I don't go out of my way, but watching the US v Canada softball mens games is pretty interesting.
Why football is so boring...
- Thread starter Fijimn
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I don't go out of my way, but watching the US v Canada softball mens games is pretty interesting.
I used to love to watch the King and his Court, my dad and uncle knew Eddie Feigner
Basketball is worse with timeouts, replay reviews, intentional fouling.
I recall a Maryland game (they were still in the ACC at that time) that was on before one of our games was to come on TV. It was 2:55 with the game to start at 3 PM. There were 28 seconds. Game will get over in plenty of time I thought. At 3:11 the game ended. Sixteen minutes to play 28 seconds. That was absurd.
Mrs BFT hates the end of NBA games more so because as she says, two minutes left in the game? It will over in 30 minutes.
The longest minute in sports is the final minute in a close basketball game.
That's why both college and nba have both reduced team time outs in the game with the hopes of ending these endless last 2 minutes. I have often said the best part of a good close basketball is from the 6-7 minute time down to about 2 minutes left.
To be fair, its mostly the endless intentional fouling, not timeouts. Burn 3 seconds for 4 minutes of shooting 2 free throws. Not sure how to regulate that.
Give the fouled team the option of keeping the ball or shooting the free throws. It's ridiculous that a team can win a game based on their ability to commit fouls and shoot free throws. It would be like the NFL deciding games on dueling field goals or soccer with their shootouts. And the ability for force a field goal or a shoot out depended on how often the opposing team fouled you.
I remember Phi Slamma Jamma (Houston Cougars) in the early 80s who were the superior team to NC but lost (like Miami to Penn State in football, but Penn State couldn't foul Miami to get the ball back). The NC victory was a result of an intentional foul.
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Every sport has its close game theatrics.
Football has timeouts, fake injuries, icing kickers
Baseball with multiple pitching changes, throws to first, stepping out of the batter's box to rearrange testicles.
Bball w/ the fouling, substitutions, and official replays
Soccer may actually be one of the few sports that ends within 4 mins of when expected 100% of the time (excluding overtime matches in tournament play).
Football has timeouts, fake injuries, icing kickers
Baseball with multiple pitching changes, throws to first, stepping out of the batter's box to rearrange testicles.
Bball w/ the fouling, substitutions, and official replays
Soccer may actually be one of the few sports that ends within 4 mins of when expected 100% of the time (excluding overtime matches in tournament play).
How can you say that considering soccer is so clearly inferior ? And even if they got it right, that was by accident and should get no credit.
Are free throws not part of the game? Make them and the strategy doesn't work.
On Saturday, BC beat Duke in part because they made all their free throws down the stretch.
Well yes it's part of the game. Of course. But it's not right for a team to get your ass kicked up and down the court and then intentionally force the other team into a free throw contest. Not a big deal to me since I hardly watch basketball .
The equivalent would be forcing a football team into a field goal attempt with loss of possession by intentionally fouling them.
I think that's a fantastic way to get rid of hack-a-shaq. I love the idea of giving the fouled team the option of a new time clock and rebound on offense or taking the free throws.
I don't know if football is boring; but I noticed a couple of decades ago when I started playing rugby that the games take forever. When I started playing and watching rugby and then watched football I realized I cold get a ton of other things done while a football game was on; not so much when a rugby game was on.
Big part of why I record the game and start watching at half time. Drives my brother crazy to not watch live, I just can't stand the block of time. I don't do this to the big games, but its a big advantage that soccer has over football.
When you think about it football is an absurdly slow and tedious sport.
Example: Whole drives are spent with no goal other than to win "the battle of field position" and hope that eventually someone else falters into you scoring because you lack the faith in your offense to be able generate points on its own.
All the while there's a 30 second stoppage in play every 12 seconds in addition to stoppages for referees to enforce extremely technical and complex rules every 5-6 plays.
I love the sport but can't help but wonder why when I step back and assess it for what it is, a slow, plodding, brutally violent sport. Beyond the relying on the bogus idea of tradition, I have no idea how it'll sustain itself through another generation or two.
Example: Whole drives are spent with no goal other than to win "the battle of field position" and hope that eventually someone else falters into you scoring because you lack the faith in your offense to be able generate points on its own.
All the while there's a 30 second stoppage in play every 12 seconds in addition to stoppages for referees to enforce extremely technical and complex rules every 5-6 plays.
I love the sport but can't help but wonder why when I step back and assess it for what it is, a slow, plodding, brutally violent sport. Beyond the relying on the bogus idea of tradition, I have no idea how it'll sustain itself through another generation or two.
If I was an nfl owner, I’d certainly be looking to sell my franchise now.
Go stick your head in the sand. I eat your babies in oversized omelettes.
I think the brutality of it and the identity formation around your team keeping it's players for entire careers helped propel it to where it was. There was also that defiant idea of this is something that only America can do. They've legislated the brutality out of it and players and owners now just approach it as business without any loyalty to the fans. With players moving around as often as they do, it makes it hard to feel like that's your team any more. You just start rooting for a jersey over players (That's not an issue that College has due to so many fans being alums and it trading on something other than just loyalty).
I definitely think it's hit its peak and is on the way down. Where it lands I don't know.
Anyone else watching this epic Colts vs. Broncos clash? Call me old-fashioned, but this Madden-inspired camera angle is bothersome to me.
There is truth to the politics of soccer fans versus those who don't like soccer. You are also spot on as to why-- a global game appeals to liberals. Conservatives would rather stay with US sports or at least sports that the US dominates.
As someone who is middle of the road politically (leaning more to the left lately) it used to frustrate me that politics would be thrown into the discussions of soccer fans on Big Soccer message board seemingly all the time. I've come to ignore it now. I still hold the perspective that I watch sports to get away from the political nonsense.
Meanwhile, I too fell in love with soccer over the years. It became my favorite sport but heading the ball has me bothered lately. I've read where heading the ball is considered to be a "sub concussive hit" to the head which causes CTE.
The funny thing is I don't think soccer needs heading outside the 18. I see a GK punt the ball 50 years towards midfield and a MF'er heads the ball which goes directly to the other team. He would have been better off trapping the ball with his chest. Ugh. I'm glad the US banned heading for kids. The world will say that is an example of why the US is terrible at soccer.
I read there is a respected English medical facility that is starting a 2-3 year study on heading, subconcussions and CTE. Going to be interesting but I expect the result to not be good. It's common sense...
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I think your attention spans are just shortening. There have been fantastic NFL games all year long this season. The Pittsburgh/Ravens game on Monday was great.
I've gotten so frustrated with it that I rarely give it time.
I'll also admit to that being somewhat due to also having my personal team be both terrible and almost never on tv where I live. As a Bucs fan living in Pensacola, it's a Saint's love affair here all day, all long. I'm excited to have a chance watch us lose tonight however. lol
