Football is of the devil.

[Mystery Man]

Girls play soccer.

 

[CarlZog]

Football is just pointless. Rabid fans with makeup on their face screaming watching a bunch of no-neck guys, most of whom barely have a high school education, try to get a little leather object from one end of a rectangle to the other end of the rectangle. It might be more entertaining if they could actually use their brains to accomplish this task, but they have to just beat each other senseless in order to accomplish it. So, that's not very interesting. If I wanted to see that, I'd just watch boxing and be done with it.

OK, I'm not much o a football fan at all, but here's the thing you have to remember:

A) Forget about the rapid fans and the whole aura surrounding the sport. None of it is relevant to the game.

B) The game itself is a basic tactical wargame. It's all about securing territorial objectives. There really is a lot of brains required, just not necessarily by the infantry on the frontline. The constraints of the "rectangle" actually highlight the need for tactics. There's no terrain benefits or cover to be had, so you're reduced to coming up with really effective flanking operations, or resorting to full-on frontal assaults -- assuming you're confident that you have the power to push through. If you have a capable aerial force, you can get behind the lines, but still need to maintain ground protection to the force at both ends -- while it's taking off and landing. Each of the players, or groups of types of players, are nothing more than different components contributing different skills to the equation: the strong melee warrior, the sneaky fleet-footed thief, the archer, and the wizard guiding them all.

Carl

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

B) The game itself is a basic tactical wargame. It's all about securing territorial objectives. There really is a lot of brains required, just not necessarily by the infantry on the frontline. The constraints of the "rectangle" actually highlight the need for tactics. There's no terrain benefits or cover to be had, so you're reduced to coming up with really effective flanking operations, or resorting to full-on frontal assaults -- assuming you're confident that you have the power to push through. If you have a capable aerial force, you can get behind the lines, but still need to maintain ground protection to the force at both ends -- while it's taking off and landing. Each of the players, or groups of types of players, are nothing more than different components contributing different skills to the equation: the strong melee warrior, the sneaky fleet-footed thief, the archer, and the wizard guiding them all.

Carl

Wow, that's just...profound

Well, I for one love football (and only made my own sarcastic post poking fun at the "of the devil" part), but I understand that some people don't. No problem, there are a few sports I just don't get and don't enjoy, but I do avoid characterizing people who enjoy those sports as being somehow inferior for it...well except maybe for "Professional wrestling" but that isn't really a sport anyway.

 

[AIM-54]

B) The game itself is a basic tactical wargame. It's all about securing territorial objectives. There really is a lot of brains required, just not necessarily by the infantry on the frontline. The constraints of the "rectangle" actually highlight the need for tactics. There's no terrain benefits or cover to be had, so you're reduced to coming up with really effective flanking operations, or resorting to full-on frontal assaults -- assuming you're confident that you have the power to push through. If you have a capable aerial force, you can get behind the lines, but still need to maintain ground protection to the force at both ends -- while it's taking off and landing. Each of the players, or groups of types of players, are nothing more than different components contributing different skills to the equation: the strong melee warrior, the sneaky fleet-footed thief, the archer, and the wizard guiding them all.

Carl

Heh. Awesome.

 

[ssampier]

It's a social thing, like gathering around a table for a D&D game session.

Besides, I like the full-contact tackles and whatnot. Seeing something aggressive is a good way to vent my pent-up craps I've been having throughout my workdays.

Humm, good point. I'm not a sports fan, but when my ex-roomates wanted to watch a game, I was fine with it. If watch the game on TV by myself, it's not as interesting.

 

[MaxKaladin]

I can't help but notice that on casual observation, the Kluge didn't crap in or in anyway disrupt the several football related threads currently open, but let those threads be about football enjoyment while opening his own thread for 'teh hat'. A level of courtesy people don't seem to be extending back.

Yep. This is a perfect example of what I hate about sports, too. I've generally found that those of us who don't like sports generally just keep it to ourselves. Sports fans don't like to return that courtesy. The moment they get wind of someone saying they hate sports, they immediately leap to the defense. We get blessed with all sorts of talk about how great people think their favorite sports are to wistful reflection on the cameraderie of watching a game with friends to comments about how "strange" they find someone who doesn't like sports is. Even though sports fans are free to have as many sports threads as they want, many of them evidently believe this thread here must be subverted to sports and some even take some sort of delight in hijacking it and rubbing salt in the wound by pointing out how much in the minority the original poster is. Believe me, we know we're a minority -- we're seldom allowed to forget it. The fact that a few of us in our minority grousing in our metaphorical corner cannot be tolerated is very much the sort of thing I dislike about sports.

Now, someone is preparing to point out that this has nothing to do with the sports themselves and they're right. An epiphany I had some time back is that I don't hate the sports themselves. I hate the sports culture that surrounds them. I hate the fact that so many fans cannot seem to understand or tolerate the idea that some of us just don't care about their games. I hate the way so many sports fans feel the need to push and poke at us for our lack of interest. I hate the way some sports fans think we must be drowned out and silenced should we ever dare to voice any dislike of sports. I hate the way some sports fans seem to feel the need to assimilate us like they are part of some sort of borg collective. The thing is that I don't hate sports. I simply don't care about them one way or the other. I think that indifference infuriates some sports fans.

 

[Ranger REG]

Humm, good point. I'm not a sports fan, but when my ex-roomates wanted to watch a game, I was fine with it. If watch the game on TV by myself, it's not as interesting.

Meh. Before D&D, I had a normal life, played basketball (usually at my dad's urging to help me lose weight; didn't helped) and watched Celtics games. I hang with friends who prefer the Lakers (the kind of friends who find D&D alien until they become adults), and always gather around the TV set watching them go head-to-head: Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson. We trash-talked about whose team is best, yell at TV when the referee puts out a bad call or never call a foul, but all in all we had fun.

I also have friends that don't find sports interesting and that's cool.

 

[AIM-54]

Yep. This is a perfect example of what I hate about sports, too. I've generally found that those of us who don't like sports generally just keep it to ourselves. Sports fans don't like to return that courtesy. The moment they get wind of someone saying they hate sports, they immediately leap to the defense. We get blessed with all sorts of talk about how great people think their favorite sports are to wistful reflection on the cameraderie of watching a game with friends to comments about how "strange" they find someone who doesn't like sports is. Even though sports fans are free to have as many sports threads as they want, many of them evidently believe this thread here must be subverted to sports and some even take some sort of delight in hijacking it and rubbing salt in the wound by pointing out how much in the minority the original poster is. Believe me, we know we're a minority -- we're seldom allowed to forget it. The fact that a few of us in our minority grousing in our metaphorical corner cannot be tolerated is very much the sort of thing I dislike about sports.

Now, someone is preparing to point out that this has nothing to do with the sports themselves and they're right. An epiphany I had some time back is that I don't hate the sports themselves. I hate the sports culture that surrounds them. I hate the fact that so many fans cannot seem to understand or tolerate the idea that some of us just don't care about their games. I hate the way so many sports fans feel the need to push and poke at us for our lack of interest. I hate the way some sports fans think we must be drowned out and silenced should we ever dare to voice any dislike of sports. I hate the way some sports fans seem to feel the need to assimilate us like they are part of some sort of borg collective. The thing is that I don't hate sports. I simply don't care about them one way or the other. I think that indifference infuriates some sports fans.

Get off your high horse and come chill with us commoners sometime. You might even have fun.

 

[Crothian]

Yep. This is a perfect example of what I hate about sports, too. I've generally found that those of us who don't like sports generally just keep it to ourselves. Sports fans don't like to return that courtesy. The moment they get wind of someone saying they hate sports, they immediately leap to the defense.

Gamers do the same thing. Someone comes along ansd says they hate RPG, gamers leap to the defense of their beloved games. So, its not like its unique to the sports world.

 

[der_kluge]

Level of courtesy? How about not negatively stereotyping football fans for starters? Saying you don't like the color red is one thing. Saying that everyone who likes the color red worships Satan and drinks blood is another. As a sports fan, I felt a need to defend myself.

The title is a reference to "WaterBoy". Maybe I should have said "Foosball is of the devil". That would have been more appropriate.

And for the record, no I was never picked on by jocks in high school. My graduating class was 72 people. We didn't really have any "jocks" per se. And I do understand how the sport is played. I just think it's silly.

Would as many people pay to watch two people play Mortal Kombat on a giant big-screen TV? It would arguably be as entertaining, and have a hell of a lot less time-outs in it.