Thoughts on NFL in London/cross country sporting pollination

[AJW]

They could have sold out a baseball game a basketball game or an ice hockey match this whole thing is about spectacle and a one off chance to see something.
The UK supports both a basketball and ice hockey league that are semi professional but no American football league which gives a good indication of the standing of the big four American sports in order of popularity in the UK.
As for American football being on TV its filler cheap foreign programming to take up time between the events that people are willing to pay money to watch Football, Boxing, Golf, Rugby, Tennis, and to a lesser extent cricket.

[ThaSaltCracka]

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TBH, people overrate how complex Football is.

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No, they don't. They generally underrate the complexity. American football is extremely complicated. Coaching terminology is needlessly complex in some ways but that's about the only factor that makes it seem more rather than less complicated than it really is.

You speak like a man who doesn't know a whole lot about football, and who has certainly never played.

[/ QUOTE ]I have played football and I understand it. The NFL game may be complex, but overall football is not a complex game at all. You speak, once again, like a conceited jack ass.

[MicroBob]

we're talking about it being to complicated for a new fan to understand what's going on and enjoy it...not about how complex various defensive schemes can get which most actual fans of the sport don't really understand either obviously?

Some of the rules that we take for granted end up sounding unnecessarily complex to those who don't know what the hell they're looking at.

[bottomset]

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$ is the driving force. Instead of trying to get people to play football, the NFL wants more people to watch a game they have never played! Then their brand is worth more! Which means an even more commercialized league and sport!!!

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well the NFL doesn't run huge advertisements on their uniforms

[MyTurn2Raise]

[ QUOTE ]
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[ QUOTE ]
TBH, people overrate how complex Football is.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, they don't. They generally underrate the complexity. American football is extremely complicated. Coaching terminology is needlessly complex in some ways but that's about the only factor that makes it seem more rather than less complicated than it really is.

You speak like a man who doesn't know a whole lot about football, and who has certainly never played.

[/ QUOTE ]I have played football and I understand it. The NFL game may be complex, but overall football is not a complex game at all. You speak, once again, like a conceited jack ass.

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i've always thought football is the most complex game [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[thatpfunk]

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TBH, people overrate how complex Football is.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, they don't. They generally underrate the complexity. American football is extremely complicated. Coaching terminology is needlessly complex in some ways but that's about the only factor that makes it seem more rather than less complicated than it really is.

You speak like a man who doesn't know a whole lot about football, and who has certainly never played.

[/ QUOTE ]I have played football and I understand it. The NFL game may be complex, but overall football is not a complex game at all. You speak, once again, like a conceited jack ass.

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i've always thought football is the most complex game [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

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i think most are an agreement that it is. perhaps TSC meant not complex in regards to understanding the rules?

[MicroBob]

Most people who are fans of football don't TRULY understand the rules. They think that an underhand shovel-pass forward is not legal and couldn't tell you how many yards a clipping penalty is. But they like watching the games and consider themselves fans and like to brag about how awesome Ben Roethlesberger or Peyton Manning are and even wear their jerseys or whatever.

FWIW - most baseball fans are pretty clueless about the sport too. They don't know what actions constitute a balk and certainly couldn't tell you the infield-fly rule and haven't the slightest clue about how the organizational farm-systems work, etc etc.


Both sports can be incredibly complex the deeper you delve into them. That doesn't really have much to do with how easy or difficult they are to understand or enjoy by the everyday fans or to a newcomer though.
You can be a fan of baseball without having any idea why it is or isn't a good idea to intentionally walk someone in a certain situation.
And if you didn't grow up with the sport it's kind of difficult to become a fan because this whole business of "this situation he has to tag the base...this situation he has to tag the runner...this situation the fly-ball is deep enough where he can tag-up and try to score but he has to wait for the ball to be caught....etc etc etc" is what we are talking about when we say whether the sport is too complicated. It gets really confusing incredibly fast to a new viewer who is having a tough enough time finding where the ball is much less watching the various runners and fielders racing around all over the place.

When we speak of football being to complicated to be understood very easily by a foreign audience we aren't referring to Bill Walsh Cover 2 schemes. We are just referring to the basic rules and strategies such as 2-minute offense and spiking the ball to stop the clock (ldo..because some plays the clock keeps running and other plays it doesn't) and taking a knee at the end of the game to run out the clock.
evidently the London fans were really booing big-time today when the Giants were running the clock out...whereas Americans understand that this is pretty standard and booing this would be silly.

[ThaSaltCracka]

let me put it this way, the game of football is not a complex game. If you knew very little about it, basically just the most wide known rules, you wouldn't think its complex. Its basically running or throwing the ball in attempt to score. All sports are basically pretty straightforward. Thats why I don't buy the argument that watching the NFL is some complex sport that only Americans understand. In fact, its not any more complex on the surface than basically any other sport.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Microbob, they are booing because its incredibly lame that a strategy in a sport is to essentially run the clock down. Time wasting in soccer is frowned upon, but in football its a virtue.

[Needle77]

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
TBH, people overrate how complex Football is.

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No, they don't. They generally underrate the complexity. American football is extremely complicated. Coaching terminology is needlessly complex in some ways but that's about the only factor that makes it seem more rather than less complicated than it really is.

You speak like a man who doesn't know a whole lot about football, and who has certainly never played.

[/ QUOTE ]I have played football and I understand it. The NFL game may be complex, but overall football is not a complex game at all. You speak, once again, like a conceited jack ass.

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i've always thought football is the most complex game [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

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I guess it isn't, why am I putting in all this time watching film, studying tendancies and being a stupid intern coach? I should just go see if I can get a head job at some D1 college.