I am the son of an immigrant family that came here more or less unaware of the major cultural aspects of the country. They were the kind of family that did a good job assimilating and making some American friends, but never really let go of their home culture. This is interesting to me, because although I have retained much of the culture from the "Old Country," I am still in love with a lot of distinctly "American" things, football being one of them. I have several American friends with extensive lineage within this country, and interestingly enough, none of them are interested in football at all. My friends always ask me what it is that is so enticing about football. I never want to say that it's the violence, or the high energy action, but in many ways, that IS a part of what it is all about. I've never really actually immersed myself in the football culture, however, so I feel like maybe I'm missing out on some very important aspects of this American culture. Is tailgating what makes football so fun? Is the school allegiance thing the reason why College Football is so important in this country? Why is college football so popular... some of the reasons I hear is that it's because the kids are always being constantly cycled out in 3 or 4 years, so it makes it "more exciting" to have a chance to see them play while they're there. But to me, that seems like it would be less exciting than anything else. All in all, I can't explain why football is so enjoyable, at least not from an "American" perspective. Heck, I've never even been to a game (barring HS games back when I was in HS)... but year after year I find myself reading article after article about the Texans, and looking up different offensive formations on wikipedia, and comparing stats from player to player, etc. What do you guys think it is that makes football so great, and how did it become so important in American culture (as opposed to baseball, for example)?
We all grew up with it. Couldn't you say that about the national sport of any country/region? I mean, for many in the US, soccer is boring as hell, but people love it in many regions of the world. Cricket isn't even mentioned in the US, but it's tremendously popular in certain parts of the world. A more interesting discussion is why certain sports are so popular in certain areas, but non-existent in others.
This thread could easily be about baseball. I can't sit through an entire game of baseball...incredibly boring.
The thing is, is that Baseball has all of the things that you guys mention (not so much the violence, but every now and then that too). Competition... we're good at it... we grew up with it... if it weren't for how many games there were in one MLB season, the football viewership would completely dwarf MLB viewership... when looked at in proportion, the NFL has more viewers anyway. There's is clearly something here deeper than "we grew up with it" or "we're good at it." I guess I should revise the question to why did football rise to such a prominent place in American culture.
My dad grew up with basketball and soccer. He didn't grow up on baseball, football, and hockey. Of the three, he picked up on football the most. Huge Oilers fan.
We were born to watch football, our peers talk football, our media shows football. If you got to england and live there for 2 years you become a soccer. You are what you environment is.
I think it's been said before about our big 3 American sports (basketball, football, and baseball), but all 3 are TV friendly. Many timeouts and breaks. Watching sports on TV is just as American as apple pie.
If that is so, then why did his friends who are longtime generational Americans, not fans of football? Probably sports for that matter.
I live in Mexico, and the popular sport here is soccer, but I prefer basketball and football before soccer. I dont watch the mexican league soccer. And here you watch a TV sports show or hear in the radio a sports show, you read a sports newspaper and at they talk about soccer at least 50%. sometimes in a 1 hour show, you hear 50 mins of soccer and 10 mins about all the other sports.
The weekly games, plus the levels at which they're played, and the idea of becoming "Champions" at the end of the short season is what makes it popular. It's more difficult to follow baseball (damn, 162 games...?), basketball (only the playoffs get VERY exciting), or soccer (a sport where the USA isn't at the level the other super powers of soccer are)... that's another reason. 'Cuz they're smart enough NOT to play "Football." david_rocket, you're an "educated" Mexican, sir. That's why you're not into soccer as much as the majority of the national peeps are.
As a born and raised native Texan, here's my piece: Nothing on this planet is more BORING than American Football. It's exciting every once in awhile, but it's mostly a bunch of fat guys crashing into each other, followed by a commercial. Yeah. I said that. I'll cheer for anything with "Houston" on the front of it, but I don't get the appeal at all. It's my least favorite professional sport by a hundred million miles.
It could be that out of all the biggest sports, football is unique in that you have two separate distinctive sides to a team. In basketball and baseball the players play both sides, in soccer and hockey while they dont necessarily play both offense and defense, they are still on the same field/rink
I'm not a fan of football, but I absolutely LOVED going to UH football games. I guess it's the atmosphere more than anything. Just like how I think baseball is the most boring sport out of the big 3, but going to an Astros game with friends is still exciting. But I guess my opinion shouldn't count... cus I actually really enjoy watching pro bowling and pool games on ESPN.
In football, every game is an event and in any year..it could be your team's year. (except if you're a detroit fan. sorry.)
It's one thing to not like something, but don't totally misrepresent it. Football players are in incredible shape. Most don't co e anywhere close to fat. But you know that. You also know they are doing more than crashing into each other - a lot more. Again, yay for you for not liking the sport - just be logical about why you don't like it. I dot care for baseball a ton. But not because it's a glorifies game of catch, but because the pace of the game is too slow for my taste, games are too long, too few players are involved, umpiring (at home plate, calling strikes and balls) is too subjective for me (ie Greg maddox's strike zone vs rest of the world), the idiocy of deciding home field advantage in the world series, too long of a season followed by too few teams in the playoffs, yet those same playoffs seemingly taking forever, etc. I like football because it is in a lot of ways opposite to the above.
I think the fact that football is played once a week helps it in that regard. It's easier to follow a 16-game season, one game a week. Ultimately, I think that football is so much easier to follow is sort of what it comes down to. I mean, there's actually more 'action' in baseball. In football, if you took all the plays from the time a ball is snapped to a player being called down, you could condense it into what, 20 minutes of action? In baseball the action is more nuanced, and unless you have a playoff/big game atmosphere it's not nearly as friendly to the casual fan.
