american football vs. the world

I'm pretty sure that futbol is not popular in america mainly because economical reasons. It's not that the teams can't be supported, or that people doesnt spend money on ticket or merchandise.
It's because no network will be interested in broadcasting a sport that will force them to be without ads for 45 minutes, then the got 10 minutes for ads, and then again, 45 minutes without ads. They have to stick with the time regulations and they dont like to do that. It's the same with the venue.

While in Basseball, Basketball or Football, you have several opportunities to go to the concetionary stand and spend money, venues and promoters are happy. That is not the case in futbol. Still it's a hege bussiness in Europe and South America, but it's not the american way to make money out of sports.

There are many other factor, like the lack of stadistics, and the fact the the best teams in the world are club's, not teams perse like in america.

I do like football, basketball and baseball, but theres nothing better than a good derby in Spain on a sunday afternoon.

Try getting run over by a 6'6" 220 punder with legs like tree trunks... It is obvious that you have never played the game and therefore have no ground from which to comment. Joking or not, some of you people are just plain clueless.

I used to play rugby in high school, our coach was a HUGE all blacks fan and we used their game tapes as training videos. Which pretty much makes me a huge all blacks fan now too

That, and watching a soccer match is like watching paint dry.

Care to elaborate?

As growing up being a 3 sport athlete, I have thought about every sport. I couldn't play soccer because of all the running involved (very bad asthma) but I do appreciate the sheer conditioning of being about to run about 5 miles per game. That's impressive. And the agility and reaction time of some of these guys is fucking astounding.

I grew up playing baseball, track & field and football. Football took up my falls and baseball and later track took up my springs and summer.

But I always saw soccer as something i couldn't get into just because there wasn't enough structure to it. Football is very structured, along with baseball, and throwing...is just fun.

I could never watch a soccer game because unless they scored a goal, it seemed like nothing happened. So because that happens very rarely in a game...it made me bored. It's the same reason why i can't watch a hockey game.

footie and football are my favourite sports to watch (t.v. or in person). they are both fun and fast paced games. i think i prefer soccer because of the lack of necessary equipment, though i can't play for shit. there is really nothing like football/rugby for pure adrenaline in a team sport though!

that being said, its always obvious who has never actually PLAYED one or either (or often any) of these sports by the asinine "its so brutal," "its so stupid," or "its so boring," comments. i realize nihilism is fashionable, but sports are FUN. thats the whole point! i like watching soccer mainly to see those guys do amazing shit with their feet and a round ball, it blows my mind! i like watching hockey for the sheer brutality of it, baseball is a thinking mans game, football is a military strategy simulation (yes, really), rugby is an amazing test of perseverance and team unity, etc. there is something special about all these sports and if you give them a chance, they are all a lot of fun to watch! yay!

except basketball.

Well if you don't like and don't appreciate it, shame on you, there's no point on making a discution out of it.

Brits always get offended when Americans refer to it as soccer but the term is actually English. It goes back to English Public Schools (which are paid for and private) and it's an abbreviation taken from Association Football. In the same way that posh kids in the UK refer to rugby as rugger.

I love soccer. From the American sports I can watch baseball quite happily but struggle with most of the others.

Someone said that they didn't like soccer because it was low scoring compared to basketball, but that's precisely why I like soccer. Basketball moves so fast and every offence seems to yield a score. So the game has evolved to a point in which the defence can't deal with the offence and scoring is inevitable. The game turns on the moments when someone fails to score.
In soccer, scoring is really difficult. The game turns on the moment of genius instead. A 1-0 game can be really exciting precisely because scoring that one goal can be so difficult, it represents a great achievement.

It's inevitable that people love the sports they grew up watching but it is remarkable that in a world in which American media marches forwards taking the world with it and we are dominated by US movies, music, fashion, food etc. sport is the one area in which they don't lead the world.

I don't mean that they don't win things - I mean that America's favourite sports are not the world's favourite sports. American Football is hardly played outside of North America, baseball isn't a mainstream sport in the rest of the world. Soccer - which always fails to take hold in the US is still the world's most popular sport and if it does that without the support of the richest and most powerful nation in the world I guess you have to accept that there must be something going on.

If American Football weren't a better sport, it wouldn't make us stronger soldiers, and we wouldn't rule the world. But since we do, because we are, it is.

I heard these were Pat Tillman's last words.

i'm all about rugby. now that's a fucking sport.

go all blacks!