There is only one sport and it is Footie. This sport can and does reduce grown men to tears. Its overwhelming global popularity is proof of its enduring charm. You are correct Loz. I cannot see the merit of American handball. Ive tried but it leaves me cold. I guess its a cultural thing. I had carpet burns due to watching that final. As I flew across the room when the equaliser went in and then when we won the penalty shoot out. Amazing amazing game.
I can see that cricket is an acquired taste. But for those with short attention spans, there is Twenty20 or perhaps ODI. I prefer Test cricket - I like the strategic shifts and the mounting excitement, although there is no getting away from the fact that you can have very dull days. American Football seems to be predicated on a sort of grind - the gradual accumulation of yards, in a way that is a lot more prevalent than rugby (which is also a sort of semi-organised fight). The fact that is stops every few seconds is just deeply dull, however exciting the actual plays may be. There just aren't enough of them over the span of a game and there is just too long between each play. It doesn't help to be a neutral either, as I just don't care who wins. Football (soccer if you prefer) can also be very dull, depending on the match. But it can also be very exciting and, when played at its best, is indeed a "beautiful game". Yes, there now is far to much rolling around on the ground, but that shouldn't really be part of the game. It never was when I was at school playing it.
Dude, Me!, Me!, Me!....well sort of.... I was already 'grown up' before I started visiting New England on a regular basis before moving there to live for a few years. For American football, the Patriots were the local, and very successful team. Even though I understood what was going on, and went to a game with some passionate fans, it just never did it for me. IMHO going to the game, with all the pre match tailgating, was much more of an all day social event than going to the footie in the UK. Footie is (usually) 90 mins of action, whereas American footie is a day of eating and drinking interupted by sporadic bits of action on the field, which a cynic may say was managed around TV advertising schedules. This is well replicated at home during any 'Superbowl party'. Quite a few empty desks at work on the following Monday. I found baseball much more interesting, more tactical game. Worth going to a Yankees/Red Sox game in the Bronx, on a summers evening, for the atmosphere alone. Again, Baseball could have been designed for TV advertising, with adverts before, during and after each of the nine innings. Mrs Bimble, summed up baseball as a truly American game, representative of her observations on life in the US - two people working and the rest watching.... Still watch baseball now I'm back in blighty, when it's on rich mans telly. Basketball didn't do anything for me at all. Also spent a couple of years in Canada, where the only game is hockey. Going to a Montreal Canadiens/Boston Bruins game in Montreal should be on everyones bucket list, even if you don't understand all the rules - absolutely astonishing atmosphere and action - and you can see the puck, most of the time. A Canadian would tell you the fights help maintain red neck interest with the poorly supported teams in the southern US states, not staged but certainly not discouraged, again all commercially driven. You don't see the same level of blood and broken teeth that often result from hockey fights in WWF (not that I watch that..). Professional hockey players really are hard bastards - up there with Moto GP riders when it comes to 'let me back out there, it's only a flesh wound', I'd say. Still, for a non motorised sport - association football for me every time. Mr Bimble (Eh!).
Lived in the US and Canada for quite a few years and also went to uni there. Having grown up in Blighty on a steady diet of cricket, football (soccer!), FIVES, and such like, American football is without a doubt the most strategic and tactical team and individual sport. No other sport other than American football allows you to play top trumps with other friends and armchair quarterbacks. It's a perfect game of immersion with the beers, nachos and pizza: the 60 minute game can absorb you with the team strategies, play-by-play scheming, players abilities/skills, and coaches tactics laid out on every play. Rugby and football are just simple games in comparison.
Yes, I was. I kicked and headed every ball. Plus I scored all the goals. I am terrible when watching big games. My leg literally stretches to receive the pass, and my head bobs to head the ball etc. I absolutely love the game. Love it. Shame I was shit at playing it mind. L-I-V-E-R-P-O-O-L ! !
Exactly. I have to be able to identify with a sports person to get behind them, or even take an interest, and soccer just doesn't do it; 22 yobs running around after a ball :frown:
I had a bit of "Match Of The Day" inflicted on me yesterday... How the f*ck is that a sport ? There is no sportsmanship involved in it at all. It's a load of extremely overpaid prima-donnas who are more interested in falling over as often as possible in a pathetic attempt to try to stop the flow of the game and win a free kick than actually kicking the ball. There was less diving in the entire of that crap "Splash" programme than in ten minutes of MoTD... All you sad-acts need to realise that soccer is NOT a sport - it's a game. ( in my opinion... )
Anything anyone ever likes is superior to that which anyone else likes on a forum. It is also their civic duty to post on that thread that they don't like it, even though it adds little or nothing to the debate. That the law. After all if there wasn't a forum somewhere where you could do it scot free, the alternative is that you would be moaning about it to your other half with all the inherent risks of enraging those closest enough to us to make our lives more terrible? Its therefore up to forums such as these to save the skins of us cowardly opinionated wankers.
You maybe in a good mood today just because you beat Arsenal but wait till April 5th when you meet a proper team !:wink:
I watch so little sport on TV now , all I Watch is motorcycle racing , either Tarmac or flattrack/ speedway . I've had my fill of football , darts , snooker , rugby and athletics .
Dunno how you hold a poll on here but it would be interesting to see a. Who actually does like football on here - the reason I say is that of all of my friends that have had bikes - none of them have liked football....interesting to say the least...
