I tend to agree with this guys thoughts on why Amercians dont care much about football:<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Americans don?t like uninterrupted play. Let me start with this anecdote: a few years ago, I was in France with an American friend of mine who loved the Tour de France. After hearing that it was going to go not too far from where we were, he asked me to take him and see it. But there were two problems: 1. it was still a 3-hour car ride away (6 hours round trip) and 2. it was a flat stage, meaning that we would only see the racers for something like a half minute. No matter, he wanted to go. So there we go, driving for 3 hours, then waiting 2 hours for the Tour to arrive. Then the peloton came. 30 seconds later, it was all over. To say the least, I was a bit frustrated. But you know what? My friend couldn?t have enjoyed himself more. That?s when I understood American sports: a very short, very intense moment, then a long break. Take football, for example: each action lasts an average of 6 seconds. Then there is a long break, followed by another short burst of action. Total actual play in a 3-hour football game: about 12 minutes! ? It?s a team game: Americans prefer individualistic games. Of course, you?ll tell me that football or baseball are team games. But come on! in football, the team is only there to serve just 4 players: the quarterback, the running back, and the receivers. And each play only features 2 of theses players, at most. Linebackers almost never touch the ball. Sure, they have a role, but it?s a supporting role. In soccer, on the other hand, it?s hard to imagine a situation where several players would not touch the ball for an entire game. ? Americans like game stats: soccer doesn?t have any. Look at baseball: that?s pretty much all it?s about. Numbers. Americans have to be able to read a box score to make sense of a game. They have to be able to compare games, players, eras. In soccer, most stats are meaningless. Although that won?t prevent Americans from trying: after the World Cup games on Direct TV, they give you the total number of passes per team, and the accuracy percentage! (For the record, during France-Portugal, Portugal made 79% of 549 passes versus 77% of 395 for France!) ? Soccer is for average-size people. Americans don?t resent the physically advantaged for succeeding, regardless of skills. If a 7-footer scores a basket on a 6?2 player, Americans have no problem cheering them on. Same thing when a 350-pound lineman obliterates a 200-pound quarterback. As size or bulk doesn?t give much of an advantage to a soccer player, we seem to have a tendency to prefer that egalitarian approach. ? Americans love order and precision Soccer games are not always very precise. Time keeping, for example, is approximate. And free kicks are not always taken from the exact point of a foul. In a basketball game on the other hand, time is kept to the 10th of a second. In football, inches matter. ? Fair-play, when a basketball player fouls another one hard, he just walks away, and won?t help the other guy get back on his feet. In football, if a quarterback has a hand injury, that?s often where the linebackers will try to knock him down. No such thing in soccer, where players help each other off their feet. When a soccer player is injured, the player with the ball will deliberately put the ball out of bounds. When play resumes, the opposing team will simply give back the ball to the team that had to lose it. Say what you want, but in my opinion, that?s unthinkable in American sports. They would think it?s for sissies! Anyway, that?s my opinion of why soccer is not about to take the U.S. by storm.</div> If you don?t like it, well, then try this guy?s opinion. Or give us your own!
It is true. They prefer something with frequent breaks to allow them to wrench themselves from their chair and walk to the fridge and back. The basketball section is true. A game can be totally turned on it's head by one player. They do prefer one sparkling individual performance as oposed to a solid team performance with no real stand-out player. It's their need to idolise inidividuals, which is quite ironic for such a devoutly christian nation. But they're also incredibly fickle. They're not willing to give a sportsman time if they hit a slump. They just want things right now as opposed to right.
