As I said earlier in the thread, I don't really get American football. But a "fumble pileup" sounds appealing. Mmmm.
That's because you're trying too hard. There's nothing to 'get'. Football is a game....almost like soccer only a lot more entertaining and without the elitism. Also, you're not as likely to have superbly trained athletes playing their hearts out for 90-minutes without arriving at a winner. Real football has a yellow flag system for when players really are hurt, instead of flopping and twitching on the field from having been bumped by another player. Give them sticks and institute a sudden death system similiar to hockey, and you'll come close to having a proper sport. I do rather like the World Cup for one thing. It's my quadrennial reminder that futbol is as base and corrupt as any other high-stakes, high dollar sport.
Isn't elitism the whole point of professional sport? And Matt Ryan's $ 43.8 million sounds kind of elitey to me. Well, no, they certainly don't play their hearts out for 90 minutes. They play for an average of 11 minutes during a three-hour period.
I'm learning this from the FIFA coverage. I think you misunderstand once again. I was not referring to the elitism of the players.
For clarity... In the 90 minutes of a proper football match, the ball is in play for more than 60 minutes. In the 180 minutes of a typical American "football" match, the ball is in play for less than 11 minutes. Hmm... You haven't seen many soccer fans, have you?
Well, if we're going for other sports, there's always Australian rugby league, and John Hopoate. John Hopoate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2001 became the low point of Hopoate's career, he again began the season poorly scoring only one try in several appearances before causing international headlines after a regular season game against the North Queensland Cowboys where Hopoate had been inserting his fingers into the backsides of several players, allegedly in an attempt to unsettle and upset his opposition. After a long NRL judiciary case Hopoate was suspended for twelve weeks and then mutually agreed to part ways with the Tigers club. Yes, really. I suspect this is why American footballers wear those camp cycling short things. He is one of the few Australian sportsmen (along with the great Stephen Bradbury) to have his name used in political discourse: our then Shadow Treasurer accused the Treasurer of having "done a Hopoate to Australia's economy".
Well, it's not just what the rugby league players do to each other. It's what they do to themselves. This was all over the news at the weekend. Australia 'Bubbling' Scandal: Rugby Star Todd Carney Sacked by Cronulla Sharks for Urinating in Own Mouth An Australian rugby league player has been sacked from his club after a photograph appeared on social media of him urinating into his own mouth. Yes, really. Etc, you were looking for sport that was.... Are these fans non-elitist enough for you? Todd Carney lewd photo inspires Facebook 'bubbling' copycats People have reportedly posted a stream of photos to the Facebook group "P--- in your mouth for Todd Carney", claiming to show themselves replicating his behaviour.
If it helps, hkmb, think of American football as rugby, with rules. Unlike what we call Australian Rules, which means there aren't any.
My father-in-law has got me into Australian Rules. It's a brilliant sport: there's an incredible amount of skill in it. The atmosphere at the stadiums is always lovely too. And Adam Goodes (of the Sydney Swans) is possibly Australia's greatest sportsperson (along, perhaps, with Ellyse Perry, who is in our national cricket and soccer teams, which is quite an achievement). For those of you who haven't seen the joys of Australian Rules, here's a highlights reel from last season. It's odd how regional sport can be, though. Australian Rules is very much a Melbourne sport (although Sydney has two teams now, and it's always been big at an amateur level in the Northern Territory), and Rugby League is really only played in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, the southern section of North-West England, and the Western section of Yorkshire. The only international competition in Australian rules is a peculiar one. Gaelic football has broadly similar rules, but a round ball. So every so often there's an Australia v Ireland competition where they play one Australian Rules game and one Gaelic football competition. I find American football too stop-start. There's no flow to it, and it seems to be structured around advertising breaks. My favourite North American sport is ice hockey, because it's basically soccer with fighting and weapons.
Oh-oh, yes I'm the great pretender Adrift in a world of my own I've played the game but to my real shame You've left me to grieve all alone Total annihilation. Can't the coach call a timeout in soccer? Sheesh.
first futbol game i've ever enjoyed! 7-6 would have been better though. i think they should make the goals bigger.
What you need to do is watch the game on Spanish TV. It just is a lot more fun even though I don't understand Spanish. For me it is Univision over ESPN by a big margin. The conversation excitement really follows the proximity of the ball to the goal. When a goal is scored there is no mistaking what happened.
