How America Sees "football"

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The Americans on here should take a look at this thread: http://www.thefootballforum.net/index.php?/topic/192064-how-america-sees-football/page__pid__4270887#entry4270887

It's another forum I go on, to talk about football etc. Good site. It's a discussion about why football isn't as popular in America as elsewhere around the world, and most of it is absolutely on the nail for me. It might be an really interesting read for your likes of Aldeth etc.

 

I agree with the poster who said that this topic had been "over-analysed".

Americans don't watch soccer, because for a bunch of random historical reasons, their ancestors happened to get into some other sports. Once you and your community are "into" a certain sport, it hardly ever changes.

That's why I watch rugby and cricket. There's no complicated psychological reason. Just random historical happenstance.

Baseball is a great sport. If I had been brought up with it, I am sure I would love it. It suits my personality completely. But I never watch it, because I don't know any of the teams, and nobody I know watches it, so I can't be bothered. If I lived in USA, I would watch it all the time.

 

Here are a couple of reasons why it has never caught on in the states. Feel free to repost this on the other forum.

1. Here in the states it is considered a kids game.

2. All the flopping and faking of injuries goes against what we have been taught as "good sportsmanship".

3. There is no money in it. There is a ton of money to made playing soccer overseas, but most Americans have no interest in moving to a foreign country to play.

4. It looks like it is too easy of a sport to play. The US men's national team is made up of at best "B level" athletes and they are probably considerably worse then that and our team doesn't do that badly in international competition. I for one would love to see a team made up of our "A level" athletes and see what would happen.

5. Relating to #4, we like to see the best in the world and we know that MLS isn't anywheres near the best. Yeah we recruit over the hill Europeans to come play in MLS, but everyone knows it is nowhere near elite soccer. This summer I went to a game between the NE Revolution and a touring team from Portugal and it was like watching men vs. boys. The Portugeuse team could have won 10-0 if they wanted to.

Even with all those negatives I still think that soccer has a chance to grow. ESPN has started showing EPL games on Saturday mornings and the youth programs are very successful. I'm on the Board of Directors of my town's Soccer club and it is thriving. However, relating to all of the above we start losing our best athletes when they hit U11.

I'm a big fan and so is my son. He is playing for his High School Freshmen team and is a soon to be grade 8 referee. I'm hoping he continues to play and has a love of the game.

 

Summed up: Insular. Would you disagree?

 

I might give you partial credit, but that really isn't it. The game is very popular with boys until they hit middle school/puberty and then they lose interest and focus on the more tradional American sports. It is also very popular with girls, and they seem to stick with it longer. The problem with that is that it is almost impossible for a womens league to survive in any sport over here. About the only two that I can think of are tennis and beach volleyball and that is probably for other reasons

 

"UNH!"
"AHH!"
"OOH!"

God I love tennis.

 

I thought soccer was one of the fastest growing sports in the USA for a variety of reasons. The number one reason is any child that can walk/run can start to learn how to play soccer. My daughter who is 5 is in her second year of playing soccer for the local pewee league. It is mainly to teach them the basic and next year she will be in the local traveling soccer team.

My neice has been playing since my daughter's age and she is now 14 and loves the sport still. A friend of my son has played also since my daughter's age and is almost 20. He wanted to play at the college level but there were little to no colleges recruiting for their soccer program.

It is my believe that my generation and those before me did not take to soccer because of our parents whereas the younger generations have parents that are viewing soccer as a way to get their kids involved in sports and other activities outside school.

As for the "A" vs. "B" that is a load of crap. If you have a top notch player in American Football his skills may not transfer over to him be a top notch player in Soccer. Soccer is like any sport, you have to have the proper technique and atheletic ability to be successful.

I do enjoy a good game of soccer; however, my taste is more towards the brutal sports and that is probably why soccer and cricket/baseball has never really interested me all that much. Give me a good car wreck, a good American Football game, boxing, MMA, etc... where brutality or death can happen in one strike. And that is probably most Americans thoughts as well.

Snook, you live about 2 hours south of me. The great New England region of USA. Gotta love the 4 seasons with fall, spring and summer being great and Winter being the B#$%....

 

Really? There's no female sports?

 

I've always wondered why it gets caled 'soccer' it's a game played using ones foot and a ball. Socks aren't a vital part of the game really

 

Soccer is a shortened version of the correct name for the sport, which is Association Football.

 

Not socks then?

 

Exactly, association FOOTBALL. It's already shortened by knocking off 'association'.

 

You are correct, it is one of the fastest growing sports for youth.

As to the A vs B vs ... players I have to disagree with you. The NBA and NFL have many players that started out as soccer players and then when they got older moved on to their respective sports. I agree that Lebron James couldn't put on a pair of cleats and win the world cup tomorrow, but imagine if as a child he decided that he wanted to be a professional soccer player? Possibly my favorite example is Steve Nash (although he is Canadien). To this day he is a huge soccer fan and plays recreationally. He is another one I would have loved to see. Although my favorite scenario involves NFL players. Just imagine the damage that NFL wide receivers, cornerbacks, and safeties could do in a soccer game. I can't even imagine how current soccer players would cope with Randy Moss flying down the wing after a deep ball.

As to the NE weather, yes it is always interesting. Although all of my relatives who retired/moved to Florida tell me that within six months you realize that NE sucks and only an idiot would live here

There are, but they don't make any money and eventually go bankrupt unless they are being propped up by a mens franchise (see the WNBA)

 

Snook... I would love to hear you explain why 'traditional' American sports stars are A class athletes and football players are B class athletes? Condescending much?

 

Even so they really, really aren't. There's no way that Steve Nash is any better of an athlete than say Oguchi Onyewu or Landon Donovan. In fact, I would say the opposite is probably true, other than height, obviously.

 

Really? I'll give you that Onyewu is an athlete, but Donavan? Donavan is a great American soccer player, but can you actually picture him playing any other sport. Nash is taller, faster, stronger, and probably even quicker. Donavan's advantage is skill, tactics, and strategy and all of those are things that can be taught.

 

I think it's easier to train somebody in strength, speed etc, than it is to teach vision and skill. A lot of people believe that things like that are un-teachable, and you either have it, or you don't. Hence why quite often 18/19 year old kids come off the streets to take the footballing world by storm.

 

I was thinking about a team made up of Chad, Randy and Terrel Owens. along with Champ Bailey, Charles Woodsen and a few other CB. I could see the WR or CB skills slightly being transferred over to scoccer as most of them did start their but as I said in my prior post. If you can walk or run you can play the game. Football however requires more cordination.

 

There are a ton of female sports, but once you get into professional female sports, none of them are money makers, outside of golf, tennis, and a couple of others. So there's a ton of female athletes playins sports, but few of them garner enough attention and enough fan support that they can get into the mainstream.

I would say that a large part of athletic talent is common among a wide range of sports. You have a certain level of athletic talent that is more due to genetics than anything. Many, many sports require attributes like speed, strength, agility, and endurance. I think it is foolhardy to suggest that an athlete who excels at a particular sport could only excel at that particular sport. We see many instances of athlete in high school and college who play more than one sport, and excel at more than one sport. It's just that once you go pro, a team doesn't want you risking injury in another sport so they usually make you pick (with certain exceptions like Bo Jackson withstanding).

To take the analogy of Nash as a soccer player a bit futher, I'd say that many of the attributes that make him a good basketball player would translate well into soccer. He is honed his skills towards basketball, but I'd say the agility required to play basketball is about the same as is required to play soccer - it's just with the hands, not the feet.

I always thought Kevin Garnett would make an excellent goalie.