Sport. Love it? Hate it? Which do you do and/or watch?

[Asmodean]

Don't spoil my illusions  :hmm:

EDIT:

This sport, yes?

[AnimatedDirt]

I actually prefer Gridiron to soccer. At least with gridiron you know when to bother to watch! I also like watching the quarter back getting sacked! There is something I find hilarious about the inevitable demise of the poor little guy as he gets pounded to oblivion by some huge defensive tackle!

By Gridiron, do you mean American Football?

We just finished having the Superbowl here in the states.  111 million viewed the game apparently.  It's big, so big it gets people that have no interest in football to watch it simply because it is so big. (in the states)

I don't like the game that much.  I appreciate it, played it in high school, watch it anyway when the team are to my liking, but I find it more and more silly.  I cannot stand all the padding and helmets these "real men" wear to play the game.  They are getting hurt left and right.  What it is, to me, is a bunch of fat boys in a line who cannot run 100 yards without needing pure oxygen afterwards.  They are barely able to move fast for a few seconds at a time.  TIME!  Let's talk TIME.  The average football game takes about 3 hours to play.  Guess how much ACTUAL PLAY TIME that works out to?  Actual 'ball in play' time is somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes...some estimate up to 30 minutes, but it depends on what one counts as "play time".
11 Minutes of Action
Add to this the idiocy of the running backs that are mostly robots.  They are conditioned that the play is to go through the "2" hole...regardless of an erected concrete wall, they will try running through the concrete wall.  No sense of "oh damn, it's blocked...let me try going around...".  No, they insist on hitting the wall of bodies.  Sometimes a short gain, even less times, a long gain, mostly no gain whatsoever.  Blockheads, really.

I was recently in Johannesburg for 3 weeks.  TV on Joburg really sucks!  I am spoiled apparently with a few hundred stations to choose from.  I had the opportunity to watch lots and lots of cricket, rugby, and soccer.  Cricket grew on me the more I understood, but then again, I was a prisoner to the half dozen stations available.  Soccer is exciting, but not really my thing.  RUGBY...well...now that is a rough sport!  Padding?  What padding?  I think some of the guys stuffed their shoulders with a few squares of toilet paper, but that's all!! Endurance, strength, running, tackles, diving, head crashing...I think our Am. Football players would be broken to pieces and/or laid out of breath on the grass within a few moments.

There's my rant against Am. Football.  I still like to watch it, find it entertaining...

[Cecilie]

[Cecilie]

[Cecilie]

[Cecilie]

I watch pretty much every sport Norway's good at... That being biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, alpine skiing, nordic combined and women's handball.

[Tank]

OK, OK we read it the first time  :upset:

[Tank]

I used to follow the Chicago Bears when 'The Fridge' played for them, yes it was a long time ago. My wife bought me an original Bears jacket that year. Ten years later I got to go to Chicago, so I took my jacket. Little did I know that wearing a ten year old jacket from that season marked me out as a real hard-core fan! It took a while for me to work out why people came up to me in the street asking for directions only to be really surprised at my accent! Finally one of them explained about the situation. So I didn't wear the jacket and suddenly discovered how f****ing annoying Chicago shop assistants can be! The jacket worked like insect repellent on them. So I bought a map of Chicago and got to know the main road names and put the jacket back on and started to feel right at home!

[Asmodean]

Clicking "refresh" when the post appears not to have posted is... Not the best move one can make.  

[Whitney]

Clicking "refresh" when the post appears not to have posted is... Not the best move one can make.  

Sometimes the server times out...but using the back button instead of refresh prevents double posting in those cases (and lessens the chance of loosing whatever you were trying to post if it didn't make it to the database).

[Cecilie]

Lol, sorry about that. I was impatient.

[LegendarySandwich]

Physical sports are a big "eh" to me. However, I do enjoy activities/hobbies that some might call sports such as chess, billiards, fuze ball, etc.

[Tom62]

I like to watch tennis, the occasional football (soccer) game and full-contact sports.

[AnimatedDirt]

Physical sports are a big "eh" to me. However, I do enjoy activities/hobbies that some might call sports such as chess, billiards, fuze ball, etc.

I was a foosball "champ" back in college.  Lots of wasted time at the foosball table.  Fun game though.

[hismikeness]

I am a huge sports fan. Huge! My favorites are Football (not kick and chase soccer), basketball and track and field. I will watch golf if Tiger is playing. Baseball is fun at the stadium but is boring on tv. Any sporting event is better live at the arena/stadium than watching on tv, though with the advances in HD and surround sound, tv is getting closer to the real thing.

I played high level college football in the States. I never got a shot at the NFL, that is to say I wasn't drafted. I could have tried as a "free agent" which is an undrafted player trying to make the team. Strictly by the numbers, I figured I didn't have much of a shot. There are 32 teams, each will carry (usually) 8 offensive lineman on their rosters, for a total of about 250 lineman in the NFL at any one time. Not all of them retire each year, so to make it, you have to be one of the best 250 offensive lineman, and you have to be good enough (or the other guy not good enough) to warrant booting him and taking you. It's an exclusive club to be sure. Not to mention you have to be big, strong, fast and [gasp] smart. Anyone who believes that lineman are still the big dumb drooling idiots that they are so often portrayed as hasn't been paying close enough attention. My avatar is actually my sophomore year mug shot for the media guide.

We just finished having the Superbowl here in the states.  111 million viewed the game apparently.  It's big, so big it gets people that have no interest in football to watch it simply because it is so big. (in the states)

I saw a picture recently that said: Superbowl 100 million people. Church attendance on Christmas 40 million people. Suck on that Jesus.  

I cannot stand all the padding and helmets these "real men" wear to play the game.  They are getting hurt left and right.  What it is, to me, is a bunch of fat boys in a line who cannot run 100 yards without needing pure oxygen afterwards.  They are barely able to move fast for a few seconds at a time.

There is no doubt that football is a game full of violent collisions. The extra padding isn't so much to keep people from getting hurt, it is to keep people from reducing their lifespans later on. Some of these collisions can be upwards of 150 g's of force, and that is not two of the bigger players.

I will tell you from experience, if you want to know what it is like to have played in a college football game as an offensive lineman, just run (not sprint, maybe a little fast than a jog) from about 10 feet away in to a wall 75 times every 45 seconds.

The biggest issue currently in the NFL is concussions. They are increasing at an alarming rate, and it seems more and more like the pads and protection aren't keeping up. But, as a more than casual observer, I am seeing a difference in the way hits are delivered. This method is illegal, until this year hasn't been enforced, and is being taught to kids at a younger and younger age. The player will load up, and torpedo himself into another player putting all of his force through the crown of his helmet in to the chest. These types of hits are quite literally bone jarring. Kids are taught to "see what you hit", meaning have your neck tilted back when hitting and don't lead with your helmet. They are told that otherwise you can break your neck. What they don't tell you is how badly (and it's more common) you can hurt the player you are hitting, especially if they are unaware of the hit they are about to receive. Here's a picture of the type of hit I'm talking about:

[spoiler:1n7x3nif][/spoiler:1n7x3nif]

Add to this the idiocy of the running backs that are mostly robots.  They are conditioned that the play is to go through the "2" hole...regardless of an erected concrete wall, they will try running through the concrete wall.  No sense of "oh damn, it's blocked...let me try going around...".  No, they insist on hitting the wall of bodies.  Sometimes a short gain, even less times, a long gain, mostly no gain whatsoever.  Blockheads, really.

This is a good point, if there is no defense on the field. Remember, they are reacting to the running back, the offensive line, and their play call. Most defenses are built upon some sort of "gap cancellation" scheme. So, when the running back committed to the hole, it may have been open. But, the defense surely tried to close it. Also, often trying to run it directly up the middle is better, in the split second decision of the play, than to try and bounce to the outside, risking a loss of yardage.

I actually prefer Gridiron to soccer. At least with gridiron you know when to bother to watch! I also like watching the quarter back getting sacked! There is something I find hilarious about the inevitable demise of the poor little guy as he gets pounded to oblivion by some huge defensive tackle!

As an offensive lineman, you find my nightmare hilarious. Giving up a sack is the worst.