International Opinion of American Football

[lfielding02]

That is all.

The brits use their way. And we'll use ours.

We invented it. Therefore our way is right

But we invented the Television but you guys call it a telly

Actually a German made the technology to transmit images in the late 1800's and a Scott was the first person to transmit a moving image (as well as inventing video recording technology). Therefore also ours. Mostly

Yeah but we got the Plane. >

Actually, a New Zealander achieved powered flight 6-4 months before...

 

[Sovvolf]

That is all.

The brits use their way. And we'll use ours.

We invented it. Therefore our way is right

But we invented the Television but you guys call it a telly

Actually a German made the technology to transmit images in the late 1800's and a Scott was the first person to transmit a moving image (as well as inventing video recording technology). Therefore also ours. Mostly

Yeah but we got the Plane. >

Actually, a New Zealander achieved powered flight 6-4 months before...

And a Brit got to it about a century before that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stringfellow

As for American Football... Well I've never given it the time of day. Nor have I given Rugby or Football much time. I'm more for Boxing and MMA then Ball games. I will watch the Footy if Barnsley's playing or if it's Euro or World cup game... Other then that though... I keep away from ball or egg sports.

I do like a bit of Hokey every now and again but otherwise I stay away from it.

 

[Hudson_sir_he's_Hicks]

Cannot stand it myself but a few people I know who like it say it best to watch either the highlights or record the game and fast forward past the boring bits i.e. everything that isn't a touchdown.

But if you want a man's game, check out Aussie Rules Football. It's fucking incredible to watch, free-flowing, high scoring and plenty of action. Plus the players don't wear armour, they just take a tackle!

 

[Ithera]

I really can't say anything bad about American football, considering it served as an inspiration for Bloodbowl. When was the last time soccer inspired something as awesome?

 

[dibblywibbles]

the NFL is probably the greatest league in all sports when it comes to competition. the salary caps and league rules make it a much more fair league, so teams are closer to equal ground(except for you Detroit Lions, you will always suck). the best part of American Football is the sunday ritual though. getting together with friends, drinking in the afternoon, talking shit about how my team is better than yours...it's all friendly and fun, at least up here in Canada it is. Go Pats!

 

[Krafty_Krocodile]

to be honest, i'm not that much of a fan, American football seems a little too safe in my opinion. with rugby (yes i'm making a comparison but a short one) the lack of protection makes it more intense to watch as you don't know what might happen.

 

[octafish]

It's the stoppages, the changing of offensive teams and defense, there is sooo little activity. I much prefer Soccer or Aussie Rules because they run and run and run. And hit a bit too...
Couldn't find footage of Lockett destroying Peter Caven's face which is what I wanted to post...

EDIT: Found it at about the 1.08 minute mark, and again at the 2.00 minute mark.

 

[CK76]

The stoppages kill it for me. 8 minutes of action over 3 hours? Imagine watching a television program that did that. I don't hate it, just meh on the whole concept of it and do not get the appeal in the least.

I good though, Chelsea playing West Ham right now, and my DC United goes to Toronto FC this afternoon. Vamos, Vamos United, esta noche, tenemos que ganar!

 

[eels05]

Never watched for years and then when I did became addicted.
Its fucking brutal in its own way.
Forget the comparisons to other football codes,its a great game.

 

[Rorschach II]

Yeah. TBH I don't enjoy playing FIFA games. But I do enjoy Madden strangely enough and Im british. Yeah it is a weird sport but it requires logical thinking and strategy to get through your opposition. And it is similar to rugby except in Rugby you throw the ball BACKWARDS.

 

[Ithera]

I really can't say anything bad about American football, considering it served as an inspiration for Bloodbowl. When was the last time soccer inspired something as awesome?

Soccer inspired American Football sooo yeaaah

Now that you mention it, it sounds plausible. But for the benefit of the community, enlighten us.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

American here.

I'm not a big fan of football. At all. It just doesn't appeal to me. Also, I don't know enough about rugby to really make a judgement as to what extent football is better/worse.

However, I enjoy football far more than soccer. Soccer is goddamned boring. Boring. I can not describe in words how ungodly dull it is. As much as I respect soccer players for how athletic they have to be to play the sport (which is a fucking lot, mind you), the sport is tedious to watch.

 

[Worgen]

The true answer.

Spoiler: This is Football

Spoiler: This is soccer

GET IT RIGHT FOLKS!

they should call it handegg instead of football

 

[Worgen]

I don't like how it stops and starts, stops and starts and then sometimes cuts back to some place when they stop for a while.

wanna know something funny, allot of that is actually based on advertisers, they inserted more then a few rules to give them more time to advertise products

 

[Duskwaith]

Over here its pretty much looked down on over rugby due to the below reasons

As a rugby player and captain i would say that American football is alot more unrefined than rugby.

For a start an American tackle is just smashing the guy down, in rugby you need technique and power in order not to kill yourself in the process not to mention the technicality of lineouts, scrums and running lines

Rugby goes on for longer(average is 7 minutes continual between breaks), no restarts and team changes makeing it far more physically demanding.

Rugby padding is only allowed to be 15mm thick.

One of the leading American military academys plays rugby over american football as its a better team cordinated and conditioner for combat situations.

But then again i love rugby so im incredibly biast but its the general view of most of the contact sport watching community

Edit: Yeah no one wears a cup, there that new zealand prop having his scrotum ripped open during a match only to have it stitched up before heading back out

 

[Virus49]

Over here in the UK we will always consider what you call "soccer" to be the true football and it will always be our #1 sport.

However there are a lot of people over here interested in american football. But over here nobody knows how its played/what the rules are etc. So when it did come briefly to our televisions. None of us had any idea what the hell was going on. If the game was actually taught to kids here I think it would catch on. Would never be as big as... lets call it english football (after all we invented it) but its still better than freakin cricket.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

For a start an American tackle is just smashing the guy down, in rugby you need technique and power in order not to kill yourself in the process

To do all that AND THEN do it in a way that also leaves the opposition at a disadvantage if a ruck forms... and accepting that most of the time when you achieve that it leaves you, personally, at something of a disadvantage if the ruck forms before you can roll clear.

not to mention the technicality of lineouts, scrums and running lines

Yeah but to be fair a lot of that is code specific arcana. I think most people who don't have a Union background would be surprised at, for example, just how many rules there are governing scrums ('course being a prop I didn't have to remember half of them).

Rugby goes on for longer(average is 7 minutes continual between breaks), no restarts and team changes makeing it far more physically demanding.

True but the increased tactical use of kicking has shortened this from what it used to be. A kicking game is much choppier than when you've got 2 teams playing a running game, just look at the last World Cup final. No fucking flow (no tries, either, but that's a different bitchfest altogether).

Rugby padding is only allowed to be 15mm thick.

And it has to be soft padding. The last thing you want to give a flanker is a nice hard piece of plastic to use as a weapon in a tackle. You'd start seeing a lot of very fucked up scrum halfs if you did.