Topic: American Sports

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I just saw this topic after I already posted on the other thread about The Show, but if I had to rank my personal preference of the top American sports I would say #1- NFL, #2 NBA, #3 NHL, #4 MLB.
If we’re talking college though, I think college basketball is more exciting than college football. Something about the single elimination tournament (aka March Madness) and the ability of a small school to get on a roll and upset the larger programs makes it fun. Looking forward to two schools playing tomorrow who have never won a championship. The game is much quicker too, with the two half system instead of the four quarters like the NBA.
That’s something I’ve always appreciated about soccer is the two halves and the lack of downtime during the game. American Football has so much time spent between plays.

I like NHL - I've not followed it for years though.

I find the majority of other american sports deathly boring. The one thing some of them have of European sport though is the recruiting system. I'm a big fan of the college draft idea; forcing an education on to sports professionals is a great idea I think.

I used to watch the NBA (when Michael Jordan was playing) a lot but stopped a few years later after he retired for a second time.

Don't fully know their rules but I also like watching MLB and NFL highlights. haha

@KALofKRYPTON That’s interesting because from an American point of view, there is a faction of fandom that wants to forego the whole college recruiting idea and move toward developmental systems whereby young players are raised in a system and paid, I guess which is what is done in South / Latin America and Europe for soccer and in Europe for basketball. If I’m not mistaken, players enter development systems and clubs at a young age (even at grade school level isn’t it?) when it’s seen they have the potential to be a professional player in that sport. A team owns the rights to the kid from a young age as they develop him, is what I think I heard, but perhaps someone can correct me.
The NBA already has a “one and done” rule now so that they only have to play one year of college basketball to be eligible for the draft. It’s been debated back and forth, as certainly players like Lebron and Kobe came straight from High School back in their day. The requirement of at least one year of college is an attempt at compromise I think so players will at least get some education and have a back up plan if things don’t work out. The NFL has a rule of at least three years removed from high school. MLB and NHL I think are more in line with the NBA but have more fleshed out developmental league, if I’m not mistaken.

The debate is that the NCAA, or college sports system, basically functiona as a developmental league for the professional systems and as a result generates huge amounts of money through its popularity and yet by virtue of the leagues being amateur that the players are not able to be paid in any way, shape, or form. They do get to attend college, most of them on scholarship, and get some semblance of an education, but in many instances it’s just a formality and the athlete is hardly going to class and if they are a star player at the college, they pass their classes through questionable means so they can maintian eligibility to be on the field. Pundits of the NCAA system feel the players are getting nothing from their schooling and that it’s just delaying their ability to really make huge money in the professional leagues, while at the same time the college system is making huge profits while taking advantage of players amateur status and not paying them a slice of the huge pie.

It’s an interesting debate, since there is a certain value to ‘forcing’ these guys to at least attend college, many of them would never have the means or interest to do so if they didn’t have an atheletic scholarship. It also give players time to develop physically which is particularly important in American football where size and strength is so crucial. An 18 year old just isn’t big enough usually to compete.
I do feel like it’s probably a matter of time before college players will be allowed to be paid, but we’ll see.

Haha, correct @Kyroki. I love NFL, NBA, and MLB. I support the New York Giants, New York Knicks, and New York Mets for my sins. To be fair, the Mets are looking competitive this season — even if yesterday's game didn't go great.

I don't really watch any sports, but I do like it that you guys get the choice to watch what you want. Europe is pretty much football only, and if you don't like it you're out of luck

@Th3solution I think it's a system that would greatly benefit the world of football.

Whether this causes offense or not, footballers are rarely the brightest sparks; they breathe football for most of their youth, get in to an academy, then youth team, then maybe professional. There's very little in their lives beyond football - which really does lead a lot of them to being 2 dimensional knuckle-dragging morons with an incredibly limited view of the world - and that's the lucky/skilled ones.
They may go one to earn fortunes and expand their horizons, but again - not a huge many of them. For those that crash out through injury, mental health issues, criminality - there's nothing outside of behind the scenes football jobs or punditry - which again, only apply to the few.
At least if they were required to get a university education they'd be actual people rather than an army of entitled golden-boys.

There's no way the draft system would work in world football. The only reason it works so well in America is because it's practically the only country that properly plays the sports.

@get2sammyb @KALofKRYPTON The draft system also brings the added benefit of equalizing the field and creating parity in the league. In the case of Sammy’s Knicks and Giants, for example, despite them being at the bottom of the barrel the last couple seasons, hope springs in the fact that they get some of the highest draft picks. If a team drafts well, it can go from bad to good in just a year or two. Particularly in the NFL the system has discouraged dynasties from forming ( the Patriots being an anomaly) and the fans of each team, no matter how bad, can keep interest year after year because there is a constant cycling of the power rankings by virtue of the draft giving a leg-up to lower ranked teams. It’s pretty ingenious.

@Th3solution Well, look at Cleveland, right? They've gone from an embarrassment to suddenly being a contender now. I do enjoy the way the system works, but I think it can only work in leagues like the NFL, NBA, et al.

It'd never work in the Premier League where the top clubs already have too much power. You've also got the hierarchy to consider. What draft pick do League 2 teams get? Or would it function like in the MLB where franchises have faction teams that share their roster? In which case, would that mean that teams from the Championship could never get promoted into the Premier League?

It just wouldn't work.

@Th3solution @get2sammyb

I wouldn't lift the draft system and try and place it in football as-is, but the basic principle most definitely. The more overt 'franchise' element suits US sports more than it would the incredibly regional rigidity of football - so it follows that 'home-grown' talent wouldn't be ideally drafted around the country.

It would probably do to maintain the academy system in some way to keep local players at local clubs initially - then the transfer market can resume as normal after a set contractual period.

I see I worded what I said incorrectly - it's not the actual 'draft' that I like, but the idea that you have to go to university to become a pro'.

@get2sammyb Yeah, and to be fair, the draft system is just one aspect of the NFL and NBA that keeps parity and helps the bottom dwellers like Cleveland have hope to climb into relevancy — the other is the salary cap. By limiting how much each team can spend on player salaries, the league prevents the wealthier large market teams from being able to just recruit all the best players. So little small markets like Cleveland and Green Bay have just as much money to spend as New York and Chicago. I’m not sure how the Premier League works in this regard but I assume there is no salary cap.

How have Americans taken to the MLS? Is it big over there or is it a bit low key like basketball in the UK?

@Frigate I am very much not a sports fan. I actually at times have openly resented sports for how much of a pedestal they are placed upon, being treated as better than any other hobby. I have always liked to imagine how cool it would be if bars and restaurants treated other hobbies, like games, music or art like they do sports. I've always been envious of how sports fans can wear their t-shirts and hats proudly and never worry about being mocked for liking baseball or basketball the way people are often mocked for being gamers or artists. Sports fans can go nuts, throw huge parties, paint their faces, decorate entire rooms in their homes like shrines to the team they basically worship, and it is rarely seen as abnormal, unhealthy or sick the way the exact same behavior would be treated if you acted that way for almost any other hobby. When the Superbowl happens, every restaurant in town would have every TV playing it and be packed! And part of me wishes similar things happened for esports events or season finales of major TV shows or concerts.

However growing up in Southeast Michigan we had really strong sports teams the Detroit Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons all had very strong years while I was a kid, teen and in college although even I remember the year the Lions didn't win a single game back in 2008. Not to mention college sports and the rivalry between University of Michigan and Michigan State University. Even though I personally don't like sports very much and have even resented them, I generally can enjoy them when I am with friends or family who like them. I enjoyed watching Thanksgiving Day American Football with my family, or going to see the Tigers with my uncles and grandparents. Superbowl parties are still a lot of fun even if I really couldn't care less about the game itself. And I will always have fond memories of following the Red Wings with my late Grandma who loved the sport. I even broke the rules and touched the Stanley Cup when I went to see it one of the years the Red Wings won.

I love the complexity of the NFL and MLB. They are pretty easy games in essence - get 10 yards in 4 goes and run round the diamond respectively. From there it's like an intertwined jungle of systems. I think this is why if you aren't brought up watching either you will struggle to understand the skill involved. Typical Brits- it's Rugby with pads on the sissies or A game of rounders? I'm not watching that. As we know Baseball is like Poker on the mound, strategy trying to tire the pitcher, has loads of tactics trying to facilitate runs, moments of exhilarating 2 and 3 out plays etc.

Basketball and Ice Hockey are simpler affairs and are more in line with other team sports. I think you can enjoy both those games just for the basic skills of ice skating and being tall. But the NFL and MLB are my preferred games.

Strangely I started watching College football as its on BT Sport. I have never watched it and had no idea what was going on with all the end of year bowls.

@ApostateMage Yeah, soccer is pretty low key. Game stadiums are not very full for MLS games across much of the country. There is no significant coverage on TV.
The US National team gets some press when the international cups occur, mainly the World Cup. It’s kind of like track and field, ice skating, swimming and other Olympic sports that go on year after year with major competitions all the time, but we only pay attention to them every 4 years. That’s like soccer here. We remember how much fun it can be to watch during the World Cup, then we forget about it until the next one.
But @Frigate is right, it’s a popular sport among youth and children. Nearly all kids play in a soccer league at some point growing up. I think that has more to do with the low barrier to entry for the sport. It’s simple, most kids can participate at least at a basic level, it’s cheap with minimal equipment investment, and child development experts tout it as one of the best sports to start kids with because it’s very active for the whole team and good exercise for all participants. (As opposed to other sports where only one or two kids are doing anything at any given time and there is a lot of standing around and watching — a la baseball) As to whether it will pick up in popularity, I don’t know. It growth is very slow, and the big 4 are so dominant.

@Th3solution Yeah that's my problem with soccer is that the coverage of it is low key here. There's a few cable/satellite channels that will have them televised but those are usually premium channels. Now like the World Cup they will have televised matches on the local channels so pretty much I only get to watch soccer every 4 years.

@Th3solution @Frigate @Tasuki oi oi my American chums. Top of the evening to you gentlemen. Here's a quick rundown of my time with mlb 18 the show, having a butchers and discovering it was blinding, exactly my cup of Tea.

Obviously coming from Blighty I haven't played an American sport video game for Donkeys years. Throwing a spanner in the works the mechanical options, there's more choice than deaths in a Shakespearian reproduction. Trotting along the onfield action is sublime, like Red Rum bounding Beechers Brook it all runs superbly. The a depth to the pitching akin to the Beatles back catalogue. Graphically the stadia is represented as beautifully as a novelty postcard of Buckingham Palace. Well ta ta for now and see you at the stumps.

@themcnoisy Lol, glad you like it ... er, I think that’s what you said there. Thank goodness for google translate. 😂

If I cared much about baseball I’d give The Show a try too, but I haven’t mustered the interest. But it sounds as good as a day trotting around the abbey, going down to the pub for some fish and chips, and watching the Royal Wedding on the tele, or having a spot of tea instead and catching up on Dr. Who.