TrojanCampaign
All American
Posts: 4,699
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I Root For: USC, AAMU,
Location: Huntsville
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RE: End of the day, Basketball will reign supreme.
(06-17-2013 11:09 PM)bigblueblindness Wrote: (06-17-2013 10:51 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote: (06-17-2013 07:18 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: (06-17-2013 10:48 AM)LSUtah Wrote: While this may be a worthy debate, none of the opinions on this board will matter. Football will remain the #1 sport in America for at least the duration of our lifetimes. In fact, within the next 5 years the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the London Jaguars. Also, I'm not sure what Lem Barney's track record with prognostication is, but some posters on here have apparently appointed him Nostradamus.
And I hate to dissapoint all of the roundball fans, but if football ever does become less popular, it will likely be replaced with something revolting like soccer.
I don't know how old you are, but rarely has a sport stayed on top for more than a few decades. Horse racing, boxing, baseball, and football have all had their time at the top, and bowling, hockey, tennis, and auto racing have had dominance in some regions of the country in the past. In 1900, the 3rd most popular sport in England was cockfighting.
Personally I think that the sleeping giant of the next few decades is volleyball. It's American-made yet is popular overseas (particularly Brazil, where it rivals soccer). The infrastructure is in place in America already, and it's one of the few sports where the women's game is actually more entertaining to watch than the men's game (and not just because they look good; the women have longer volleys while the men have too many aces).
And as far as participation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the most popular real sport to play at any age level is basketball. Even at the high school level.
This guy has to be joking!
And on a serious note. Football is a whole lot different from soccer, baseball, etc. Football unlike more sports can evolve and change to fit target audiences. You have fast teams, slow teams, colorful teams, tradition teams, passing teams, running teams, defensive teams, list goes on. Baseball is fun to watch but there is no evolution a Yankee game from the 60's is similar to what it is today.
And football is just plain different in terms of culture. You don't even have to go inside of a football game to have the time of your life. I've had more fun tailgating at Alabama games than I had going into them and the same with Troy.
I think you may be right about the culture part surrounding football and why it will survive. Many people do not think in these terms, but I would contest that interior linemen is the only position where the best available athletes decide to play football instead of something else, and that is just because shorter, stockier guys aren't useful in the NBA or MLB sans Prince Fielder. Just take a look at a typical NBA roster. Is there any position on defense other than maybe nose tackle where an NBA guy is not better suited? Same for offense. We don't see basketball players for what they really are because they are on court with uber athletes. Kevin Love, who many consider to be a good but not great basketball athlete, is a terrific rebounder, has tremendous touch and awesome hands. He is 6'-10", 260 lbs. Put him on any roster at Tight End, and he destroys everybody. And, remember, this is a "good" NBA athlete, not a great one. Calvin Johnson is incredible, and I do not mean to discount him, but he is 6'-5", 236 lbs. and looks like a freak out there. You know who is just an inch shorter and 10 lbs. lighter? Dwayne Wade... a shooting guard.
I say all that to say that it's fine if the best athletes don't play football... that is already the case.
Exactly and I say this with an unbiased opinion. I grew up in California going to Angels games as a kid. Baseball can be a chore to watch sometimes and there is no real strategy involved. It's either an on or off day for players. Sure you can change pitchers but there's no blitz, there's no shotgun passes, there's no dual QB, there's no 100,000 screaming fans, there's no superbowl with celebrity icons at the halftime show. Even in it's prime it was never really okay to see someone in full body paint screaming something like ROLL MOTHER ........Tide! In the 50's and even today people would look at that person and shake their head. Baseball is an American classic but it's still in the same category as sports like basketball. The only way for you to enjoy it is if your team is winning or you dislike one of the teams playing.
Comparing football to past sports is like comparing modern computers to old computers that filled up a whole room just to do simple math calculations.
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