# (American) Football or Soccer? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 31, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849 "2011-05-31T14:12:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/41 "2011-05-31T21:57:23Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > The average score per game in the NFL is about 21 according to random people on [wikiAnswers](http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_score_for_one_team_in_an_NFL_game). Pretty close; in 2010, NFL teams scored [an average of 22.0 points per game](http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2010/). > [@mnemosyne](#): > > Would the scoring aspect still be preferred in American football if the usual scores were 6-2? (Yes, I know that this ignores the PAT and 2pt conversion, and the safety and the rouge, but the point stands: is a “high score” awesome because the ball made it to the end zone often, or is it awesome because it happens to be “47”?) Well, there’s no [rouge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouge_%28football%29) in American football – it only exists in the Canadian game. But, I get your point. But, ven if you “devalued” scores in American football, I imagine that NFL games still have more scoring **plays** than do most professional soccer games. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/42 "2011-05-31T22:15:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > PI imagine that NFL games still have more scoring **plays** than do most professional soccer games. A little math: [In 2010](http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2010/), NFL teams, on average, had 3.0 scoring plays per game: - 1.5 passing touchdowns - 0.8 rushing touchdowns - 0.1 kickoff / punt return touchdowns - 0.1 interception return touchdowns - 0.5 field goals Other sorts of touchdowns (fumble recoveries, blocked kick returns, etc.), as well as safeties, happen so infrequently that they come in at far less than 0.1 times per team per game. Also, I didn’t include extra points; if you want to include those as “scoring plays”, add in another 2.5 plays. [In the 2009-2010 season](http://www.premierleague.com/page/Statistics), English Premier League teams scored, on average, 1.39 goals per game. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/43 "2011-06-01T00:39:24Z")
Ping Pong usually has more points scored per game. So does Space Invaders and Scrabble. I’m not sure I get the metric of points per game being a comparison of quality; personally, I enjoy the points to be rare and hard to come by. Makes it more special to me when they’re scored. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/44 "2011-06-01T00:52:02Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > Ping Pong usually has more points scored per game. So does Space Invaders and Scrabble. I’m not sure I get the metric of points per game being a comparison of quality; personally, I enjoy the points to be rare and hard to come by. Makes it more special to me when they’re scored. I totally agree. I’m long used to following a hockey game, baseball game or Canadian football game on the radio. First time I tried following a Toronto Raptors basketball game on the drive home from Hamilton, I kept getting lost - every time they announced the score, both teams would have more points than I thought because the baskets just kept happening. I found it about as interesting as watching two gas pumps at the same time… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/45 "2011-06-01T01:27:54Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > … if you “devalued” scores in American football, I imagine that NFL games still have more scoring **plays** than do most professional soccer games. So basketball is the world’s greatest sport. Or darts. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/46 "2011-06-01T02:08:07Z")
Things I find boring. 1. Watching paint dry. 2. Watching grass grow. 3. Watching soccer. 4. Reading War and Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/47 "2011-06-01T03:30:37Z")
soccer is boring boring boring boring boring OH THEY MIGHT SCORE NOW boring boring boring boring boring boring boring. football is boring, a little less boring, even less boring, wow something might be happening, oh shit here it comes, holy crap they’re getting close, WOW I CAN’T TAKE THE SUSPENSE ANYMORE, OH THEY MIGHT SCORE NOW! Both are painful to watch. Soccer sucks more, because an hour can go by where not even a single exciting thing happens. Games can (and routinely do) end in a tie. Fuck that. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/48 "2011-06-01T04:11:18Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I was born in Youropp, but I’ve lived in the US for just over half of my 28 years so I identified as North American, There you go again, creating cognitive dissonance in my tiny brain. I just came from [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=28174). > [@tea and milk](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tea-and-milk/23007/24): > > I’m a Brit, Pick a side, man! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/49 "2011-06-01T04:15:55Z")
One thing about soccer that annoys many of my friends is that there doesn’t _appear_ to be much correlation between being the better team and actually winning the game. So many of the goals are off of set plays like free kicks, corners and penalty kicks. That said, it’s the better team that usually earns the set plays. And the best teams do indeed win the titles. But the fact that so few of the goals scored are the result of normal game flow is something that could turn off potential fans. Also, when the better team goes up 1-0, or god forbid 2-0, everyone may as well pack up and go home. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/50 "2011-06-01T04:31:07Z")
North American here, I love both games. I also find it tedious when North Americans call soccer a child’s game, much in the same way it is tedious when Brits make the exact same claim about baseball. > [@phantom\_lamb](#): > > But from my experience Americans tend to think American football is superior to football (soccer) and everyone else in the world thinks the opposite. Not quite. A lot of places believe other sports, including other codes of football, to be superior to both. Canadians and Aussies for instance. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/51 "2011-06-01T04:43:47Z")
I have watched soccer for all of a month, but in that month I watched a lot of it and I think I can safely call myself a fan of the sport. I grew up on American Football, I played it as a kid and for years and years it was the only sport I cared anything about. I am very much a fan. That said, they are so very very different it’s really hard to compare. American Football is about brief bursts of action calculated to make minor advances in pursuit of a long term goal. In between these bursts of action both sides pause to regroup and plan the next move. It’s always about the whole side on every play, with every player having a precise job and it’s very ridged in a lot of ways. It’s a game of action and excitement, in short intense bursts, and then down time to recover. It’s a roller-coaster of highs and lows. It’s a fantastic sport if you can get into it. Soccer is about adapting to changing situations on the fly and improvising within a structured framework. It’s almost the opposite of American Football in that way. It is a fluid game where players make their own decisions about the best move forward. It’s a game of skill and patience and it shares a lot of things with baseball that I didn’t appreciate at first glance. There is a high emphasis on individual skill, it’s a game of suspense rather than excitement, and scoring is precious. It’s a team game, but there is room for the individual. Individual decisions, individual glories. It’s a good balance and I enjoy it a lot. The biggest different is that there isn’t really an individual in American football. It may look like the quarterback is, but he isn’t, he is just the person who starts the action. The head coach could possibly be considered the individual. It is more of less his plan being pitted against the other coaches plans and executed by the players he trains. But on the feild there isn’t a single individual. No single player can accomplish anything on their own. Everything is the team, the unit. It’s all moving pieces working together in lock step and against a common opponent. And it all happens fast and violently. People who aren’t from the states make fun of American Football players and the padding they wear because they don’t understand that the padding is mostly there for the same reason a boxing glove is worn, to let you hit the other guy harder. Helmets and face masks were implemented because people were dying on a regular basis playing the game. Someone said that rugby to American Football would be a better comparison, and while on the one hand it is better than American Football to Soccer, Rugby is far more similar to soccer than it is to American Football. I don’t know what American football is like other than Canadian football and Arena Football. It’s unique. But I can understand why it might be damn near impossible to follow if you don’t know the ins and outs by heart, and there are a lot of ins and outs. I like them both. I understand American Football better, but I like them both. But mostly I think it’s silly to compare them because they share a name. ---
**Author:** ![Phatzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@Phatzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phatzo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/52 "2011-06-01T05:51:39Z")
Ivalid pole, no rugby league, Rugby Union or Australian rules. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/53 "2011-06-01T06:06:47Z")
> [@Phatzo](#): > > Ivalid pole, no rugby league, Rugby Union or Australian rules. what about Gaelic football? or Canadian? You need to broaden your horizons, mate. ---
**Author:** ![Phatzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@Phatzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phatzo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/54 "2011-06-01T06:23:18Z")
Gaelic and Aussie are similar but I’ve never heard of Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/55 "2011-06-01T06:49:02Z")
> [@Phatzo](#): > > Gaelic and Aussie are similar but I’ve never heard of Canadian. Its very close to American. A few significant rules differences, different field dimensions etc. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/56 "2011-06-01T12:02:35Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > Most popular sport in the world versus most popular sport in the US? Second most popular, though coed wrestling is more of a participation sport. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/57 "2011-06-01T13:30:18Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > There you go again, creating cognitive dissonance in my tiny brain. It’s complicated. My beer choices say British, but my food choices say American. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/58 "2011-06-01T17:48:49Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s complicated. My beer choices say British, but my food choices say American. You’ve been drinking the wrong American beers then. Nothing against English beers, but the U.S. has far more variety in my experience. Granted, I understand that many pubs in the U.K. brew their own that never gets exported. And the stuff that does get exported is frequently made outside of the U.K. anyway, but most good liquor stores and beer stores have a far broader selection of American brews in both style and number of producers than can be found in the English brew section. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/59 "2011-06-01T18:06:57Z")
> [@5-HT](#): > > Its very close to American. A few significant rules differences, different field dimensions etc. To a fan of either the Canadian or American game, the differences are noteworthy (primarily number of players on a side, number of downs, size of the field, and offensive motion). But, most of the rules are pretty similar, the ball is pretty much the same, the equipment worn is the same, and the overall look of the game is very similar. If you aren’t a fan of either game, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between an NFL and a CFL game. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849/60 "2011-06-01T21:40:38Z")
I much prefer American football to the Association Code variety. If I wanted brownian motion, I could just watch a cup of coffee. However, I’ve learned I can tolerate soccer if I just focus on the grass growing and tune out the actual players. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-football-or-soccer/583849.md?page=4)