Why is Football in America so very regimented?

[Hello_Again]

@Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension

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.

It is important to note that in some parts of the US, college football is as popular, if not more popular than professional football. The largest football stadium in America is not home to a professional team. It belongs to the University of Michigan, and is known popularly as “The Big House.” It’s capacity, 111,000+, is just shy of the entire population of the city it is located in (the moderately sized college town of Ann Arbor, MI, with 113,000 residents). In fact, the Twelve largest football stadiums in the US, all belong to college teams and see college play exclusively.

The stadium shared by the Jets and the Giants, just outside New York City, is the largest professional stadium, at 82,000 seats.

[Ogre]

@Hello_Again

It is important to note that in some parts of the US, college football is as popular, if not more popular than professional football. The largest football stadium in America is not home to a professional team. It belongs to the University of Michigan, and is known popularly as “The Big House.” It’s capacity, 111,000+, is just shy of the entire population of the city it is located in (the moderately sized college town of Ann Arbor, MI, with 113,000 residents). In fact, the Twelve largest football stadiums in the US, all belong to college teams and see college play exclusively.

The stadium shared by the Jets and the Giants, just outside New York City, is the largest professional stadium, at 82,000 seats.

And this may seem redundant, but yes, Michigan and all those other big 100,000+ stadiums will fill every single seat every Saturday during college football season.

[RickJay]

Title of the thread changes at the OP’s request.

As to the OP, the answer is really very simple; because American football in a series of discrete plays, not a game of continuous action. In terms of game flow it’s more like cricket than it is like soccer.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

@kenetic

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

Nice username-post combo.

[wolfman]

@Ogre

And this may seem redundant, but yes, Michigan and all those other big 100,000+ stadiums will fill every single seat every Saturday during college football season.

Technically they fill more than every seat. They official seating capacity is 109k but get more than 110K most weeks, counting staff.

[Kent_Clark]

@MaxTheVool

American Football, on the other hand, is basically nothing BUT setpieces.

I think the reason for this is the emergence of the forward pass. When you complete a pass, the play has to stop to reset the line of scrimmage, move the chains, etc. When the pass is incomplete, play has to stop to return the ball to the previous spot.

Which leads me to a question. I’m not familiar with other types of (what an American would call) football. Do the CFL and Aussie rules teams have the same passing rules? If so, how do they deal with the start-stop tempo?

[Telemark]

@kunilou

Which leads me to a question. I’m not familiar with other types of (what an American would call) football. Do the CFL and Aussie rules teams have the same passing rules? If so, how do they deal with the start-stop tempo?

CFL has very similar rules. Aussie Rules is more like rugby than American football. Americans can easily follow CFL, they wouldn’t be able to make any sense of Aussie rules.

[OldGuy]

@kunilou

Which leads me to a question. I’m not familiar with other types of (what an American would call) football. Do the CFL and Aussie rules teams have the same passing rules? If so, how do they deal with the start-stop tempo?

CFL football is very similar to American (US) football. The major differences are 12 players per team and only 3 downs to get ten yards. If you were just watching casually, the first thing you might wonder is “Why is the end zone so big?” (It’s 25 yards deep). You might next wonder why they were punting on 3rd down. There are of course a few other differences like man in motion rules, rouges, etc, but you might never notice those.

Aussie rules is somewhere between rugby and soccer though closer to the former as there’s little kicking the ball on the ground. You can run with the ball, and you can be tackled. But there are no scrums, and you can pass the ball forward by knocking it out of one hand with the other (you can’t throw it). Most progress is made by running it or punting it. The basic goal is to get it to the opponents end of the field and between the goal posts. They actually have two sets. Between the inner set scores 6 between the outer set but not between the inner set scores 1.

[kenobi_65]

Since I don’t think this question has been answered yet:

@Dennis_Arthur_PERRETT

Defence comes on and Offence goes off and vice versa

An NFL team will have 45 “active players” on their roster for any given game. As you’ve seen, they only have 11 players on the field at a time…yet, nearly every active player gets in the game at some point.

Players nearly always specialize in playing either on offense or on defense; it’s extremely rare for a player to play on “both sides” of the ball – and, these days, when it’s done, it’s nearly always because a team is running out of uninjured players at a particular position, and has to have a player play at a different position. For instance, the New England Patriots, in the past few games, have been playing Julian Edelman, one of their reserve wide receivers (an offensive player) play on defense, as a defensive back, because they’ve suffered so many injuries among their defensive backs.

Teams will frequently change players from play to play, even if they aren’t changing from offense to defense (or vice-versa). Over the past three or four decades, the game has gotten very specialized, and teams will run different “packages” of players for different kinds of plays. For example, if an offense needs to get a lot of yardage quickly, they will go into a “passing package”, which means they will put four or five wide receivers on the field at once (a “standard” offensive package would typically only have two wide receivers). In response, the defense will go to a “nickel package” or “dime package”, which means they’re putting more defensive backs on the field (the fast guys who are good at staying with the wide receivers), as well as possibly putting in players who specialize in pass rushing (i.e., chasing the quarterback).

In addition to offense and defense, there’s actually a third type of player group: special teams, which refers to any play in which the ball is actually kicked (field goals, extra points, punts, kickoffs). Most of the players who play on special teams are reserve players at offensive or defensive positions, but there are usually at least two players who only play on special teams: the kicker and the punter. (You might find it interesting to note that several NFL punters have come to the NFL from Australian Rules football.)

[RickJay]

@OldGuy

CFL football is very similar to American (US) football. The major differences are 12 players per team and only 3 downs to get ten yards. If you were just watching casually, the first thing you might wonder is “Why is the end zone so big?” (It’s 25 yards deep).

20 yards, actually.

[kenobi_65]

@Miller

What does “code” mean, in this context?

I think it refers to a particular set of football rules (Australian, American, Canadian, rugby, etc.)

[kenobi_65]

Oh, and if you’re looking for an NFL team to root for, may I humbly suggest the Green Bay Packers?

They’re currently the defending Super Bowl champions, and they also have the best record in the NFL this year (having finally suffered their first loss last Sunday).

The Packers have won more championships than any other NFL team (though partisans of the Steelers and Cowboys will point out that their teams have won more Super Bowls than the Packers – the NFL has been in existence since 1920, but the Super Bowl only started with the 1966 season).

And, the Packers are the only NFL team which is community-owned. There are over 100,000 shareholders of the team (stock was originally sold to keep the team solvent, many decades ago, and additional shares have been issued several times since, to raise money for various purposes, most recently for stadium expansion). The team’s bylaws prevents any one person from accumulating a large number of shares, and also makes it practically impossible for the team to be moved, which is how a city of only about 100,000 people has been able to keep an NFL franchise.

(OK, I should disclose that I’m a Packer season ticket holder, and a shareholder. )

[Koxinga]

I once saw a fight nearly break out at an international hostel, when an innocent Aussie queried a Packers fan: “These Green Bay Packers, so what exactly do they pack anyway?” and the grizzled old Chicago guy sitting across the room sort of cough/whispered: “fudge” . . .

[GreedySmurf]

@kenobi_65

I think it refers to a particular set of football rules (Australian, American, Canadian, rugby, etc.)

Correct.

The term is a little old fashioned these days, but once upon a time you could ask which football code you followed. IE Rugby League, Rugby Union, Australian Rules, or Soccer. I presume it derived from the sense of the different ‘code of rules’ for the game

In a country which has four different games which can all be called football, it’s an often asked question.

[Dennis_Arthur_PERRETT]

@kenetic

I may have the mentality of a 14 year old, but as sequential comments go this amused me.

Me too.

[Dennis_Arthur_PERRETT]

Thats Gold Mate! That Aussie is still telling that story to his mates today. That was funny.

[amanset]

Those interested in the connections between Rugby and American Football might be interested in reading (or even watching) a bit about Rugby League. There are actually two different versions of Rugby, Rugby Union and Rugby League, and they are really quite different to each other. Personally I find Union (the one I grew up playing) to be more free flowing and hence like Football/Soccer (although even then, the “stop and set” nature of the scrum shows possibly where some of the ideas that developed into American Football come from) whereas I can’t help but see clear connections between League and American Football.

The two main connections, for me, are firstly the fact that there is much less passing of the ball, instead spending a large portion of the game running straight at the opposition much like can be seen in American Football. Secondly, there is the concept of the sixth tackle. Much like American Football, in Rugby Union you can’t keep playing as long as you have the ball and once your are down (properly down, that is, again like American Football) you have to stop and everyone gets back into position, although not with a thirty second clock. Much like the American Football idea of “downs”, in Rugby League each teams is allowed six tackles, essentially six plays, in which to score. The first four or five of those are generally used to gain ground/position, with a more Union-style passing game played for the final tackles. Unlike American Football, there is no way to refresh your tackle count.

[Bryan_Ekers]

This thread is why hockey is a much better spectator sport.

[don_t_ask]

@amanset

The two main connections, for me, are firstly the fact that there is much less passing of the ball, instead spending a large portion of the game running straight at the opposition much like can be seen in American Football.

Obviously you are talking about low class park rugby union where people are playing for the joy of the game. At the highest levels rugby union is like a rugby league game from 50 years ago with the defence only about a yard away from the attacking side and play consisting of constant recycling of the ball by having forwards run one or two yards from one ruck to the next. Like this or the last few minutes of the world cup final after France turned the ball over.

As to the OP, a bunch of us at work were discussing American football recently. We are all league fans. Someone remarked that there is no “Wow” factor in American football. You just watch the play unfold and it is successful or not but it rarely contains a surprise. We kind of like Tebow because seeing a QB scramble is a novelty otherwise all they do is handoff or pass. A great playmaker in League, say Thurston or Benji Marshall will make up plays on the fly that are that “Wow” factor because you don’t see them coming. Here’s Marshall in action.

[amanset]

@don_t_ask

Obviously you are talking about low class park rugby union where people are playing for the joy of the game. At the highest levels rugby union is like a rugby league game from 50 years ago with the defence only about a yard away from the attacking side and play consisting of constant recycling of the ball by having forwards run one or two yards from one ruck to the next. Like this or the last few minutes of the world cup final after France turned the ball over.

Whereas League is 4-5 tackles of “man runs straight at opposition, gets tackled, resets” followed by one (or maybe two!) plays which has any form of passing. If you are trying to claim that at the highest levels that Union has thrown away passing to such a degree that it is almost indistinguishable from League then I’m afraid you’ve probably been watching the wrong sport.

One video and comments about two minutes of a match in the last World Cup isn’t exactly a compelling set of evidence. Hell, the big complaint about England (especially from Southern Hemisphere teams) is that they play too often like that, instead of a flowing passing game. England are supposed to be different precisely because they rely on forward play, recycling and multiple phases.