Pre-Poll Data Gathering: Football/Soccer/Rugby/etc.

The Game Room
1

If there’s already been a poll on the issue just ignore this and point me to it, please.

The furor over the racket at the World’s Cup and the ensuing argument about the value of soccer as compared with football has suggested to me we need a sense of how Dopers view play on a large rectangular field with a ball or something similar.

Here are the games/sports I know of that have that feature. Please add to the list. Maybe we can get a definitive poll together on the issue.

FIFA Football (Soccer)
American Football
Rugby
Hockey
Lacrosse
Polo

Perhaps pro versus amateur might be subdivisions to consider.

Play versus watch another distinction.

What else?

2

The criterion is team ball games played on a large field, right? And games with goals or endzones or some other target into which the ball must be propelled, so cricket wouldn’t count even if played on a rectangular pitch?

Rugby comes in two main varieties, and they’re significantly different - Rugby Union and Rugby League. If you have seen rugby played in the US, it was almost certainly Union.
There’s also:
Gaelic football (kind of like a cross between rugby and soccer), a big sport in Ireland
Australian Rules football - not a million miles away from Gaelic football, but played on a large oval pitch so might not meet your criteria. Teams from the two sports sometimes play each other under halfway-house “International Rules”.
Hurling - gaelic sport a bit like a brutal version of field hockey
Shinty - even more like field hockey, now a fairly minor amateur sport played in Scotland
Obviously there’s also Canadian football, but you maybe included that under American.

I believe those Gaelic sports are mostly amateur or semi-pro.

3

Good stuff, Ximenean. I’m familiar with just a few of those.

Your point about

sounds right to me, but there may be some “gray zones” that are not quite as clearly distinctive that I just don’t know about.

I’d vote against including cricket, but I know next to nothing about the game.

It definitely needs to be an outdoor game, so basketball and ice hockey are excluded.

4

Also, given we are talking about ballgames, that is Field Hockey right? You forgot handball, futsal, ultimate frisbee?

5

There’s also rugby sevens, which is another subdivision of rugby union. This is what’s going to be played at the next Olympics, not full rugby union.

Also, isn’t Canadian Football different from American Football?

6

Yes, the Gaelic Athletic Association sports are amateur. Learn Why GAA is Better Than Soccer. Gaelic Football & Hurling use the same pitch, to make it easier on the communities. Don’t forget Camogie–essentially, Hurling for women.

I’m hardly a jock, but my cable system used to have a channel featuring off-the-wall sports, including the football variants. Surprisingly, I found them rather interesting. Living in Texas, I’ve developed an allergy to American Football.

7

As my ignorance of way more than half of these games prevents me from forming any meaningful conclusion about what a poll should contain or even look like, I yield that operation to anyone interested.

Thanks for the input, but I haven’t a clue!