why do you like football?

BYH, i think the problem with coaches can be traced directly to ESPN. 10-15 years ago no commentator ever talked about carl coordinator's schemes and how johnny assistant is winning the battle against billy assistant. it used to be about the players. so coaches at lower levels have bought into the hype.

the other annoying thing about football to me is how everyone involved always says 'football' as in 'catch the football,' 'run the football,' 'fumble the football.' no one uses phrases like 'hitting the baseball' or 'catching the baseball' or 'throwing the baseball'

 

I like football because it translates very well to television. I also like it because it reminds me of my childhood, when I lived and died with the fortunes of my favorite team and I was too young to know what assholes most football people are.

I fell out of love with it in high school...I went to high school in Texas. You can guess. As an adult, I have a love/hate thing with football. It's as entertaining and as fascinating as any sport. But there's that asshole quality. Being a sports journalist in small towns has exposed me to some very ugly things as far as the role of football in these communities goes. Sure it happens in other sports, but football is the worst.

An ex-girlfriend of mine told me that football was simultanously the most homophobic and the most gay thing she'd ever come across. I found that take amusing.

 

leo... coaches have not changed one bit in 10-15 years... in 30 years... in 50 years....

Almost each one of them is, to some extent, a frustrated war general who has settled for this trivial pursuit.

But they still try acting the part.

 

It's a great sport for piddling.

 

I grew up on the Steelers of the '70s. When I was really little, they were no different than the invicible superheroes I watched on Saturday morning cartoons.

And once I started to really understand what was going on and went to games, it was the emotion of the crowd, the one thing that doesn't truly come across nearly as well on television as it does in person.

Of course, it helps that my favorite team won the Super Bowl last year. I didn't really understand what was going on the last time the Steelers won one. I just thought it was a forgone conclusion, like Superman finding a way to beat Lex Luthor yet again.

This time, I was able to really appreciate it and truly enjoy something that just doesn't come that often. Maybe I should watch the tape again, Sunday. Probably more enjoyable than watching this year's version of the Steelers. (Kidding. I even watched to the final gun of that 27-0 beating they took in Baltimore. I am truly sad in my devotion).

 

You obviously didn't watch the Barry Sanders-era Detroit Lions.

 

Not to mention that his example is completely bogus. Does it actually take 90 or 120 seconds (or whatever between half-inning breaks are in regular and post-season) for nine men to run off the field, nine to run on and one dude to take eight warm-up pitches? Pshaw, Mr. Will.

 

As someone who has covered countless high school baseball games, at which there is no commercial interruption: Yes.

 

colombo, i'm 33 years old so i can only remember 15 years, not much farther back. but i tend to doubt that 30-50 years ago coaches thought of themselves as genius schemers who had to outsmart the other guy. and my point is that TV now strokes the egos of NFL and college coaches to the point where coaches at any level now think it's about them, not the players. and it's not. i mean i have a friend who is my age and coaches 6th graders. he is one of the well grounded ones but has told me stories about other coaches in the league game-planning, stealing signals, installing highly complex plays, etc.

 

Because violent ground acquistion games like football are a crypto-fascist metaphor for nuclear war...

 

Here's another theory: We have this innate bloodlust that makes us pine for carnage. Same thing that makes us rubberneck auto accidents. Except with football, the carnage is scheduled and we know we get to see the actual collisions, rather than all the emergency vehicles surrounding two beat-to-hell cars.