sitting, it's a monumental waste of time. Bedtime.
Saw a great Tweet from Terry Crews yesterday. Above a picture of OJ Simpson 'escaping' from the police was the 'The last decent run for a Bronco was in 1994' which made me smile. Didn't see the game, but looks like Seattle spanked them good and proper
Seattle stomped them. But points appeared to accrue in a fairly random fashion (not for the initiated, I'm sure). It is a game totally lacking in rhythm - think rugby cut into bite-sized pieces where you can only have one pass. Bonkers.
Didn't watch it, don't understand it, never really been a fan of any grass sports games. Wife loves tennis (don't understand that either). Favorite sport for me to watch is Rally Cross although not so much now. If ive spelt their name right there was a couple of guys years ago that always raced each other (Dave Skanke and Bob Alamache) they dominated the "Crash" programs years ago. Lost count of how many 6R4's got destroyed.... Sorry = wandering off topic already. Grass Sports = crap. MotorSports = Good.
When it comes to it, I just like watching sport on TV. I like most of them, really. But I can cheerfully pass on the American faves. American football (see above). Basketball is completely tedious, with points being scored every couple of seconds. It's obviously too easy and they should move the basket up about a metre to take account of everyone playing the game now being giants. I went to a baseball match in California once. It was totally lacking in atmosphere and very dull.
The rules are really not that complicated - the Americans can understand them, so it can't be that hard... And they are allowed more than one pass - just only one FORWARD pass... Personally I thought it was a good game - but maybe that's just me...
Good point. If the Americans can understand the rules.... Still, a snoozefest compared to England-France on Saturday.
Well, I read up about American Football and now understand the rules - or at least what is going on. I looked at the second half of the match that I'd recorded to see whether it was any better now that I understood it. My verdict is the same: it's more like a chat show there are so many interruptions. You see more of the commentators chatting about it than actual play on the field. It really is a fairly pointless exercise. There is no flow, no real building of tension (although you could see that such a one-sided affair might be lacking in tension). As an alternative to rugby it is completely pants. It's just not a very well thought out game. Interesting to see that the winners of the Superbowl are "world champions". Hmm. This is similar to the American baseball league being the "World Series". This tells you as much about America as you need to know. The US really is The World to them. A bit of a contrast with football which really is a world game. American Football? It'll never catch on.
The baseball championship is actually the "World's series" - named after the Daily World News who originally sponsored it. I thought you would have know that Glid...
I think the Superbowl this year clearly illustrates what happens when a team who are confident take on one that isn't. That's why it was interesting to me... A team that everyone said could only defend, and who have a quarterback that can't throw, took on a team that (allegedly) have the best offense in the NFL - and whitewashed them. Denver never looked like they knew what was going on; Peyton Manning looked like he couldn't lead them and didn't know which play he was calling. Russell Wilson looked like he knew exactly what he was doing all the time, and never missed any of his receivers, despite it being his first Superbowl and him being one of the youngest quarterbacks in the game. I enjoyed it, but maybe that's just me...
I think the same about soccer - bunch of vastly overpaid prima-donnas poncing about - and golf, tennis, horse racing, and a few other sports too... Isn't it great how we all like different things ?
American sports: American football = Ghey Rugby Baseball = Rounders Ice Hockey = Girls hockey played in a fridge Basketball = Netball HTH :smile:
Fun Superbowl fact: during the 210 minutes of coverage, the ball was live and in play for 12 minutes and 38 seconds. That's not a real game of anything!
Ice hockey is a decent game in my book... Any game where you're allowed to have 2 actual fights per game how got to be good to watch. Basketball is the sound of squeaky shoes, very dull.
I've been to see a couple of ice-hockey games and it's quite fun. The only problem is that the puck moves so fast you can barely see it. But then if you've looked at a fast bowler bowling whilst seated midwicket, it's much the same. You don't see the ball until it's in the wicket keeper's gloves, much less be able to see it swing.
American football has its own rhythms and flows. As soon as you get it into your tiny pointed heads that you are not watching rugby, and start to appreciate the nuisances of the game, you can enjoy the spectacle. The thrills come in brief bursts rather then thinly spread out over an incredibly long period (or even longer, in the case of cricket). Once you've trained yourself to observe what is going on, in an informed fashion, you can appreciate the skill and bravery of a wide receiver catching the pass prior to being run-over by some 15st cornerback or safety. You can appreciate the quarterback "in the pocket", picking out a bullet pass, millimetre accurate, to one of his eligible receivers, you can appreciate the ballet-like skill of the running back picking his way through a crowded defensive line. The moments of brilliance shine out if you can see them, they are simply breathtaking for their athletic, even acrobatic, skill. Anyone decrying American Football for being indecipherable or lacking in rhythm and yet who defends cricket, an even more opaque, bitty and arrhythmic "sport" is, frankly and obviously, out of their minds. And don't even get me started on "the beautiful game" LOL. All that said, the destruction that has been rained down upon American Football by the effect of advertising revenues of TV is a crying shame. The flow of the game (yes, there is one) is ruined by the commercialisation. This damage is second only to the harm commercialisation has caused the English FA, the Premiership in particular. Football (soccer) is no longer a sport it's strictly business. Glidd - Ice Hockey League = "Professional Wrestling" = the most infantile kind of pantomime. Players have to have fights now, it's part of the structure of the "sport".
Its shite Loz. Admit it. Youre not kidding anyone. Like most american sports, its just stupid. At least with football you get 90mins of running around. And anyone who says its shit should watch Istanbul 2005 Champions League final. That match took me from excitement, then to apprehension, then despair and sorrow, back to hope, through anticipation, back to excitement with a couple of bits of dread and finally to euphoria. Anything can and does happen in football. And its football, not soccer. Just like that american shite is not football. Its just shite. Bill Says " get tae fuck"
Heh. I watched that Champions League Final in the pub, one of the best games I've ever seen. The atmosphere in the pub was amazing. But ... this kind of helps my point. I watch a fair number of football matches - overall, the excitement is more diluted than that of American Football. I watch hours and hours of football to get minutes of entertainment and excitement. This compares unfavourably with the "bang per buck" of American Football, where it's rarely very long in between moments of true excitement. I've grown up watching both types of "football" - they both seem natural to me. I see the merits in both because I can appreciate what is going on in both. How many of you can say the same?
