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

[Beanz]

@TitoFan that is an amazingly restrained and adult response to a very flippant post from myself. To be honest I have never been able to get past about 15 minutes of a game. I don't even really watch Premiership football on TV much, I much prefer going to watch my own cities team live. Therein for me lies the rub, I have no dog in the fight and so it's hard to be interested. I will occasionally watch the Rugby if England are playing the Aussies etc and for me it is a much more fluid and improvisational game to watch. Play is much more spontaneous with individuals running the virtual length of the pitch to score trys. College football seems to rehearsed and mechanical, defensive and without wanting to be offensive a bit dumb to the outsider.

[boyla]

English here
I watch the super bowl live every year, and enjoy it immensely.

I played American football, in school, a America coach came and sparked our interests, we tried organizing a team outside of school, but tag American football(using ribbons not physically tackling players), was while fun a diluted game and totally different from what we practiced, eg the real game without pads and helmets.

In uni I was told there was a team, I trained and played without equipment, had fun then they expected us to shell out £300~500usd for our own equipment, can not be sure on the price, but I didn't have the money to continue, felt like a loser borrowing equipment every session, so I quit.
I could of done some traveling and got pieces of 2nd hand equipment for around £80, but didn't even have that spare money or a car to collect the equipment.


I played Corner Back, but liked to be a Lineman as well, big build with a fast sprint.

In my town rugby was never a big deal, football was the be all and end all and it is no exaggeration to say I played football every day from 10-16.

I miss AF, and might give rugby a try, because I know I will not have to fork out lots of money just to practice with pads.

I would say the following of American football outside of uni, is very low, UFC is well know and popular, even Ice hockey is more popular we actually have semi-professional teams.

It is hard for American football, to achieve a following when rugby is a established sport which any kid can play, where as their is few(any) AF teams outside of uni, the costs of participating are astonishing.

[TitoFan]

@TitoFan that is an amazingly restrained and adult response to a very flippant post from myself. To be honest I have never been able to get past about 15 minutes of a game. I don't even really watch Premiership football on TV much, I much prefer going to watch my own cities team live. Therein for me lies the rub, I have no dog in the fight and so it's hard to be interested. I will occasionally watch the Rugby if England are playing the Aussies etc and for me it is a much more fluid and improvisational game to watch. Play is much more spontaneous with individuals running the virtual length of the pitch to score trys. College football seems to rehearsed and mechanical, defensive and without wanting to be offensive a bit dumb to the outsider.

@Greenbeanz, I guess a big part of it is not having a "dog in the fight", as you put it. I don't live in the U.S., and thus do not share that bond people have in football cities, where they paint their faces in the team's colors, and crowd the stadiums dressed in all sorts of strange and colorful garb. They have their famous tailgate parties and generally have all kinds of fun at the stadium. I've only ever been to one NFL game live, and that was when I went to visit a brother-in-law in Jacksonville a couple of years ago.

Another big part of it is what you grew up with. I was introduced to American football at a fairly young age, and even got the chance to play in high school and one year at the college level. Something about the game truly appeals to me, even though like I said before, there are gaps in the action. It depends what you compare it to. We usually compare it to baseball, where of course there's no comparison as far as the flow of the game. Baseball is much, much slower. And yet it also has an appeal to many people. I personally cannot bring myself to watch a whole baseball game, unless it's the World Series or the World Baseball Classic. And yet I'll sit there and watch a whole game of Little League baseball, because I find the skill of these 12-year olds to be fascinating.

Association football, admittedly, is something I've learned to like in the last 10 years or so. The lack of scoring used to be an obstacle to me... but thanks to some buddies of mine, I've learned to appreciate the finer points of the game. As in any sport, international competitions add some spice to the pot for me... so I started just watching the World Cup. Now I'll catch the occasional Premiership game, or games from La Liga, which they sometimes televise here. But at this point I still prefer to watch international competitions.

[TitoFan]

English here
I watch the super bowl live every year, and enjoy it immensely.

I played American football, in school, a America coach came and sparked our interests, we tried organizing a team outside of school, but tag American football(using ribbons not physically tackling players), was while fun a diluted game and totally different from what we practiced, eg the real game without pads and helmets.

In uni I was told there was a team, I trained and played without equipment, had fun then they expected us to shell out £300~500usd for our own equipment, can not be sure on the price, but I didn't have the money to continue, felt like a loser borrowing equipment every session, so I quit.
I could of done some traveling and got pieces of 2nd hand equipment for around £80, but didn't even have that spare money or a car to collect the equipment.


I played Corner Back, but liked to be a Lineman as well, big build with a fast sprint.

In my town rugby was never a big deal, football was the be all and end all and it is no exaggeration to say I played football every day from 10-16.

I miss AF, and might give rugby a try, because I know I will not have to fork out lots of money just to practice with pads.

I would say the following of American football outside of uni, is very low, UFC is well know and popular, even Ice hockey is more popular we actually have semi-professional teams.

It is hard for American football, to achieve a following when rugby is a established sport which any kid can play, where as their is few(any) AF teams outside of uni, the costs of participating are astonishing.

Excellent insight from an Englishman on American football! Obviously cost is a big issue. AF equipment is definitely not cheap. And unless you play for a school or another organization which supplies the equipment, it puts a big burden on those who'd like to participate. Rugby, in comparison, requires little or no investment at all and is obviously a more feasible alternative to young kids.

I played in high school and one year of college, where I didn't have to worry about forking out money for equipment. So I think it's admirable when people get together to play AF without that sort of backing, and still shell out the money for the gear.

You mentioned flag football. Flag football is basically AF without the tackling. Flag football is pretty popular in the U.S., not only because it's cheaper, but probably also because less risk of a serious injury, especially when you have to report to work the following Monday.

And then there's the Super Bowl. I also enjoy immensely and watch it every year. But you'd be interested in knowing that sometimes the playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl are as (or more) enjoyable as the SB itself. Thankfully, the SB has been more competitive in the last several years. But there was a period of time when SB's were generally blowouts, and most people tuned in to watch the halftime show.

[Gandalf]

Good God, hell no! I've watched it for periods of 20 minutes, thought 'WTF?' repeatedly and then given up.

That is not my idea of fun. It seems to be the same with me for all US sports. I deplore basketball, baseball, and American football all for different reasons.

[erics44]

I used to play for my University

it was fun, not a spectators sport tho is it

and obviously poo compared to real football

[TitoFan]

Good God, hell no! I've watched it for periods of 20 minutes, thought 'WTF?' repeatedly and then given up.

That is not my idea of fun. It seems to be the same with me for all US sports. I deplore basketball, baseball, and American football all for different reasons.

I have to admit... I myself am not much into watching baseball (too slow) or basketball, particularly during the regular season. I will watch playoff games, however. But I'm curious. What is it specifically about American football that you don't like?

[TitoFan]

I used to play for my University

it was fun, not a spectators sport tho is it

and obviously poo compared to real football

You played American football at the college level?
Cool!
Where did you play? And what position did you play?

[Fenster]

I don't watch it (seen a couple of superbowls over the years), but the tactical aspect quite appeals to me. If I lived in America and started supporting a team i'd probably get into it.

[TitoFan]

I don't watch it (seen a couple of superbowls over the years), but the tactical aspect quite appeals to me. If I lived in America and started supporting a team i'd probably get into it.

I think you nailed it regarding the tactical aspect. This is what most appeals to me about the game. The hundreds of different plays and formations, both on offense and on defense. Playing to a team's strengths and weaknesses. Weather conditions dictating a game plan.

No other sport, that I know of, matches this degree of tactical strategy.

[Gandalf]

Good God, hell no! I've watched it for periods of 20 minutes, thought 'WTF?' repeatedly and then given up.

That is not my idea of fun. It seems to be the same with me for all US sports. I deplore basketball, baseball, and American football all for different reasons.

I have to admit... I myself am not much into watching baseball (too slow) or basketball, particularly during the regular season. I will watch playoff games, however. But I'm curious. What is it specifically about American football that you don't like?

I just find it boring. If you are going to play a sport like that then just play rugby. It's done in 80 minutes.

I just don't enjoy it.

[GOAT]

First the disclaimer:

This is not a British vs American sports thread.
Sports are sports, and they should all be cherished, practiced, and/or watched.

Now that I cleared that up, I'm just curious. Does American football (pro or college) have any type of following in the UK? I know over there it's basically Association football first and foremost. I've learned to rather enjoy the sport myself. The biggest hurdle for me at first was the lack of scoring. But once you learn to enjoy the sheer ball handling skill...

I stopped reading there. Very british...

[Kirkland Laing]

We have a name for exhilarating in Texas and it is Johnny Fucking Football. The SEC is thinking about expanding with a couple NFL teams next season.

College teams are going to play NFL teams next year? How does thaty work?

[Kirkland Laing]

i went to a few games and people explained it to me and it's OK to watch. I'd probably watch the odd game on TV if it coincided with spare time. I don't watch a lot of football either, almost no Premier league at all, maybe a couple of games a year. Used to watch Barcelona all the time but they get boring after a while, I watch the barcelona Madrid games though.

[VictorCharlie]

It was a joke Kirk. The SEC is far and away the most dominant college football conference and there is still lots of talk about expanding so obviously we are going to need some pro teams to give us some competition.