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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 09/17/2006 : 07:29:48
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I am a big fan of American football. However, I also very much enjoy that game we Americans call soccer (and the most of rest of the world calls football).
But whenever soccer gets press here in the States-- during the World Cup, and the occasional appearance of a friendly involving Man U or David Beckham-- the sports media establishment feels compelled to explain why soccer isn't popular here. (And in particular why they hate it so much.) A typical refrain is that soccer is too boring. (Witness Mr. Deford.) The boringness, so the story goes, comes from the fact that there's no scoring.
Traditional American sports are, by contrast, super exciting because of their scoring.
This argument is hugely flawed, and I don't want to get into it just now. However, I thought I'd cite for posterity the following commentary from ESPN on last night's Auburn-LSU game. The final score was 7-3 (or, 1 big score and 1 little score, so 1-1.4):quote:
If you love physical football, this game was for you. If you love a game between the tackles; if you think passes are for sissies; if you think the spread offense is an Al Qaeda plot, you should have been one of the 87,451 screamers Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Let the rest of the nation razzle and dazzle. The Southeastern Conference has officially survived the Steve Spurrier Era with its manhood intact. Auburn (3-0, 2-0) took control of the SEC West against its toughest division rival (sorry, Bama) while gaining a grand total of 182 net yards.
And on and on. So when there's a slow, low-scoring, defensive battle, it's OK. As long as it's American football.
Anyhow... 
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 11:13:42 [Permalink]
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Soccer is so boring. The Simpsons pretty much nailed in it my opinion. It's all passing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TTMDyJeqMo
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 11:31:41 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
Soccer is so boring. The Simpsons pretty much nailed in it my opinion. It's all passing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TTMDyJeqMo
No, HH, soccer is boing for you since you don't care about it. It's just that simple. I am convinced that a person's assessment of a sport's "boring-ness" has nothing to do with the sport itself. Instead, it has to do with that sport's place in the culture and society that the person identifies with. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 11:44:14 [Permalink]
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Sports appreciation is mainly subjective (85.235% to be precise); a circular-logic proposition of the fan liking what her or she likes. The other 86.234% of the matter is the objectively exciting or boring nature of the observed sport, as in the difference between passing a ball back and forth, vs. huge guys running head-on into one another.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 12:05:06 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
No, HH, soccer is boing for you since you don't care about it. It's just that simple. I am convinced that a person's assessment of a sport's "boring-ness" has nothing to do with the sport itself. Instead, it has to do with that sport's place in the culture and society that the person identifies with.
Of course it's boring for me. Boring is not an adjective that that can be applied universally to any activity. I'm sure some people legitimately enjoy sitting through insurance seminars or watching paint dry. I was just trying to offer reasons why the great majority of Americans find the sport boring. Low scoring is one reason, but it isn't the only one.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 09/17/2006 12:53:48 |
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dglas
Skeptic Friend
Canada
397 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 12:22:07 [Permalink]
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You know the beautiful thing about that Simpson's clip? That's exactly how baseball looks to me, too. Except that the players scratch their crotches every once in a while in baseball.
Of course, it could be worse. It could be curling. Rock in, rock out, rock in, rock out, rock in, rock out, etc. ... |
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- dglas (In the hell of 1000 unresolved subplots...)
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The Presupposition of Intrinsic Evil
+ A Self-Justificatory Framework
= The "Heart of Darkness"
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 12:59:02 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by dglas
You know the beautiful thing about that Simpson's clip? That's exactly how baseball looks to me, too. Except that the players scratch their crotches every once in a while in baseball.
Of course, it could be worse. It could be curling. Rock in, rock out, rock in, rock out, rock in, rock out, etc. ...
Yeah, let's face it. I'd say the majority of sports are boring. I don't even watch the Olympics. Track? Shot put? Diving? 
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 13:02:40 [Permalink]
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Or it could be golf....
I don't watch a lot of football, but when I do, I mute the sound and put some music on the stero. That way I can watch the action without listening to some over-paid motormouth blithering away about the obvious. I often do the same for NASCAR races. "Boogety, boogety, boogety, lets go racin', boys!" my ass! 
Never have seen much soccer and don't really understand it.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 13:06:29 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
Yeah, let's face it. I'd say the majority of sports are boring.
Watching any sport I'm not participating in bores me to tears. And for most of my life, that'd be all of 'em. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 13:32:08 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
No, HH, soccer is boing for you since you don't care about it. It's just that simple. I am convinced that a person's assessment of a sport's "boring-ness" has nothing to do with the sport itself. Instead, it has to do with that sport's place in the culture and society that the person identifies with.
Of course it's boring for me. Boring is not an adjective that that can be applied universally to any activity. I'm sure some people legitimately enjoy sitting through insurance seminars or watching paint dry. I was just trying to offer reasons why the great majority of Americans find the sport boring. Low scoring is one reason, but it isn't the only one.
But you missed my point: there is nothing inherent in a sport (e.g. the amount of scoring, the way ties are resolved, various arcane rules, etc.) that makes people like it or not. The tired "not enough scoring" routine that we've been fed by far-too-lazy sports commentators is an excuse that has no basis in reality.
Instead, a sport is or isn't popular because of a long range of social and cultural factors that vary from place to place. This explains why Lacrosse is popular in Baltimore, DC, and Virginia, but not in Oklahoma or Colorado. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 13:35:52 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by dglas
Of course, it could be worse. It could be curling. Rock in, rock out, rock in, rock out, rock in, rock out, etc. ...
Right. But I once spent an afternoon in a bar in Toronto (is was late April, but snowing-- imagine that) which had advertized outside: World Curling Championships ALL DAY. I thought it had to be a joke so I went in to see. But in fact, a bar was fairly full of people who ACTUALLY cared.
No doubt, these people had been a part of a societal/cultural network where curling was OK to watch and play. I, of course, found the game dull and had trouble figuring out the strategy, nuance, etc., but I was very intersted that people cared so much about it. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 09/17/2006 : 13:45:31 [Permalink]
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| This is why I find the small tweaks that go on in the offseason to be so stupid. No one-- NO ONE-- thinks "I would have gone to a baseball game if it had been just 9 minutes shorter" or "that game would have been way better if the score were 3-2 instead of 2-1" or any such thing. Trying to generate popularity for a sport by doing this solves nothing. Instead, you have to make the games more appealing and more part of the social and cultural fabric. Lower ticker prices and make it easier for common fans to buy them. Make it easier to get to stadiums, and make game times more accomodating. Make the environment around the game on game day more festive. Do more community outreach. THIS generates interest in the sport. Shaving off a few minutes, or slightly increasing the scoring won't. |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2006 : 05:20:28 [Permalink]
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For me the boring goes like this,
0) fishing/iceskating/hunting/etc.
1) Auto racing, particularly oval racing, makes me want to kill myself
2) Non-home team baseball
3) Home team baseball
4) Home team american Pro football (Lions fan, God help me)
5) Non-Tiger Woods golf
6) Non-world cup futbol
oh and throw in there All non-tennis/volleyball womens sports for the most part, Curling is exempt because I love curling.
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"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2006 : 06:53:09 [Permalink]
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It's not that I find watching soccer boring, it's just that I find it depressing. It reminds me too much of being single. All that running around, making passes, and very little scoring.
Shit, I think I may need more coffee. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2006 : 07:17:26 [Permalink]
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| I'm sure there's someone out there who just loves to watch chess matches. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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