Have any of you British saddo'ers tried to like American football?

[Beanz]

Cricket, football and rugby are played by billions all over the world. Their ubiquity is not merely dictated by how easily even a street kid with no money can easily improvise without a marked out grid/pitch or full set of equipment, but by the very nature of the games. There are regular international competitions and enough variables and spontaneity to always provide room for individual creativity and a spectacle for even the neutral. AF seems more gridlike and inflexible, and insular. Is baseball not huge in Puerto Rico then?

[TitoFan]

Cricket, football and rugby are played by billions all over the world. Their ubiquity is not merely dictated by how easily even a street kid with no money can easily improvise without a marked out grid/pitch or full set of equipment, but by the very nature of the games. There are regular international competitions and enough variables and spontaneity to always provide room for individual creativity and a spectacle for even the neutral. AF seems more gridlike and inflexible, and insular. Is baseball not huge in Puerto Rico then?

Oh yeah... baseball's immensely popular in Puerto Rico, as well as in most of the Caribbean. I thoroughly enjoy playing baseball... but watching not so much. The game's a bit too slow for me. However, I am a student of the history of the game, and enjoy its statistics. I'll also watch international competitions, such as the World Baseball Classic, where countries from all over the world compete in elimination brackets, much like the World Cup. And I'll watch World Series games, although for the life of me I've never figured out why they call it the "World Series" when it's only the championship of Major League Baseball in the U.S.

Regarding AF, I don't find it inflexible at all. Maybe it's a matter of what you've grown up with... or maybe it's just a matter of personal taste. I like the play calling, the strategy involved, and the many possibilities when both the offense and defense line up for a play. I find it fascinating that the defense is constantly trying to outguess and confuse the offense into a turnover or a negative play.

I think every sport has its pros and cons... and one thing I like in a sport is the willingness to tweak the rules every so often if it merits tweaking. Not constant changes, mind you. Just the occasional tweak.