17 game season for NFL?

[PokerFink]

I still don't understand why there is more riding on one soccer game in a 38 game season than one football game in a 16 game season, other than soccer doesn't have playoffs.

[bernie]

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I still don't understand why there is more riding on one soccer game in a 38 game season than one football game in a 16 game season, other than soccer doesn't have playoffs.

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Iirc, they do have sort of a playoff. It's a tourney at the end of the season. Kind of resembles NCAAB. Though I can't remember how many from each Serie go, whether it's the top 4 or something.

One reason more is riding is given your placement in your standings, you'll either be trying to make the tourney or just finish well so you might move up to a higher Serie or if you're sucking you might get relegated to a lower Serie. So you even have the bottom feeders of your Serie playing hard to just not get relegated.

It's an awesome multidynamic system where even teams having a seemingly hopeless season have something to fight for.

b

[PokerFink]

In football, there are roughly 16 teams (50%) teams fighting it out at the end of the year for the 12 playoff spots. The rest of the league sucks.

In soccer, there are roughly 5-6 teams (25-30%) fighting it out for the 4 champions league spots and roughly 5 teams (25%) fighting it out to avoid relegation. The rest of the league is stuck in the middle and doesn't care.

Furthermore, the playoff races in football almost always go to the last week of the season. This is very often not the case in soccer.

And soccer teams play twice as many games.

I just don't see your point.

[ZeTurd]

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Europeans,

1) Which NFL teams are most popular across the pond? Does this vary by country?

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Peyton Manning managed to break through the usually soccer-centric media coverage of sports this year, so I would imagine the Colts are pretty big. Since we're as removed as we are from the sport, I guess it's to be expected that a lot of the followers are fair-weather supporters. Most of my friends that have stayed in the US are following teams located near to or where they stayed.

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2) Do you follow the NFL or NFL Europe more?

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Hands down the American variant, but then again, there are no Norwegian teams involved in the Euro NFL, so the incentive for following that league is pretty low since the level of play obviously is faaaar better in the American NFL.

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3) What part(s) of football are most appealing to you?

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As somewhat of a math geek, the stats are one part of it. Rarely will you see any European sport where there is such focus on stats. The raw physicality of the sport is another factor. Yet another factor is the strategy aspect of the game; something I'll admit I'm still struggling to fully comprehend. But I'll say this; the more I understand the subtleties of the game, the more I appreciate it.

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4) Do Europeans have a good understanding of the game (ie they know what a Cover-2 defense is) ?

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Generally, I'd say no. As I understand it, it means 2 safeties deep in the field to prevent long passes, or am I off here?

[TheRover]

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In football, there are roughly 16 teams (50%) teams fighting it out at the end of the year for the 12 playoff spots. The rest of the league sucks.

In soccer, there are roughly 5-6 teams (25-30%) fighting it out for the 4 champions league spots and roughly 5 teams (25%) fighting it out to avoid relegation. The rest of the league is stuck in the middle and doesn't care.

Furthermore, the playoff races in football almost always go to the last week of the season. This is very often not the case in soccer.

And soccer teams play twice as many games.

I just don't see your point.

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You left out the UEFA Cup positions and, I guess, the Intertoto Cup.

[PokerFink]

Thanks Zeturd, that all makes sense.

Stick around the forum when the NFL season starts up, there's a lot of knowledgeable NFL guys around here who can explain all kinds of strategy/subtleties. As someone who has learned a lot about football over the last couple years (a lot from this forum), I definitely agree that the more you understand, the more fun the game is to watch.

And yeah, Cover-2 generally means two safeties who play a deep zone (each taking half the field) while the corners cover man-to-man and the linebackers generally cover man-to-man against the tight ends and running backs, with their responsabilities varying based on the offensive formation.

If I ever find a good looking woman who can cook and draw a cover-2 defense on paper, well, that's my wife =)

[ZeTurd]

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Stick around the forum when the NFL season starts up, there's a lot of knowledgeable NFL guys around here who can explain all kinds of strategy/subtleties. As someone who has learned a lot about football over the last couple years (a lot from this forum), I definitely agree that the more you understand, the more fun the game is to watch.

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Appreciate that. I was lurking the forum avidly during the last season, but was kind of afraid to butt in since my general knowledge of the game obviously was much lower than most of the posters. I may just pop in with a couple of stupid questions this season... [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]