Re: OTish: Why don't Americans take football more seriously?

Mr Nemo wrote:
Soccer is the biggest and most popular sport in the world. Indeed,
cricket and rugby are pretty popular too. But just as they opted to
alter the spellings of many English words, the Americans invented
baseball and American football rather than play considerably better
games which have been around for several centuries.

As a result of this, the Americans are alienated by their own
obstinacy from participating in many culturally diverse sporting
competitions. Instead, they have to call their baseball competition
the 'World Series', even though no one else participates in this
bizarre variation upon rounders.

No one doubts that if the Americans put their mind to it, they could
create world champion teams in many of the sports they currently
refuse to take seriously. So why are they so damned obstinate about
participating in sports like soccer, rugby and cricket along with the
rest of the world?

Nemo

This is a good question. The main answer I can think of is that they are
quite an insular nation.

On the other hand, in a nation that has a huge population, sizeable numbers
actually play football (is it really only a soccer mom thing?) and the
national team is far from a disgrace.

Rugby is something I've never really understood and that's alot more limited
in world-wide popularity than football.

Cricket is great but American's don't like their sport to last several days
and possibly end in a draw.


.

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