How to make a seemingly benign sport seem more interesting..

[General]

credit where it's due - I can see the bigger pay packets, the nicer weather (although not recently) and it's growing reputation at university level creating a lot of interest amongst young people in the U.K who may have been interested.

Makes things feel a lot more tangible.

http://www1.skysports.com/american-football/news/12118/8726731/nfl-lawrence-okoye-starts-training-with-the-san-francisco-49ers

I still think it's the third sport of choice (maybe fifth after Lacrosse) out of the conventional North American sports though, with Ice Hockey and Basketball coming in front (and on the larger football/soccer and Lacrosse) but it will be interesting to see if it also has any long term effects on the grassroots popularity of Rugby in this country.

In my opinion I prefer rugby ten times more, due to the physicality of it, but also the continuous game play and lack of severe padding - always been two quite big gripes I've had with American football. I want games to be continuous. Not long lasting.

If it does better here though there is obviously a lot of money in the industry which could help boost our economy (especially as games players play here they have to pay british tax for).

[jarv]

I live over here, can't watch it. I find the whole thing totally tedious. The game is one big series of set pieces. For every minute on the field, the action lasts about 6 seconds, then they spend 54 seconds getting lined up for the next 6 seconds. The actions looks like a motorway pile up rather than a sport with some fluid moves. (which rugby does in abundance).

Imagine watching a football match which takes almost 3 hours elapsed time, with only corner kicks and free kicks for the most part. Sound like fun? It isn't.  (Especially if Fulham is the team defending) :005:

[YankeeJim]

As a former season ticket holder for the Washington Redskins, I truly use to enjoy the sport. I lost interest 20-25 years ago because it had denigrated into a cult of personality. The real show was the stupid dancing after a TD was scored, tats and who could get the most DUI's. Absolute criminals were covered for and forgiven for anything as long as they played well. In the US, these kids are spotted at the youth football level. The high school coaches recruit them (illegal), the college coaches pay them (illegal) and 1 out of 100 make the NFL the rest are cast aside. There was one spell where the University of Oklahoma failed to graduate a football player for 4 years. You get coaches like Pete Carroll ( who just won the Super Bowl with Seattle) who got caught recruiting illegally and paying players at USC. He skipped to the NFL and the University was punished by reducing its scholarships and being banned from bowl games. Carroll got rich in the NFL. Nasty game withy crooked coaches and players pumped up with steroids.   096.gig