"NFL"... is this that thing where a series of extended ad breaks are periodically interrupted by footage of men in crash helmets doing their 8 times table before running into each other? I kid of course. I've been told by friends that the sport can be quite strategically interesting once you learn the nuances...
I loved the sport as a kid and loved my home town team back then, The Raiders. I played in highschool and it was my favorite sport until my mid twenties. Over the years, football has fallen on my list of favorite sports for various reasons, some of which have already been mentioned here. When finally my Raiders had a chance to move back and got spurned by greed and the almighty dollars of Stan Kroenke and Jerry Jones, I came to hate the NFL. I still have love for my Raiders and having them in Vegas is a small consolation as I'll attend more games. I know this is giving money to the NFL but, I've always seen the Raiders as part of the NFL but, not really part of the NFL. I'll never watch an NFL game again besides the Superbowl unless the Raiders are playing. Anyway, I definitely can't wait for the games they'll play here at the Stubby.
Speaking to the sports qua sports and not the politics, each has something to offer. At the risk of repeating an analogy I am sure I have floated before, think of video games. Soccer is like the continuous action first-person shooter model. American football is like turn-based strategy games. Each can be fun and it does bug me that some soccer lovers feel the need to trash the other football. It always seems a bit defensive to me. For a lot of reasons for me college football is head and shoulders above NFL in my personal pecking order, and that has nothing to do with the politics of it. If you look too close, all the major sports have some political blemishes, and nobody is simon pure here. To pretend otherwise is a fantasy.
Since it seems to be confession time, i pretty much stopped watching football after the greatest show on turf era. Rightly or wrongly, for me, the NFL and NBA has become more about commercials than the actual game. It's like a game broke out in the middle of commercials. Soccer is the best in that once the whistle is blown, it's just about the match on the field even with all the global money involved. It's the least commercial product.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...l-a-galaxy-for-their-preseason-debut/?src=rss Remember, this is by one of the most pathetic teams in MLS.
I would be a college football fan but my two alma maters were football punching bags -Princeton and Duke. At PU the halftime band was fun, always bringing humor and double entendre formations of questionable taste. As far as Duke, in 2008 their lawyers actually argued in court that it was the worst team in DI football - http://www.georgiabankruptcyblog.co...e-football-team-in-america-as-a-matter-of-law . Duke has improved under their current (and former Tennessee) coach David Cutcliff but they are still aren't that good. As far as pro football I grew up in Texas and was a Dallas Cowboys fan in the Tom Landry, Roger Staubach, Danny White, Too-Tall Jones era. But then Jerry Jones took over the team and character went out the window and its been hard to cheer for them since. I admit I did get caught up a bit in the Dak Prescott fanfare last season and watched a few games. I'm now a soccer and bball fan almost exclusively.
I stopped watching football for a time until the advent of Tivo. Being able to fast forward commercials (and for the time between plays unless a favorite team of mine was playing) brought me back. You couldn't pay me to go see American football live.
My Dad actually enjoyed football for a while. There was a period in the eighties when it was on Channel 4 in the UK. He liked the Miami Dolphins and the only player I knew about at the time was "The Refrigerator". Largely because he was named after a household appliance. He said that he went off it once the commercials became intrusive. I actually find bat-and-ball games such as Cricket and Baseball, very boring to watch. I have a casual interest in Basketball and while I don't watch much Ice Hockey, I've been taken to a few Kings games and found it entertaining in person. This may sound weird, but I actually find it hard to keep track of the puck on television. I used to watch more pro wrestling, if you're happy to classify it as a sport, but it became a casualty of limited free time. I also used to watch it most with my brother, so since emigrating, that element has fallen by the wayside.
I love hockey and baseball... not as much as the beautiful game. @barroldinho you would have loved the couple of years when the NHL used a computer chip installed in the puck the add a glow/aura to the puck and a comet trail on shots to show speed. I enjoy baseball more by watching on tv because you can gauge the game a lot better by knowing what every pitch is and its location. You only get an off-home-plate view from distance and no commentary in person... though you do get the chance at snagging a baseball... something I've never done but, still have on my bucket list. Basketball became way too uninteresting the day Kobe tore his achilles.
I played ice hockey from about age 11 until I finally gave it up at age 68. When I was playing against kids who could have been my grandchildren I decided my body had had enough. Maybe because of that I really don't have a problem watching televised games, but agree the sport is better in person. However, if you ever get a chance to see a game televised by Hockey Night in Canada, you might be surprised at how much better it can be presented, even on TV.
I love hockey both live and on television. The best thing about watching at home is being able to grab a beer or going to the bathroom whenever and without a care in the world! The only sports I really watch now are soccer, hockey, baseball, and cycling! I'll likely start watching more Lakers games since this year won't be a tank year and Ball seems like he'll be a fine player along with Kuzma.
Sometimes I will attempt to "speed watch" a recorded football game I'm mildly interested in (Duke, Dallas) by hitting the 30 second skip button every time the player is tackled. Often this works - it skips right to the start of the next play. But other times the skip is a couple seconds too long. If only I had a 25 second skip button. Did I mention I like soccer? (Have to keep my response on topic.)
Those damn hurry up offenses! You can combine a "5 second back" followed by "30 second forward" combo to make it work. Takes mad skills though.
I like both types of football. I find it silly when fans of either sport disparage the other sport, like some sort of sports fan orthodoxy. Saturdays in the fall are awesome: early morning EPL matches, followed by college football, followed by an evening with the Galaxy at Stub Hub!
I grew up surrounded by American football. My family watched the NFL religiously. Super Bowls were bigger than Christmas. I played it for fun. I had my ugly green Viking's winter outerwear and my Washington Huskies shirt (step-dad was a Husky) on underneath. But once I discovered soccer, all interest in American football died. The delays between every play and endless commercials was like torture compared to soccer. And as a player I had freedom to make decisions which was refreshing. I also get to keep playing because there are adult leagues everywhere. My work has pickup games every week and we'll sometimes play in leagues with other companies. Then there's the whole World Cup, Olympics, WMT and international aspects. Brian McBride with blood streaming from a cut under his eye after taking an elbow from De Rossi in a World Cup game against Italy - nothing in American football has ever come close to that for me and American soccer is filled with so many great stories. I've probably posted something like this before so I'll shut up now. To each his own. I guess I kind of like this soccer stuff.
I am now a bigger soccer than football fan, but your qoute above, is horse pucky. Playing with a cut is hardly a great story. There are all kinds of stories in many sports that are far more heroic. Try playing multiple games of pro football with a broken leg like Jack Young blood did in the 1979 playoffs. Check out these stories but disregard the rankings. http://www.complex.com/sports/2013/06/the-25-gutsiest-performances-in-sports-history
Not weird at all. But I have found that the more I watch hockey (I've been a rabid Kings fan since 1974), the more I don't have to see the puck to know where it is. Movement of the players gives it away for the most part. Also the advent of HDTV has improved that a lot.