International Opinion of American Football

[LongcoatBastard]

American football is pretty tiresome to watch (maybe because sth like the Superbowl airs at 1am in Germany)! A lot of big guys you can't really tell apart, too many to memorize all the numbers, running about and I don't know where the egg is. It's very much like playing war.
Or more so: watching a war documentary while a woodpecker operates the pause button on your remote control.
Rugby I just don't get, however it's just plain stupid how people glorify it! It's really dangerous and Parkinson's disease isn't that badass!
When I talked to some Aussies a while back, they praised rugby and made fun about football players, who act like they've been kneed in the balls whenever someone touches their ankle... I didn't know what to say.
They were right I guess, but I like to think there is some middleground.

Bottomline: Football is a great game for people of all sizes, shapes (not just the bearlike) and ages. Anything can happen at any given moment, there can be heroes, it can be unfair, you can play it in the park, on the street and after 90 minutes IT'S OVER!

If you think football lacks the intensity, try handball - it's like basketball for guys

 

[SimuLord]

It seems fine enough, as sports go. It does seem a bit wimpy compared to rugby though, as rugby players don't wear any protective gear beyond a mouthguard. Still, doesn't really matter, they're different games.

See, now I always thought that was because Rugby players did less in the way of actively smashing into each other every 10 seconds the way American football players do. Is that true?

Ask Carlos Spencer of New Zealand, who got his jaw broken in a rugby match, came back six weeks later, got that jaw broken AGAIN, but didn't come off the field until half time 20 minutes later (and scored a try---rugby's answer to a touchdown---WITH A BROKEN JAW.)

There is no badass in the NFL who would even rank in the top 100 ruggers on the Chuck Norris Scale of Badass.

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/shelford.html

Just to add a bit more badass to the rugby side of the equation.

That story made MY balls hurt, and I'm just sitting here reading articles on the Internet.

 

[Zef Otter]

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

The word, "debatable" springs to mind.

OT: I just see it as Rugby for pussies. And I don't even care about Rugby. Or football. Or American football. Or sport.

Gas-operated reloading
Zipper
Mousetrap
Volleyball
Cotton candy
Charcoal briquette
Semi-automatic shot gun
Assembly line production
Disposable safety razor
Hearing aid
Air conditioning
AC power plugs and sockets
Automatic transmission
Suppressor
Automobile self starter
Skeet shooting
Jungle gym
Jukebox

yay? XP

Ot: sports are silly, mostly the fans.

 

[Ensiferum]

I've tried both watching it and playing it. And I found both to be EXCRUCIATINGLY boring. I could almost hear my brain-cells die every-time I tried to give it another chance. I think the worst part of it is all of the stopping and starting and stopping again. Just drives me nuts. That and the all-around douchebaggery that's attached to it. For instance the stigma that even if you've memorized every single stat, player, team and game in football history you're still a totally normal dude but if you're into stuff like SciFi and Fantasy in any capacity then you're a geek. I just don't get it. Well I do, people are morons.

 

[MattClassic]

I'm an American so my opinion doesn't matter as it relates to this thread, but I find football to be incredibly boring. I say this as a pretty big baseball fan, a sport most people (or most Americans, at least from my experience) find way more boring than football. About the only sport I can imagine being more tedious and boring is golf.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Ask Carlos Spencer of New Zealand, who got his jaw broken in a rugby match, came back six weeks later, got that jaw broken AGAIN, but didn't come off the field until half time 20 minutes later (and scored a try---rugby's answer to a touchdown---WITH A BROKEN JAW.)

There is no badass in the NFL who would even rank in the top 100 ruggers on the Chuck Norris Scale of Badass.

That's because American football players are worth a lot of money (in some people's minds, anyway. I would pay a janitor more than I would a pro football player, but that's just me.) and if they get hurt then it's bad for everyone involved.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I used to enjoy playing the video games with my friends...even if I didn't understand everything that was happening.

I watched the super bowl too...it's not for me. Too much stop and start...no flow.(much like this post)

If a league was established here, I wouldn't bother with it.

 

[Unesh52]

How exactly did we Americans come to use the word soccer? It doesn't even sound like anything. And when did we invent (American) football?

 

[LightspeedJack]

England: We've got a cool new game it's called football!
US: Oh, We've got a cool new game too it's called football!
England: Wait, what?
US: Yeah we call you're game soccer!
England: WTF....well I'm gonna go play football-
US: SOCCER!!!

OT: It's just Rugby with protective gear. So Rugby for people that aren't maniacs.

 

[LongcoatBastard]

How exactly did we Americans come to use the word soccer? It doesn't even sound like anything. And when did we invent (American) football?

It derrives from Association Football...
And the British came up with that term

 

[Aidinthel]

How exactly did we Americans come to use the word soccer? It doesn't even sound like anything. And when did we invent (American) football?

"Soccer" is actually an English word derived from "association football." The word fell out of use in the UK as the popularity of "rugby football" declined, as there wasn't the same need to differentiate between the two sports.

The sport didn't just appear fully formed. American football, rest-of-the-world football, and rugby all evolved out of a variety of older games collectively called "football".

 

[TylerC]

Guys,

American Football is great. Much better than Rugby. I dont understand Rugby and what kind of strategy there is to it.

snip

You mean like this?

Spoiler: And as for people saying they're wusses for wearing pads...

I played football for 5 years, and the pads really don't do too much. The only cover a very small portion of your chest, and shoulders, plus you have a helmet. A lot of NFL players nowadays don't wear any thigh pads, knee pads, or tailbone pads because they literally don't do anything. I nearly broke my neck one year, and had to be taken off the field in an ambulance. I've broken two fingers, an arm, as well as doing some sort of damage to my ankle. All this happened in, as I said, 5 years. I started playing football in the summer leading into 3rd grade.

I enjoy playing football, and going to games, but I will admit that watching the games can get a little boring. I don't mind playing soccer, but it's just not as fun to me. There is a lot of strategy that goes into football with all of the formations, plays, audibles, etc. You also have to study your opponent and read their defense/offense to make adjustments. Now I'm not saying there is no strategy in soccer, I'm just not aware of a whole lot of it.

If you couldn't already tell, I live in the U.S.

 

[instantbenz]

European Football = Alot of divas kicking a ball around and faking injuries to make extra money from lawsuits.

American Football = A chessgame with big muscular pussies in padded armor.

This is my view of it. Granted I wouldn't want any to run into me as it'd hurt like a mofo.

If we're talking about playing it in any serious manner, I can only speak for US football. I think it's really weak on the endurance factor. It's short sprints and all that.

If we're talking about watching, I'm into adverts and marketing so the advert frequency is higher with the NFL. Not really a good thing as we're proliferating the capitalist masheen. There's just too much nothing happening with soccer. Every hour or so 'gooooooal'.

Both are cool and all, but I'd much rather just skip watching tv and make art or play vija games.

 

[oktalist]

Amused at how rugby is the real "man's" game when 99% of them wouldn't be physically able to make a NFL practice squad.

Nor would an NFL player get picked for a rugby side. The games are very different and require different qualities in their players.

 

[LewsTherin]

I personally enjoy CFL rules over NFL rules, the lack of a 4th down makes every move count a bit more.

I've also played both football and rugby, and enjoy both of them. I would like to see these people calling football players "pussies" try and run through a practise at linebacker or perhaps running-back before being so free with their language. I can say from personal experience that I've been injured far worse in football than I ever have been in rugby, playing linebacker and flanker, respectively. Rugby, on the other hand, is far more physically strenuous. Especially playing forward.

 

[[BDS]Omega]

I kind of think American football is funny to watch. Turn down the sound and play the Benny Hill Chase theme music and you will see it in a whole new light.

DAMMIT, now that you said it im going to have to try that. Just thinking about this causes me to laugh...

Might also need to be sped up a little bit for comedic effect

 

[ntw3001]

Well i enjoy football (football) more, but I haven't seen a whole lot of American football. Whenever I've seen it, though, it's been fairly unwatchable. I enjoyed the game itself, but it was hard to deal with the way that play would stop, I could make a cup of tea, come back, play would restart, and then stop again by the time I'd dunked my biscuit in the tea. It's (as has been said about one million times in this thread alone) more like chess, which is interesting but not a spectator sport.

The strategy of football is different, I suppose since, due to the way the game flows, the manager has a less direct hand in play. It's more down to the players to fulfil a general game plan and try to produce opportunities than it is to the manager to dictate every move.

There you go. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/7937578/Englands-World-Cup-humiliation-laid-bare-by-German-PhD-students.html] This is about how Germany demolished England in the World Cup this year. Teams are analysed, weaknesses are identified, but it's down to the players to exploit them. Individual plays are constructed on-the-fly according to a general strategy rather then play stopping for meticulous tactical planning.

 

[Laserbeam Ostrich]

Meh, it's a sport, so I could care less.

 

[thats it exclamation]

And then they rename the original as if nobody were to notice. Why is the UK the only country to still call it Football?

Ahem! Ireland, and yeah rugbys well harder than american football.