I believe it was George Will who remarked that American football combined the two worst aspects of modern American life - it is three hours of random violence, punctuated by committee meetings.
Regards,
Shodan
There’s a little “Report Post” button in the upper right corner of the OP. Looks like a triangular sign with an exclamation point on it.
ETA: You should probably also request a move to the Game Room
Moving to The Game Room.
Thanks Shagnasty. This is what I wanted. I want to follow the game with understanding.
Brilliant.
I think it is key here to mention that you get 4 downs to advance the ball 10 yards, and if successful you are awarded a fresh set of 4 downs.
If you can, try to catch a college game, they don’t suffer as much as the NFL from having a TV/replay-friendly style, unless it’s a greatly anticipated game. YMMV - the two might not seem as different to you as they do to me.
ETA: What does root (for) mean in Australia? Sounds like you use it like ‘cheer’ which is how Americans use it as well.
Root for the home team and all.
If I hear “footy” context will decide to what I think they refer. On the other hand if they manage to omit the “t” in footy, I will automatically assume they refer to Aussie Rules. This may be a faulty assumption in the North (of Australia).
I think until recently if you said “footy” and meant “soccer” in Australia that would confuse many Australians, i.e. in yonder day if you said “footy” to an Australian they would assume you meant to not refer to soccer.
It means sex. Gives you a totally different mental picture from “root for the home team”, don’t it?
I also came in to suggest you might give college football a try.
In the interests of keeping the apparently tetchy nature of this thread, sorry Martin but you are wrong.
Mention the word footy in Australia, and the listener will not automatically assume you’re talking about soccer.
Rather if you’re in Queensland or New South Wales, 95% will assume you’re talking about league. If you’re in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia or Northern Territory they will presume you’re talking about Australian Rules.
Soccer is a minor part of the sporting calender in Australia, so much so that the national league (the A-League) chooses to make itself a summer sport, so as not to clash with the overwhelming more popular footy codes.
What does “code” mean, in this context?
It’s also ideal for TV because of the wonderful natural opportunities it provides for constant commercial breaks. A free-flowing game like soccer must be a nightmare for advertisers.
I think the way American football is played has a close analogue in how modern war is conducted. Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan might well say of modern soldiers, “why is everything so regimented, and why do they sit around planning so much? If they’re warriors, why don’t they just get out there and fight?!”
ETA: and in America, a “footy” is a little disposable nylon sock that ladies put over their feet when they’re trying on new shoes at the department store.
Huh. Ignorance fought.
I may have the mentality of a 14 year old, but as sequential comments go this amused me.
Others have already touched on this, but the key distinction between American Football and many other vaguely similar games (rugby, aussie rules, even soccer) is the start-and-stop nature, the the idea of calling plays. Sure in something like soccer you have some number of setpieces where you might have a somewhat intricate pre-planned set of things to do (“those guys all run one way, and that guy runs some other way, and we pretend we’re doing X but we’re really doing Y” or whatever). But most of the time in soccer things are constantly in motion and people are constantly improvising what precisely they should be doing at that exact moment.
American Football, on the other hand, is basically nothing BUT setpieces. So, not surprisingly, that’s where all the effort is put. Each team has a huge library of extremely intricate different plays pre-planned and very well practiced… and these are not just “ok, Joe runs down the left sideline and we throw the ball to him”. Each play has a huge tree of possibilties… “Joe runs down the left sideline, and we hope to throw the ball to him, but if he doesn’t get open, then we look to Frank on the right sideline, meanwhile Joe has doubled back…” etc.
So there’s MUCH more of a chess-game aspect between the coaches than in any other sport I’m familiar with. Sure in soccer the coaches ahead of time try to figure out what type of lineup or formation their opponents will go with, and try to counter that, and readjust over the course of the game, etc. But in American Football, that’s happening every single play over the course of the game.
Now, this isn’t necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, it’s just different. Although it does lend itself very well to being shown and discussed on commerical TV.
It’s the start-and-stop nature that makes football the only watchable sport in my book. Soccer, hockey, or basketball seem so pointless - “Oh, they’re running one way. Now they’re running the other way!” Yawn
You would get that from a baseball fan.
One of the nice things about college, and even better, high school football, is that they aren’t as good as the NFL. Their mistakes reveal what they were trying to do, and what the plan behind the moves is. Plus, since there are mistakes, the play will sometimes break open and exciting stuff happens. Professional NFL football is very drilled and very good, to the point where it can seem choreographed.