Why are American sports so boring?

[bobh]

Ad breaks every few minutes.
"Touchdowns" don't touch down
Baseball is glorified rounders.
Basketball can only be played properly by tall people.

[pomeroy]

Ad breaks every few minutes.
"Touchdowns" don't touch down
Baseball is glorified rounders.
Basketball can only be played properly by tall people.

I know that our baseball is a better game. There have been nine innings in US baseball when no one actually makes a hit. Basketball is where giants run up one end and then up the other end to the strains of terrible organ music. American football has to be the daftest game ever where hordes of men carrying helmets walk around on the sidelines doing nothing for 95% of the game waiting for their moment of glory.

[JumpersforGoalposts]

I know that our baseball is a better game. There have been nine innings in US baseball when no one actually makes a hit. Basketball is where giants run up one end and then up the other end to the strains of terrible organ music. American football has to be the daftest game ever where hordes of men carrying helmets walk around on the sidelines doing nothing for 95% of the game waiting for their moment of glory.

I can see something of an error in your behaviour here, you should be watching the players on the pitch not the alternates/subs/reserves/special teams on the sidelines. After all I'm sure you don't spend your time at the CCS with your eyes fixed on the subs bench even if (for the most part) it is as exciting as the on-field performances.

[pomeroy]

I can see something of an error in your behaviour here, you should be watching the players on the pitch not the alternates/subs/reserves/special teams on the sidelines. After all I'm sure you don't spend your time at the CCS with your eyes fixed on the subs bench even if (for the most part) it is as exciting as the on-field performances.

The problem is, in the NFL, the players are not on the pitch that long to warrant much interest. A survey of 2023 in the Wall Street Journal concluded that in the average US football match the offence has the ball for 11 minutes, not in play for that time but available to attack for 11 minutes. Given that the screened matches last 3 hours that is a lot of down time. Pity the poor bloody kicker who has to spend hours watching recordings of Love Island in his sideline tent!

[JumpersforGoalposts]

The problem is, in the NFL, the players are not on the pitch that long to warrant much interest. A survey of 2023 in the Wall Street Journal concluded that in the average US football match the offence has the ball for 11 minutes, not in play for that time but available to attack for 11 minutes. Given that the screened matches last 3 hours that is a lot of down time. Pity the poor bloody kicker who has to spend hours watching recordings of Love Island in his sideline tent!

I would agree that one of the problems with NFL is that the clock is running and the ball technically "in play" for a ridiculously long period of time as they prepare for the "snap". It seems all parties are happy with it though.

[the other bob wilson]

I know that our baseball is a better game. There have been nine innings in US baseball when no one actually makes a hit. Basketball is where giants run up one end and then up the other end to the strains of terrible organ music. American football has to be the daftest game ever where hordes of men carrying helmets walk around on the sidelines doing nothing for 95% of the game waiting for their moment of glory.

I would argue that making it hard to score adds to a sports attraction. Although cricket is catching up as I get older, I'm going to spend all of my life believing that football is the best sport in the world and is there a harder one to register a score in than football? It's because a goal is so hard to score in football that they tend to get celebrated so much. I don't watch a great deal of baseball, but, based on what I have seen it, I feel it's a sport I should get into more - I like what I've seen of it and part of the attraction is that it's so hard to register a score.

Again, I don't watch a great deal of American football now, but I used to when it was on Channel 4 on.a Sunday back in the 80s and really got into it then, I think it's a really good sport once you peel away all of the media crap that goes with it.

Basketball on the other hand is mind numbingly boring in my opinion - it seems harder not to score in that game. Another thing that makes a goof sport is if it is something that people of all sorts of shapes and sizes can play to a good standard. Sadly, there is a trend towards favuring bigger players in a lot of sports these days, but there's still a place for a good little one in most of them - maybe someone who knows more about basketball than me can show that a small person can succeed in that sport, but it seems a game designed to be played by giants to me.

[Der Kaiser]

I know that our baseball is a better game. There have been nine innings in US baseball when no one actually makes a hit. Basketball is where giants run up one end and then up the other end to the strains of terrible organ music. American football has to be the daftest game ever where hordes of men carrying helmets walk around on the sidelines doing nothing for 95% of the game waiting for their moment of glory.

A no hitter or perfect game are amongst the best individual achievements an athlete can make in any sport, they certainly aren't to be sneered at.

[pomeroy]

A no hitter or perfect game are amongst the best individual achievements an athlete can make in any sport, they certainly aren't to be sneered at.

But do you want to sit through it ?

[Der Kaiser]

But do you want to sit through it ?

Yes, happily. I've been to baseball games previously and thoroughly enjoyed them.

[A Quiet Monkfish]

I know that our baseball is a better game. There have been nine innings in US baseball when no one actually makes a hit. Basketball is where giants run up one end and then up the other end to the strains of terrible organ music. American football has to be the daftest game ever where hordes of men carrying helmets walk around on the sidelines doing nothing for 95% of the game waiting for their moment of glory.

I tuned into an American baseball game the other day by mistake. Firstly, like all American games the screen was awash with numbers and stats. Then the 'hitter' took a swipe at the ball and missed twice, but was given another couple of goes. I wasn't sure if he was 'out', but then just strolled to 1st base. The commentary was just gibberish. [to me, anyway]. totally weird.

[jimmyscoular]

I tuned into an American baseball game the other day by mistake. Firstly, like all American games the screen was awash with numbers and stats. Then the 'hitter' took a swipe at the ball and missed twice, but was given another couple of goes. I wasn't sure if he was 'out', but then just strolled to 1st base. The commentary was just gibberish. [to me, anyway]. totally weird.

Don't know the rules of baseball, then? The hitter probably had two strikes and then fouled off a couple of times while avoiding the third strike and accumulating four balls, which allowed him to walk to first.

Totally weird if you don't understand it, much like suddenly landing in, say, Thailand and being subjected to all that totally weird gibberish all over the place. Right?

As for stats, the American fascination with such has always amused me, but I see now soccer (and don't get me started on the canard that "soccer" is an Americanism) is just about as bad.