- Because people have a lot of thoughts on the sport.
Did you read What Other Countries Think About American Football? Because this is basically part two.
- We don’t even play rugby where I live. Maybe they missed the question? Haha.
- I think many feel that it is a weird form of Rugby in protective clothing and with really frequent breaks.
- There was a wild advertising campaign here recently by burger king about an exhibition match played locally by a team called the “Kansas City Chiefs”. The advertising campaign featured enthusiastic fans in the stands, cheerleaders, the teams logo and a shot of the grass, but no actual images of any players, the ball or anything related to the actual game. I assume this was either a rights issue or the advertising company realizing that that was the least interesting part of the game.
- George Will had it right when he observed that football is a mania of division of labor in terms of the myriad of different positions coming onto and off the field at all times. I’m sure that if you watch it enough it can be more interesting and make sense but from a casual viewer point of view there are simply too many breaks in play for it to be enjoyable compared to sports like soccer, rugby, and basketball. There’s also too much evidence and too many examples of the way that it can wreak huge damage on players bodies and minds to ignore, especially when the average career is just over 3 years which means that players might earn only around 2-3 million dollars (less after taxes, agents etc) which doesn’t really seem like fair compensation considering the long-term impacts on their health. There are plenty of issues with basketball and baseball but what it does to player’s minds and bodies isn’t really one of them. What do you think about American football?
- At the time of its inception in the 19th century, it was adapted from rugby football and passes were not part of the game. Forward passes weren’t made legal within the rules of gridiron football until 1906, by which point the name was well established and the sport’s identity as a carrying game began to change.
- 3 to 4 hours for 60 min of play that becomes even less (30?) because the clock is ticking before the play. That ratio is only acceptable if you grew up with it. To fill that up: commercials, commercials and more commercials.
- Boring as fuck. And 10 minutes of play for 3 hours of commercials. Plus they
have like 20 commentators which no one want to listen to. Do you agree with this about American football? - I am from india and when i first saw american football I thought it was america trying to make a new sport out of rugby and got confused as to why they chose “foot”ball as the name when you barely even kick the ball
- You’re right that the constant breaks can be frustrating (even to a major fan of the sport like me.) There are quite a few injuries, but basketball actually has more on average. Agreed on the head injuries though, we certainly do see more of those in football than any other sport. The average career is brought down by a lot of undrafted 1-year practice squad players who basically never see the field, though. If you’re good enough to make an actual 53-man roster, you’re probably going to be in the league for more like 7 years, which is quite enough to live off for a very, very long time.
So what do you think of these thoughts on American Football? Tell us that or your own in the comments!