# Help me see the appealing in sports like Hockey and Soccer **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 30, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742 "2013-05-30T20:14:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Molesworth\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Molesworth\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molesworth_2)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/41 "2013-06-06T11:39:21Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > [MODERATING] > > Molesworth 2, your comments on the alleged deficiencies of American football are bordering on trolling and are threadshitting. You will cease that line of commentary at once. > > RickJay > Moderator Perhaps I should start my own thread: “Help me see the appealing (sic) in sports like American Football and Baseball”. ---
**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 6, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/42 "2013-06-06T13:45:20Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > [MODERATING] > > Really Not All That Bright, that was a personal insult and you will utter no more of them. Huh? > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > If this is your assessment of the role of an international centre-back then I seriously doubt you have any knowledge of football at all. > > I really don’t like the man but know enough to realise that his technical skills, passing, control, shooting ability etc. etc. are stratospheric compared to mere mortals and are obviously of a high enough standard for him to hold his own at the highest level. I’m not saying John Terry isn’t a great player, just that if you wanted to point out a _highly skilled_ player he’s a bad example. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/43 "2013-06-06T14:36:40Z")
> [@Molesworth\_2](#): > > Perhaps I should start my own thread: “Help me see the appealing (sic) in sports like American Football and Baseball”. Perhaps you missed this: _No snark intended by this topic, and I’m not looking to make an argument for what’s the best sport to watch._ **RickJay** , you can go ahead and close this. I actually got some good answers before the threadshitting arguments started. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/44 "2013-06-06T15:20:12Z")
> [@President\_Johnny\_Gentle](#): > > And an American football fan would say that NFL teams don’t sign 5 year olds, unlike Manchester United. Just because development programs vary between the sports doesn’t necessarily make one objectively more skilled than the other. The skills required are different, but that doesn’t mean that American football is lacking in the need for skills. > > Watson and Okoye were drafted/signed based entirely on potential. Since Okoye wasn’t drafted, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he never saw game action. Watson will probably see playing time because of where he was drafted, but he’s viewed as an enormous risk as well. Most of the teams that he was projected to go to would have had the opportunity to slowly develop him - not so Oakland. Even then, their apparent plans are to slot him in on the right side of the offensive line. That’s notable, since the left side positions are considered to be more important. > > And pure athleticism has never been enough by itself to make it in the NFL. Thirty years ago, the 49ers decided to sign Renaldo Nehemiah based off of his track skills. It turned out that he wasn’t capable of developing the skills necessary to make a splash in the NFL. It’s my point that there is simply no way that someone who had never played soccer until their 20s could acquire the skills to become a professional player. An EPL club wouldn’t bother with such a player, no matter how great an athlete they are as they will struggle to get themselves up to Sunday League level (lowest organised amateur level). I am not saying that no skill at all is required to play in the NFL, I’m just stating that in terms of skill requirements soccer and American football are at the ends of the spectrum. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/45 "2013-06-06T15:37:04Z")
Hockey’s entertaining to me, although it suffers from the same problem baseball does, in that there are too many games, so any one game doesn’t typically matter. Good soccer is entertaining- and by good soccer, I mean aggressive soccer where both teams are trying to make plays on goal. Too much soccer is mid-field strategic play where they pass it around and try and maintain control while setting up their strickers; this is boring as hell for the most part, even when you know what’s going on. Combine that with the predilection of many players to flop and feign injury, and you have a recipe for something that is about as fun as watching paint dry. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/46 "2013-06-06T17:54:08Z")
One of the appeals of both hockey and futbol is the general absence of specialization. In particular, American football has become a game of extreme specialization and, while I’m still a very interested observer, has diminished its attractiveness to me by doing so. The presence of fairly normal sized athletes both attacking and defending satisfies something in me that watching outlandishly large and/or outlandishly fast specialists doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/47 "2013-06-06T19:03:52Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m not saying John Terry isn’t a great player, just that if you wanted to point out a _highly skilled_ player he’s a bad example. Fair enough, but it wasn’t obvious to me that your original comment was hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/48 "2013-06-06T19:39:36Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > One of the appeals of both hockey and futbol is the general absence of specialization. In particular, American football has become a game of extreme specialization and, while I’m still a very interested observer, has diminished its attractiveness to me by doing so. The presence of fairly normal sized athletes both attacking and defending satisfies something in me that watching outlandishly large and/or outlandishly fast specialists doesn’t. It’s funny - extreme specialization is exactly what _attracts_ me to American football (and baseball), and lack of same is why I find soccer less interesting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/49 "2013-06-06T19:47:44Z")
Well, it’s not like soccer is without specialization. You don’t stick a centre back up front or a striker in defense, or for that matter a full back in central midfield or a goalkeeper anywhere but in goal, etc. Well, that is, unless you’re trying to bring back [Total Football](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Football). ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/50 "2013-06-06T20:12:32Z")
> [@storyteller0910](#): > > It’s funny - extreme specialization is exactly what _attracts_ me to American football (and baseball), and lack of same is why I find soccer less interesting. 🙂 🙂 One of my best friends takes this exact approach in our many arguments about sports. He doesn’t want to see regular-sized people performing on the field, he wants to see Supermen. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/51 "2013-06-06T21:42:11Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Well, it’s not like soccer is without specialization. You don’t stick a centre back up front or a striker in defense, or for that matter a full back in central midfield or a goalkeeper anywhere but in goal, etc. Well, that is, unless you’re trying to bring back [Total Football](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Football). But I think you could play every single member of a football team out of position and still get a decent, professional standard performance from them. The same could not be said of American football. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/52 "2013-06-07T12:45:00Z")
This week’s Sports Illustrated contained a piece about the proliferation in the numbers of coaches and support staffers at big time college football programs. Another one of the appeals of soccer and to a certain extent, hockey, is that play is fairly continuous and the players are largely free of clear direction from the sideline. Basketball games can feature something like six timeouts in the last four minutes of play, which really interrupts the flow. NFL quarterbacks have a radio receiver in their helmets to get the latest instruction. College football offenses get set, then stand up en masse and look to the sideline for the audible. All of which drive me insane. Especially when Navy does it because they only have _three fucking plays_. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/53 "2013-06-07T14:06:10Z")
I watch a lot of sports and understand that American Football requires a huge amount of pre-game planning, resulting in e.g. a offensive playbook where every player on that team needs to know what he must do when the QB calls a particular play. And the game itself is a series of bursts of strenuous effort punctuated by breaks (which earn the sport loads of money from TV adverts.) In soccer, the game requires more stamina - as there is far more time with the ball in play during the 90 minute game; only a handful of substitutes etc. Neither game is ‘superior’. They require different physiques and different training techniques. Having said that, I’d like to recommend another sport - which is easy to follow, incredibly intense and demands high levels of skill and versatility from every player: - [Rugby sevens](http://www.usasevens.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Shearer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Shearer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shearer)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/54 "2013-06-10T08:50:56Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Well, it’s not like soccer is without specialization. You don’t stick a centre back up front or a striker in defense, or for that matter a full back in central midfield or a goalkeeper anywhere but in goal, etc. Well, that is, unless you’re trying to bring back [Total Football](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Football). Well, If you’re Stuart Pearce you might try a goalkeeper upfront if you need a goal. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZj7xcehvOU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZj7xcehvOU) ---
**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 10, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742/55 "2013-06-10T13:21:45Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Fair enough, but it wasn’t obvious to me that your original comment was hyperbole. On re-reading, it wasn’t obvious to me either, so I’ll withdraw it. > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > But I think you could play every single member of a football team out of position and still get a decent, professional standard performance from them. The same could not be said of American football. You might just as easily say that proves it’s a less skilled game, not more. I think you’re wrong about that, though. Remember when Ruud Gullit went to Chelsea for his retirement tour? He moved to sweeper and everyone was really surprised to find out he was good at it because he’d always been an attacking player. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-see-the-appealing-in-sports-like-hockey-and-soccer/659742.md?page=2)