Biggus wrote:
Football is the greatest game because it perfectly fulfills my criterion for what a struggle should be.
1.Athletic
- Psychological.
- Dramatic.
No other sport comes close.........[/b]
Not true. There are other sports with all those factors which i'll explain later.
Football is the best sport in the world because it is the beautiful game. It is art.
It is a simple game and you can play it on grass, concrete or indoors in all seasons. All you need is a ball and make shift goal posts (sometimes you don't need even those). Anyone can play it, the poor and rich alike. Those with hardly any facilities and those with many. It is like a religion for the masses like no other sport is. Cricket, rugby, basketball, tennis etc don't even come close on the world stage (although I accept cricket is religion in India and rugby is religion in NZ). Football, was, is and always will be the people's game.
I don't understand why so many Yankies, Aussies, Canucks, Kiwis and white South Africans don't get this, particularly as so many of them are cousins of the British. With cricket you need all this gear and sports like rugby union and tennis seem to appeal exclusively to the middle classes. That's fine because we all love sports but it's very difficult for the average poor bloke to pick up a tennis racket and pay lots of dosh to join their nearest tennis club. Can you do that in South America or in Africa? In Basketball, you have no chance in the professional game even if you're 6 foot. You've got to be mega tall. I know Depressed Rex might bring up a player here of there who are short but these are exceptions that prove the rule.
One sport I love, however, that has the above three critieria is American Football. It has a lot of strategy to it as well, like a war.
People don't like it because it is stop-start but if you actually know what's going on it is a fantastic game.
1.) The players are very athletic. Don't be fooled by the helmets and pads. Those pads are there to protect the players in ways that you don't need to in Rugby because of the tackling rules for example. These NFL guys are strong, fast and agile but players excel and different things depending on the position.
2.) It is psychological because win records and field positions can be nerve racking. For example, if you're on 4th down and 1 and you're unsure whether to go for it. American Football is a game of inches.
3.) There are plenty of last minute touchdowns, turnovers, missed field goals, sacks etc that can change a game in a second. Every second matters.
There is no space for Arsene Wenger types. There is so much tactics used in the sport throughout the game and throughout the season.
Also the NFL is a fairer league. As there are 92 professional clubs in England (and tons of other semi-pro teams) I prefer the way we have it. But still, it is much harder to predict who will win the game on any given Sunday. Last year, the Indinanapolis Colts were like Wolves. Now they're at in the top half of teams and could easily make the play offs. There are of course bigger franchises than others but the super bowl winners are usually different from year to year. The NFL is more like the CL in that respect. But with more chance of smaller teams winning it.
Where American Football falls is that it is complicated and expensive. To play it to a good level you need pads, helmets, field goal posts and a field marked out with lines at every ten yards. There are so many technicalities that can make a big difference in a way you don't get with football. To cut a long story short, there are so many ifs and buts in american football. With football, the most complicated thing is offside. Otherwise just stick the ball in the back of the net. American Football is by far the best American sport and I love it but football captures the hearts and minds of the world.
