KICKOFF:
The Gridiron, the Frozen Tundra of
Lambeau Field, the Lombardi trophy – iconic images that conger up the legends
of the game. From Johnny Unitas to Peyton Manning, Don Schula to Tony Dungy there
is nothing more American than football. And they’d be the first to tell you
that…even if baseball is America’s past
time…But nonetheless, football is their passion.
Football is intense, tough, rugged, a man’s game that requires perseverance,
determination and a kind of raw courage few are able to summon. Football is a
game played with speed, strength, agility and mostly…your hands…But, what’s in a
name? Besides who would call a game where you use your feet most of the time
futeball…oh, right…
Football is a religion unto itself and every Sunday they come to
worship…hell, even the Saints play…It is steeped in a rich tradition all across
the US as millions huddle in their rec rooms draped in their team colors, or in
dens decorated with every possible nick-nack one could imagine adorned with their team’s
logo. They loose precious sleep over their fantasy league roster each week,
painstakingly searching for that one move to put them over the top. They wear
nothing but paint in the freezing cold so that their team knows how much they
are willing to sacrifice for them, hoping perhaps to elicit a similar reaction
from those on the field.
It is so big even President Barak Obama took time out of his very
busy schedule to address not the economic or housing crisis, not the war or
unemployment but the confusion and calamity that is the BCS rankings system,
which should of course dramatically improve the value of everyone’s 401k…
FIRST DOWN:
Football’s culture is one that outsiders are not necessarily warming
up to and it is certainly not a global phenomenon. In fact of all the major
team sports across the world football is perhaps the most ethnocentric. It is America. Hockey
defines Canada
but we are certainly not the world’s only hockey power. Soccer is more than beloved
across Europe and South America but
once again there is no one country who can claim to be soccer. Baseball and basketball
are international success stories like few others and players from all over globe
filter into the North American leagues every year, but football is
nationalistic. It is the USofA. More than NASCAR, Hollywood or obesity, football is America’s gift
to itself.
American sports television is
dominated by football, basketball, baseball or, if Tiger Woods is playing, golf
coverage, giving much less time to other sports, which only makes sense as
these sports are clearly the most popular while others like hockey and soccer
are so far down the list that you actually have to dust them off before usage. I
understand completely as coming from a hockey mad nation the NHL is at the
forefront of sports coverage. It only makes sense to give the viewers what they
want and what they want is their pigskin fix. Though this term is somewhat outdated
as the balls are now made with synthetic…uh, moving on, football is the biggest thing (and not
just because of the players size) in the country when the fall starts. From
the Friday night lights of a high school game to the prime time stage of the
Monday nighter it is what drives the American sporting world. I was watching
Around the Horn (@AroundtheHorn) a while back and one of the writers Kevin Blackistone (@profblackistone) suggested that the
by-week before the Super Bowl, which is where the Probowl now foolishly resides, was the worst week in sports as, brace yourself,
there was NO football played! And yet, here we are….
Every minute detail and possible scenario is played out for hours
before and after on sports programs, every decision second guessed and every
incident blown out of proportion. Now this is true of most major sports in
their respective havens, (can't count how many hours I've spent fretting over the NHL playoffs) so football is certainly not alone in this, but having the majority
of games played on one day does make it that much easier.
However you cannot talk about
football and television without talking about the biggest stage of all, the Super
Bowl. Arguably the largest single day in American television, the game garners over
a 40% rating according to the Nielson polls[1].
It’s huge, larger than life, it is where thirty seconds of commercial time
costs more than most people would make in four life times. Tens of millions
around the world tune in to watch this event as yes, it does have international
cache. The NFL is known across the world even if most league members have never
been there, or have a player in the league from there, or couldn’t identify
these places on a map…
SECOND AND LONG:
As far as a world championship for
football is concerned, well the Super Bowl will have to suffice as there really
isn’t one. The other three major North American team sports, hockey, baseball
and basketball, all three have international tournaments or Olympic competition where the best players
in the world represent their country in order to determine who has the world’s
best team. Golf has had players from all over the globe win major tournaments
and the World Cup of soccer is arguably the biggest sporting event in the world
outside the Olympics, not to mention that they are all or were Olympic sports.
Football is…well, not. Let’s face it, there really aren’t that many, if any other
countries legitimately interested in fielding a football team and it would
certainly be so lopsided in favor of the US that it really wouldn’t be worth
playing.
Every North American team sport has
its MVP, a player selected as it’s most valuable and while predominantly the
Heart Trophy for the NHL’s MVP has gone to a Canadian men like Alexander ‘the
Gr8’ Ovechkin and Sergi Federov have won, and Larry Walker and Justin Morneau
are among many non-American MVP’s in baseball. The NBA has had Hakim ‘the
Dream’, Dirk Novitski and of course ‘Hair Canada’ himself, Steve Nash (@SteveNash) as
their most valuable. But who would even be considered a winner in the NFL other
than someone born and bred in the USA? Now common sense suggests that
it is highly unlikely someone other than an American would win as well, it is
highly unlikely someone outside the US has been playing at a high
enough level to obtain that kind of success, which again speaks to the
nationalistic nature of the game. The only other seeming compatriot of the NFL
seems to be a few scattered indoor leagues and our own CFL.
The CFL (@CFL) is often seen as the NFL’s little brother, (Much like Canada itself) an NFL light, a
place where you can, say, take a year off if you are suspended for drug use…Despite
boasting the oldest consecutively running championship in football in the Grey
Cup, the CFL is just not in the same league as the NFL. They actually implement
rules to ensure that their game is unique, mostly for nationalistic pride, and
reserve enough roster spots specifically for Canadians as the teams would be
dominated by even more by American influence. In this sense we can see that one
of the only other professional football leagues in the world, despite not being
in the US is still dominated by Americans or did you really think Doug Flutie
was from Calgary?
THIRD AND SHORT:
One reason that football may not have
taken off across the globe may be because of the need for so much equipment
that to be honest many cannot afford. Face it soccer and baseball are the
world’s leading sports because they are so cost effective. Stick, ball, doesn’t
get much more basic than that. Many kids in Canada or Europe
cannot afford the hockey equipment they desire and it is a sad reality of these
games. Though this leads ones self to wonder why rugby isn’t more popular as it
is rather football-esque sans the gear but this is likely a result of the
British influence in their colonies and their continued love, and domination, of
the sport.
Football is also a very complex
sport and requires a great deal of practice, knowledge and development within a
team atmosphere and without a lot of people with a knowledge or love of the
game to instruct the next generation at a grass roots level the development
stalls and people find other ways to amuse themselves.
FOURTH AND GOAL:
In summing up I think it is best to
just accept things for what they are. Football is a great game, if only for the
tailgating alone, and if its place is America it should stay home. The
NHL (@NHL) has tried to push its way into non-traditional (Gary Betman insists on the
name even though dead zones would be more appropriate) markets with lets just say, mixed
results so why would the NFL try and force itself down the throats of those who
are no interested and risk loosing millions of dollars and the franchise. Aside
from a brief foyer into Europe they realize
that they are one of the most profitable leagues in the world and have carved
out a very successful niche doing just what they are so why mess with success.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it…
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