THe Olympics

trevpr1

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Yeah I was back at work today after taking the olympic fortnight off. I'm missing it terribly. It's like somebody died.

Really pleased the US beat China in the tables.
 

Redwolf

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GB (population 60 million) won 29 Golds whilst USA population 250 million won 45. Therefore GB did more than TWICE AS WELL AS USA ;-)
Not if you only count people who didn't stuff their face out of commission :)
 

horseshoe

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One of the best olympics ever. London did a nice job running it. Hope Rio can match it in 2016..:cool:
 

Aaron Cleavin

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22.4 million of 313 million citizens == %7. I would hardly call that popular. We have the worlds most successful Women's National team and can't keep a league running. Now, the landscape is changing and it may yet build critical mass. It doesn't help when FIFA sends the world cup to Qatar despite superior presentations by the US and UK. Hard to think of it as a sport with all the players diving and the corruption in the senior administration. -- jim

Whereas estimate of the numbers who play American football in the USA are around 3 million!!

Qatar though a joke and a disgrace as is diving.

But so is a game where it is somehow not a felony to pay players bounty's to injure other players
 

Sparafucil3

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Whereas estimate of the numbers who play American football in the USA are around 3 million!!
I don't know the numbers. It has little to do with its popularity here. American football is not only the highest grossing profession sport, it is the most profitable. -- jim
 

aiabx

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Those were damned good Olympics. Well done, the UK!
And a clenched fist salute for the great Eric Idle, for saying a bad word where the whole world could hear him.
 

RobZagnut

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I don't know the numbers. It has little to do with its popularity here. American football is not only the highest grossing profession sport, it is the most profitable. -- jim
Dont forget the money that rolls in from college football too. American football is king and it's not even close.
 

footsteps

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I said, "Soccer?"

Still can't bring myself to buy tickets and go to a game.
Well, Rob, substitute "American Football" for "Soccer" and that's my reaction.

Soccer (fitba') is a 90 minute game that is completed in about 95 minutes of continuous activity by all the players.

American Football (gridiron) is a 60 minute game that clocks in at between 3 and 4 hours. It's an advertiser's dream with all the inactivity surrounding brief outbursts of orchestrated violence between a small subsection of players. Hence it gets all the money and hype. Baseball is in a similar vein. Perfect sports for brainwashing fans to buy things.

Different strokes, I suppose. ;) ;) ;)
 

Sparafucil3

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Well, Rob, substitute "American Football" for "Soccer" and that's my reaction.

Soccer (fitba') is a 90 minute game that is completed in about 95 minutes of continuous activity by all the players.

American Football (gridiron) is a 60 minute game that clocks in at between 3 and 4 hours. It's an advertiser's dream with all the inactivity surrounding brief outbursts of orchestrated violence between a small subsection of players. Hence it gets all the money and hype. Baseball is in a similar vein. Perfect sports for brainwashing fans to buy things.

Different strokes, I suppose. ;) ;) ;)
Again, "fitba" would be more interesting if they didn't flop around like a stuck pig every time someone looked at them cross eyed and if the governing body (FIFA) wasn't so obviously corrupt. FIFA is almost as corrupt as the IOC. -- jim
 

Bob Miller

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Again, "fitba" would be more interesting if they didn't flop around like a stuck pig every time someone looked at them cross eyed and if the governing body (FIFA) wasn't so obviously corrupt. FIFA is almost as corrupt as the IOC. -- jim
I don't rep for non-ASL related postings.... but this almost made me break my rule. I watched some international soccer game last Euro Cup and was just appalled at the constant demonstrations by most players for a foul to be called. More bad acting being done by the players than a 7 year old trying to convince his mom he is too sick to go to school. I stopped watching all basketball for the same reason.
 

trevpr1

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Soccer has no future in the US where the big four sports are played with breaks allow for TV advertising. It's no great loss to you. Ironically when I'm watching the NFL I'll start running the game about an hour and a half after kick off, so I can FF through the breaks.
 
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Aaron Cleavin

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Ironically I find American Football a far more engrossing spectacle then Soccer.

A sports influence on Society through participation though is arguable of more value to society than the $ and bums on couches.
 

Sparafucil3

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Soccer has no future in the US where the big four sports are played with breaks allow for TV advertising. It's no great loss to you. Ironically when I'm watching the NFL I'll start running the game about an hour and a half after kick off, so I can FF through the breaks.
Ironically, that's how I watch it too. The channel owners and advertisers like it chopped up that way. The fan generally does not. I do the same with hockey, the king of sports. -- jim
 

RobZagnut

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Well, Rob, substitute "American Football" for "Soccer" and that's my reaction.

Soccer (fitba') is a 90 minute game that is completed in about 95 minutes of continuous activity by all the players.

American Football (gridiron) is a 60 minute game that clocks in at between 3 and 4 hours. It's an advertiser's dream with all the inactivity surrounding brief outbursts of orchestrated violence between a small subsection of players. Hence it gets all the money and hype. Baseball is in a similar vein. Perfect sports for brainwashing fans to buy things.

Different strokes, I suppose. ;) ;) ;)
Continuous activity, but little excitement.

My preferred method of watching the NFL is thru NFL Redzone. Been signed up for the past 2 years. Shows all the games (no commercials) and only cuts to a game when a team gets the ball within 20 yards of the goal line. Many times they have split screens due to multiple teams running plays at the same time. They show every TD from every game.
 

footsteps

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I don't rep for non-ASL related postings.... but this almost made me break my rule. I watched some international soccer game last Euro Cup and was just appalled at the constant demonstrations by most players for a foul to be called. More bad acting being done by the players than a 7 year old trying to convince his mom he is too sick to go to school. I stopped watching all basketball for the same reason.
End zone celebrations. And at least fitba' players keep most of their histrionics on the pitch rather than in the home or the fighting pit.

Continuous activity, but little excitement.

My preferred method of watching the NFL is thru NFL Redzone. Been signed up for the past 2 years. Shows all the games (no commercials) and only cuts to a game when a team gets the ball within 20 yards of the goal line. Many times they have split screens due to multiple teams running plays at the same time. They show every TD from every game.
So you don't even watch games anymore. Just highlights. Heck, I do that!
 

RobZagnut

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So you don't even watch games anymore. Just highlights. Heck, I do that!
Never said that. It said "preferred" method. I watch full games all the time, especially if the Steelers are playing.

Plus, it's not just highlights. It's all the plays within the 20 yard line. So, it might be a 1 yard loss, an incomplete pass, a turnover or a team might get nowhere and have to kick a field goal. All the plays within 20 yards for every game on Sunday (except for the Sunday night solo game). If no team is within 20 years than they'll show a random game. At the end of the games they concentrate on the close games and show them, rather than the blow outs.
 
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trevpr1

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Continuous activity, but little excitement.

My preferred method of watching the NFL is thru NFL Redzone. Been signed up for the past 2 years. Shows all the games (no commercials) and only cuts to a game when a team gets the ball within 20 yards of the goal line. Many times they have split screens due to multiple teams running plays at the same time. They show every TD from every game.
I like redzone when we get it. Especially if the game chosen by the satellite company over here that carries one each of the two earlier games has chosen something I don't fancy.

My favourite game is the SNF which I'm bound to record since it starts at about 01:30 in the morning and I'm at work the following day. In replay of this I FF a lot less.T he reason why is that ad breaks in the US are covered by a couple of talking heads in the London studio and one of them, Mike Carlson, has a lot of interesting things to say about the game in progress and he also offers highlights of the games already played. Plus I prefer Al Micheals as caller to all others since Pat Sommerall was retired.

Last year I didn't pay extra for the channel that showed the MNF and didn't miss it much. Far too much yak yak from the presenters.
 
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