If the Steelers would get the first touchdown and lead 7-0 instead of 3-0 I don't think Pittsburgh would have been able to come back into the game...

If someone wants to and understand what football is all about, then you should watch last season champions league final, AC Milan vs Liverpool. You see how not just tactics, ability etc... is key in sport, but also how important enthusiasm, passion and committment means. Steven Gerrard and Jamie Charagher playing through cramp. Both nearly crying near the cameras when talking to the reporters.

In football, not many players careers are ended through injury, nor do many break their legs. Most injuries are caused through routine training exercises, but sport shouldnt be equalled against how hard or "fit" the athlete is. The top footballers are possibly some of the fittest men out there, running for sometimes 120 mins if the game gets in extra tme.

Tactically, American Football is probobly more advanced, but at the end of the day, for me to be interested in sport and I am not that bothered about American football. There are far too many interuptions, with the whistle being blown every couple of seconds etc... and with commericials.

Dont get me wrong, football can be a very boring game. Iv had to sit through some right shit games being a supporter at Derby County laterly (local team) but i feel releigiously attached to my club, and most "football" fans would agree.

At the end of the day, to each his own.

Where's the love for both football and American football? I like both, although having grown up in the U.S. and played American football for 10 years would necessitate liking that more. But I still truly respect the skills and tactics of both. They are completely different animals, it's not comparing apples to apples. Baseball is a game considered by many to be very boring but unless you understand all the nuances and follow a specific team, then a lot will be lost.

I used to hate soccer before I lived in Thailand where everybody is psychotic about it. I learned to love and once my ex-gf forced me into liking Man U, then I was hooked. It just took awhile to grasp. I'm glad I did.

The only sports that still suck are hockey, motor sports (some Formula 1 is tolerable), and that boring tennis that you guys talk about on here. ZZZZZZZ How many times does Federer hit the ball in the same exact spot in a match? Like a bazillion! I've tried to like it but can't.

Then there's a discussion about playing vs. watching. Because actually playing tennis is really fun and a great workout. Highly competitive.

I've played tackle football with pads and without pads. With pads, you have way more daring and recklessness. Thus, you can slam into guys much harder and getting hurt. Throw in the factor that our American football players are extremely fast and strong. Those Rugby guys are tiny in comparison, I know I've seen them up close in person.

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Yankees
Rams
Blazers
Man U
Oregon Ducks

they both have something in common...



plur!

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• TRACKS FOR GRAPE PICKING
• TRACKS WHEN YOU HAVE GLITTER STUCK ALL OVER YOU

Tom Brady at the coin toss just did'nt feel right

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quote:

Originally posted by tortoise Tom Brady at the coin toss just did'nt feel right

hence the booing

i just want to make a final statement, overall both sports are great in their own way, but they're quite different and you shouldnt argue about which one is better simply because they share the same name (which is what people often do.)

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"Let me guess, you picked out yet another colorful box with a crank that I'm expected to turn and turn until OOP! big shock, a jack pops out and you laugh and the kids laugh and the dog laughs and I die a little inside.".

At least American Football and professional sports in the USA are more fair than european soccer leagues.

Why?

Over here teams that have success get the most money from the TV stations and can buy the best players. This way the same 3-4 teams stay on top in every country.

In Italy you have AC Milan, Inter and Juventus, in England Liverpool, Chelsea, Manu and Arsenal and in Spain Barca and Real.

These teams are ALWAYS on top and the rest of the 16-20 teams in each league has no chance to break through this.


In America the teams have a salary cap which prevents a single team from signing all good players (hello Mr. Abramowitch!!!).

Also there is the draft. The worst teams will get the chance to sign the best rookies out of College.


Of course in each sport some teams build a dynasty for a couple of years but when key players retire or sign with a other club this will end. The Celtics and Lakers of the 80's struggled in the 90's, the Bulls went downhill after Jordan retired, the Cowboys struggled without Aikman and Smith.

In european leagues you know for sure that in each league 3/4 of the teams will NEVER win the championship while in the NFL for example only 4 or 5 out of 32 teams never won the championship.


In Europe the same top teams stay on top forever. Something like the Red Sox or White Sox World Series wins won't happen over here...

quote:

Originally posted by Rockabye At least American Football and professional sports in the USA are more fair than european soccer leagues. Why? Over here teams that have success get the most money from the TV stations and can buy the best players. This way the same 3-4 teams stay on top in every country. In Italy you have AC Milan, Inter and Juventus, in England Liverpool, Chelsea, Manu and Arsenal and in Spain Barca and Real. These teams are ALWAYS on top and the rest of the 16-20 teams in each league has no chance to break through this. In America the teams have a salary cap which prevents a single team from signing all good players (hello Mr. Abramowitch!!!). Also there is the draft. The worst teams will get the chance to sign the best rookies out of College. Of course in each sport some teams build a dynasty for a couple of years but when key players retire or sign with a other club this will end. The Celtics and Lakers of the 80's struggled in the 90's, the Bulls went downhill after Jordan retired, the Cowboys struggled without Aikman and Smith. In european leagues you know for sure that in each league 3/4 of the teams will NEVER win the championship while in the NFL for example only 4 or 5 out of 32 teams never won the championship. In Europe the same top teams stay on top forever. Something like the Red Sox or White Sox World Series wins won't happen over here...

Eh it isnt really true, look at Wigan they ahead of Arsenal, Tottenham will qualify to the champions league. Oh and you never see any european football team winning the champions leage 2 or 3 times in the row. Ajax , Feyenoord and PSV used to dominate dutch football but now you got AZ Alkaar who is the second on the table and Ajax is the 6th or 7th , in Spain Real only the third .

In the United States will never have relegation or promotion, United States will never have FA Cup where the 3rd division team can beat premier league side, 2 years ago Millwall made it to the fa cup final.


FA Cup Wins


Manchester United 11

Arsenal 10


Tottenham Hotspur 8


Aston Villa 7


Blackburn Rovers 6


Liverpool 6

Newcastle United 6


Everton 5


The Wanderers 5


West Bromwich Albion 5

Bolton Wanderers 4


Manchester City 4


Sheffield United 4


Wolverhampton Wanderers 4


Chelsea 3


Sheffield Wednesday 3

West Ham United 3


Bury 2


Nottingham Forest 2


Old Etonians 2


Preston North End 2


Sunderland 2


Barnsley 1


Blackburn Olympic 1


Blackpool 1


Bradford City 1


Burnley 1


Cardiff City 1

3 Charlton Athletic 1


Clapham Rovers 1


Coventry City 1


Derby County 1

Huddersfield Town 1


Ipswich Town 1


Leeds United 1


Notts County 1


Old Carthusians 1


Oxford University 1


Portsmouth 1

Queen's Park (Glasgow) 2Royal Engineers 1


Southampton 1


Wimbledon 1

oh by the way i wasnt bitchin about the actual sport, i was only bitchin the super bowl becouse i thought since its a Super Bowl it will be more exiting then it was

quote:

Originally posted by Rockabye

You are exagerating. Personally I think there are things where the american system is better and things where the european system is better. Here's my more detailed opinion:

quote:

Over here teams that have success get the most money from the TV stations and can buy the best players. This way the same 3-4 teams stay on top in every country.

Yes, this is probably quite bad.

quote:

In Italy you have AC Milan, Inter and Juventus, in England Liverpool, Chelsea, Manu and Arsenal and in Spain Barca and Real. These teams are ALWAYS on top and the rest of the 16-20 teams in each league has no chance to break through this.

Not strictly true, unless you talk about our own championship or the scottish In Italy, England and Spain the outcome of the leagues have changed a lot during the years. You have to realise every year there are some surprises (this year: Wigan and Tottenham in England; Osasuna who are still an unbelievable 3rd in Spain), and that some smaller teams ocasionally go for a couple years of success (England: Blackburn in the mid 90s, Leeds in the late 90s, Chelsea the past few seasons; Italy: Sampdoria in the early 90s, Lazio in the late 90s; Spain: Valencia who won 2 titles in the last few years; Deportivo La Coruña who won 1 not so many years ago neither)

It is true that those teams you mentioned have stayed for decades as championship contenders (except for Chelsea who only emerged the past 2 years!) apart from a few odd black periods (Man Utd went from 1967 to 1993 without a championship for example and I believe they went relegated). However, this isn't necessarily bad! It leads to huge tradition supporting of the teams. This is one of the things the american leagues lack to me: it changes so much from year to year that some people just often decide to change the clubs they support! Probably the best would be somewhere in between these 2 scenarios..

And no, I did not know all of those years out of my head

quote:

In America the teams have a salary cap which prevents a single team from signing all good players (hello Mr. Abramowitch!!!).

It's a very good idea in theory, but it oppens an huge opportunity for corrupt people.. the "money under the table" option becomes too tempting.

quote:

Also there is the draft. The worst teams will get the chance to sign the best rookies out of College.

This is a nice one too, but no way it would ever fit into the european system: it would mean completely dropping the youth squads of every single club and give it to the universities or schools! Besides, there are now new rules from UEFA that will in the future force every club to have i think 8 players promoted from their youth squad plus 4 from the squads of other clubs from the country. This should even the sport a lot.

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sempre contra a corrente do jogo

quote:

Originally posted by paranoik0 You are exagerating. Personally I think there are things where the american system is better and things where the european system is better.

Yes of course no system is perfect. They both have some advantages.

And there are a lot of differences between the clubs in Europe and the teams in the USA. The professional teams in the USA are franchises owned by rich people (one founder of Microsoft owns the Seattle Seahawks for example) while in Europe most of the teams are "clubs".

Some of the bigger ones have changed in the last years. Chelsea is the best example for that where a rich person puts his money in the team.

But here's the big problem. While some clubs can easily spend 20 or 30 million on a player some teams even couldn't buy players for more than 1 million.

If I look at Bayern Munich, there bench players are more worthful than the top 11 of half of the Bundesliga.

quote:

Not strictly true, unless you talk about our own championship or the scottish In Italy, England and Spain the outcome of the leagues have changed a lot during the years. You have to realise every year there are some surprises (this year: Wigan and Tottenham in England; Osasuna who are still an unbelievable 3rd in Spain), and that some smaller teams ocasionally go for a couple years of success (England: Blackburn in the mid 90s, Leeds in the late 90s, Chelsea the past few seasons; Italy: Sampdoria in the early 90s, Lazio in the late 90s; Spain: Valencia who won 2 titles in the last few years; Deportivo La Coruña who won 1 not so many years ago neither)

Of course there are some surprises but some teams will in fact never win the title. A lot of teams will a always play in the last 1/3 of the league and try to stay in the league.

While the top teams get more and more money out of TV Deals most teams stay at the same level and so the gap between the rich teams and the poorer ones will become bigger and bigger.

I don't think that we will have many surprises in the big europeans leagues in the next years and some day the fans will loose their intereset in this sport if only the same teams play for championship.

However, this isn't necessarily bad! It leads to huge tradition supporting of the teams. This is one of the things the american leagues lack to me: it changes so much from year to year that some people just often decide to change the clubs they support! Probably the best would be somewhere in between these 2 scenarios..

Montreal Canadians, New York Yankees, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers...these teams have so much tradition all european clubs can only dream about.

For a season ticket of the Green Bay Packers you have to wait 30 years on the waiting list!!!

quote:

It's a very good idea in theory, but it oppens an huge opportunity for corrupt people.. the "money under the table" option becomes too tempting.

Well the professional teams are franchises and have to keep their books clean. I don't say that it could't happen but as far as I no such thing happend in the last years.

I like the american transfer market too. Instead of buying players out of teams with money they mostly trade them for other players or future draft picks.

This would give smaller european teams a chance to trade their talented youth players for some older good ones. Normally they get money but with this money they couldn't buy stars because these stars would't sign for smaller clubs in province.

quote:

This is a nice one too, but no way it would ever fit into the european system: it would mean completely dropping the youth squads of every single club and give it to the universities or schools! Besides, there are now new rules from UEFA that will in the future force every club to have i think 8 players promoted from their youth squad plus 4 from the squads of other clubs from the country. This should even the sport a lot.

Yes this is a good decisiopn by the UEFA. I also heard that rosters will be limited to 25 players or so. Right decision!!!


I know this is an idea most people won't like, but in my opinion it would be the best thing if the biggest european clubs form some european super league.

Chelsea, Manu, Arsenal, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Mailand and some others have much more money than the rest of their national league teams.

Putting the 30 top teams in Europe in one league and having them play against each other with some play-offs at the end of the season instead of the national cups would make the league more even and more exciting...