I'm not trying to grapple with anything, but taking the piss out of someone as full of themselves as you (clearly are) was too good an opportunity to miss, so belittling your core sports is too good an opportunity to pass up.You seem to grapple with trying to figure out why the US doesn't fall in love with football, then express the same sort of xenophobic bias that holds football back in this country whilst belittling sports that are/were not part of the culture you were raised and live in.
Seriously, fella, if you want to understand why football isnt bigger in the US all you have to do is look in the mirror. Its because the US is full of people like you that view anything foreign as inferior.
As far as the quarters, TV, and commercialisation - american football, basketball, and baseball were all divided into their sequence of play long before the radio was invented, much less a television. The corporations have absolutely taken advantage of the way play is divided but they didn't create them. You're making false generalizations to try and make a point, but all you're doing is detracting from the meaning of your statement.
In short, you're being obtuse. You aren't interested in discussing the subject at hand. You simply want to proselytize on why Americans are stupid. It's quite annoying.
ochbye:
I have been to professional baseball and football (robocop rugby) games in the US, and all I can say is that you have an awful lot of quarters to have ad breaks in. Apparently an american football game lasts 3 hours and 12 minutes on average, and consists of around 11 minutes when the ball is actually in play, and 20 advert breaks in the TV transmission. (An average NFL game: more than 100 commercials and just 11 minutes of play), I can't be arsed to look up similar stuff in baseball, but the one game I went to which was one of the world series games that year was so boring, I neither knew or cared who won, and left after 5 innings and 200 ad breaks.
So far from being obtuse or making false accusations, I am merely describing how the sport has been overtaken by the advertising machine as a vessel for their products, and diluted whatever visceral thrills exist from watching a truly engaging sporting contest. I have no beef about America or Americans, nor an axe to grind - but I know what I like, and an advert fest with sport breaks isn't one of them. I don't think the sports are inferior because they are not British, I think they are inferior because they are paralysingly boring, more so for the commercial bastardisation they have descended into.
Two of my favourite sports are decidedly non British in origin, and whilst football is, it was taken over by the rest of the world a long time ago and is now a truly global sport. Americas 2 major sports are largely ignored by the rest of the world, why is that, do you think? 5 of the 10 most played sports in the world are British and I only care about one of them, which kind of pisses on your assessment of me being of the same mindset as your fellow countrymen.
I think you might actually need to take a long hard look in the mirror, because your assessment of me is way off beam, you were getting your leg pulled and you have taken it all to heart, and come out swinging. I'm sure your wonderful president would be proud of you.
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