baby's first super bowl
So I watched the game! And rooted for the team that won! Yay. Okay, I did spend half the game faffing around online, but I was there the big stuff. And they had commercials every two minutes, but they don't air the cool Super Bowl commercials here, just Fox Sports and ESPN promos, so that was lame
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(btw re: your soccer comment: soccer is the American Football of the world! I love that the US probably invented the term "soccer mom", and then promptly forgot about soccer*.)
*men's. I should say men's. I think Women's Soccer in the US is actually a lot more popular?
LIKE I'M EVEN A SPORTS FAN I seriously don't know what I'm talking about.
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Then david beckham came to 'spread soccer goodwill in America' or something, only no one cared. LOL And he went running off to Europe and tried not to come back, but they made him, so then he acted like he'd wanted to come back all along.
There's only like 12 (if that) MLS teams in the entire country, and it's never on tv, there's no money in it, people don't like the point system or the low scoring, so it's easy to see why it's hard to get people into it. I've read a lot of books on the subject and if I could recall any of the theories, this would be an opportune time to share them.
*crickets*
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Now there's a game that the USians *really* can't comprehend, despite the fact there are loads of cricket clubs in the US. Most of my USian friends seem to think that cricket=croquet, cos they sound a bit the same.
The reason the US can't cope with football (I refuse to call it soccer), is, as you say, it's widely regarded as a kids' game, played by 6 year olds with 2 left feet on a Sunday morning to give their parents time for a lie in and because it doesn't keep stopping and starting every 30 seconds like American football, basketball, baseball or any of the other games that have a commercial break anytime anyone touches the ball. So, instead of it taking 4 hours for an hour's worth of play, it takes an hour and a half to play 90 minutes!
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See, the fact that I played soccer/football as a kid growing up gives me an enduring fondness for it, one I don't share with most other games (except maybe Hurling, but I don't even remember the rules for that D: ).
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IDK, I think Americans -- like any country, really, but maybe even more in sports -- just like sports that are uniquely theirs, you know? BASEBALL. FOOTBALL. They're all part of the Great American Tradition, part of What Makes Our Country Great, they have lots of local history and they make a buckload of money and the people making the money work hard to make sure that Americans still love baseball and football as much as they do. And then in other parts of the world, where I'm pretty sure soccer is the most common sport ever, it might be something that develops more from the ground up. Like, you don't need any expensive equipment or stadiums and fields like you do in the American sports, you just need a ball and an empty field and two sticks to mark the goal post and then you're set to go, so countries that would never be able to afford the infrastructure of a sport like football can still have a huge soccer playing, soccer stanning fanbase ( ... )
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actually, I'm a Newcastle United fan b/c of Alan Shearer back in 'the day'
And, actually, you are not off in your assessment of soccer being popular in poorer countries b/c of its ground level, low-economic stress traits at all. There are books about it.
National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball And the Rest of the World Plays Soccer
How Soccer Explains the World
and many more!
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*gasps*
Not that I'm actually a fan, but my first preferred UK team was Arsenal, simply because of Fever Pitch. Colin Firth does things, man. Or at least he did 25 years ago.
And LOL at that book title. The entire world can be explained in sports metaphors...
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...I don't even know what went on in my mind there.
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