Thoughts on NFL in London/cross country sporting pollination

[PartyGirlUK]

As a US based Brit this is of interest to me.

[doubLe a tom]

do they even speak english in london?

[bluef0x]

The NHL just played 2 regular season games in London and it was a success.

[mmbt0ne]

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do they even speak english in london?

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Ask London Fletcher.

[d10]

London Fletcher wouldn't know, he's black, so he's obviously not from London, just a coincidental name. You must be thinking of Channing Crowder.

[HajiShirazu]

All I know is that every time I talk to foreigners from a non-football country they always talk about how they can't understand the rules. I just don't get it, I thought football was pretty simple and stuff like rugby/cricket was at least on an equal level of complexity, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe all the penalties, and why certain things are against the rules, are a bit tough to learn until you've watched a few dozen games or so. For example I would have a tough time understanding why a big play would be called back for holding, since it looks like they are holding on every play anyway, partially because they are. Then again, in the end you could have watched a thousand games and never understand, coming to the conclusion like me that non-obvious phantom holding/pass interference calls are basically just one of the ways they rig the sport so that spreads are covered, just like deal-making in cricket or something.
Football is brutal, expensive, and has large land requirements so I don't see it catching on in most countries like basketball has. Basically to play serious organized football you have to accept that your entire body is going to hurt like hell for the entire season + another two weeks or so after, plus you're going to have a serious injury about 20% of the time. There are plenty of other sports that are just as if not more fun without these requirements, and the play to practice ratio of those sports is much higher. Personally I don't understand why it is as popular (to play) as it is. Tradition I guess.
I can see nascar becoming big in europe before football ever does.

[ledders07]

NFL ain't even popular in england anymore and absolutely [censored] no-one knows the rules

and i didn't get a [censored] ticket [censored]

[sixfour]

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I can see nascar becoming big in europe before football ever does.

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lol no

Pretty cool to have a game over here, could have got a ticket but chose not to as it'd be way too expensive a day

[WhoIam]

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All I know is that every time I talk to foreigners from a non-football country they always talk about how they can't understand the rules. I just don't get it

[/ QUOTE ] The penalties and semi-obscure rules can be really frustrating for someone not very familiar with the game. I can appreciate this since I never really watched football until college. Every time I try to watch a game with with a European it goes something like this:

Euro Guy: Touchdown!
Me: No, he only had one foot in bounds.
EG: What the hell.
EG: Wait, why is that a penalty?
Me: The cornerback is only allowed to bump the receiver within five yards of the line of scrimmage.
EG: [censored] this mate, you can watch this by yourself.

If someone had never seen a soccer game before, they would probably be able to enjoy it and figure out what was going on within any explanation. Not so with the NFL. People also find it boring because it's not a continuous action game like soccer or rugby.

[bottomset]

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If someone had never seen a soccer game before, they would probably be able to enjoy it and figure out what was going on within any explanation

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figuring out the flopping is pretty tricky