O.T. David Beckham Makes his US debut Tonight.....

[MartyMoffatt]

It is true that some football matches do attract violent behaviour, but it isn’t just confined to Europe. In South America it is not unknown for referees to even be shot in retaliation for perceived bad decisions, and for rival fans to wage pitches battles with each other.

However, you have to keep things in perspective. Without wishing to belittle what is unfortunately a genuine problem, it is important to realise that severe fan violence at football matches is extremely rare. When it does take place it is headline news. Bear in mind that literally thousands more competitive football matches worldwide are played every week than American Football matches, and the vast majority of these take place without any incident (give or take a little banter between rival fans, which you will get in any sport). Occasionally there are isolated incidents and scuffles between a few fans, but these are rare and quickly dealt with.

Where there is any larger scale trouble it is usually caused by thugs who have not the slightest interest in the football match itself – that is just a convenient high profile event that enables them to act out their moronic practices. If football wasn’t as popular as it is, they’d probably move on to a sporting event that was more popular, and I have no sympathy for their mindset.

It is also clear that thuggery and violence in sport is a worldwide phenomenon. A very quick google search revealed even the US isn’t immune. See this link… http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_n2580_v122/ai_13266637

Marty

[MartyMoffatt]

Americans, you are not alone. I, too, do not understand the underlying excitement that has the world captivated about positional play, trench-like defence and suffocating midfield passing. Don't get me wrong. I love good, solid defense as much as the next guy, but there's something inherently wrong with a game that makes it so easy to defend. I watched a team on Saturday set up their offence delicately and constructively, like chess pieces, for 25 minutes, moving the ball gradually upfield, positioning every man just perfectly, drawing the defence into the formation they wanted, and then when the time came to strike!!!....the ball was deftly booted out of bounds and they had to reset their pieces and start all over again. A 25-minute attack strategy, a stupid, meandering, egregious waste of copious amounts of time plotting to get conditions just right, destroyed in two seconds. Nothing gained from it. Nothing to show for it. It's like one of those excruciatingly long and turgid single-shot scenes in a Stanley Kubrick movie that does nothing and goes nowhere but lures the audience into a false sense of security. But even Kubrick gave you a rewarding payoff every now and then. What's soccer's excuse?

Hmm.. compare this to a typical American Football match - 8-10 minutes of actual play, plus another 3 hours of posing, huddling and discussing tactics while the ball lies forlornly on the ground.

Marty

[Matthew]

Which team you do support, Marty? Swindon Town?

[Behshad]

You guys are still on this subject!? Give it a rest.
There is no way you can convince eachother that Soccer is better than American Football or vice verca.

Every sport has its good and bad,, its supporters and its huligans,,, some make to the media more often.
As an example , I was in Toronto back in 2004, when Canada won the World Cup of Ice Hockey against Finland.
After the game there was a huge riot with 20,000 celebrating Canadians out on the street.
They would lift up cars and put them upside down and put garbage cans on fire, the police didnt have much
control ove it, and just let it ride its course,,,The media didnt make a big deal about it , cause here in
North America, if you upscale riots like this, then you loose $$$$. They wannakeep it quiet just so the fans
dont get scared. You can not tell me that drunk NFL/NHL supporters dont get wild once in a while.


You can not justify a game being fun by high scoes. NBA is fucking boring, and they score every 20 seconds.
Also if the American football had an actual NORMAL scoring system, then it would also be a low scoring game!
Dave said "Are you saying a touchdown or field goal in football should be worth the same amount of points? This argument is just silly.",,,,
The whole scoring system is silly. If you wanna use that system, then why stop with NFL!? why not give the Hockey players a fair chance too?
I mean if the guy scores from the blue line he should get,, um,, 2 points,,,,,BUT if he does happen to get it in deflected by the other teams skates/stick, he shall get 4 points. If he manages to drive the puck through the defense and across the goal line, without shooting it, he should get 5 points, PLUS right after that goal, they should have a face off next to the goalie , for one more chance to get one extra point!
Who's silly now!?:P

I think instead of trying to talk eachother into "our sports", we need to just enjoy what's out there.
Watching soccer can be boring alot of times, I agree with that. The only times I think its fun its when the World Cup is on, and even then
there are some boring games too.
I enjoy playing soccer once in a great while,,, I love to watch Hockey,,, and when it comes to Football, I do enjoy playing the
game on my Playstation 3. I can not tolerate basketball and baseball, cause theyre just plain boring to me.

[conversationpc]

You guys are still on this subject!? Give it a rest.
There is no way you can convince eachother that Soccer is better than American Football or vice verca.

Every sport has its good and bad,, its supporters and its huligans,,, some make to the media more often.
As an example , I was in Toronto bacj in 2004, when Canada won the World Cup of Ice Hockey against Finland.
After the game there was a huge riot with 20,000 celebrating Canadians out on the street. The media didnt make
a big deal about it , cause here in North America, if you upscale riots like this, then you loose $$$$. They wanna
keep it quiet just so the fans dont get scared. You can not tell me that drunk NFL/NHL supporters dont get wild once in a while.


You can not justify a game being fun by high scoes. NBA is fucking boring, and they score every 20 seconds.
Also if the American football had an actual NORMAL scoring system, then it would also be a low scoring game!
Dave said "Are you saying a touchdown or field goal in football should be worth the same amount of points? This argument is just silly.",,,,
The whole scoring system is silly. If you wanna use that system, then why stop with NFL!? why not give the Hockey players a fair chance too?
I mean if the guy scores from the blue line he should get,, um,, 2 points,,,,,BUT if he does happen to get it in deflected by the other teams skates/stick, he shall get 4 points. If he manages to drive the puck through the defense and across the goal line, without shooting it, he should get 5 points, PLUS right after that goal, they should have a face off next to the goalie , for one more chance to get one extra point!
Who's silly now!?:P

I think instead of trying to talk eachother into "our sports", we need to just enjoy what's out there.
Watching soccer can be boring alot of times, I agree with that. The only times I think its fun its when the World Cup is on, and even then
there are some boring games too.
I enjoy playing soccer once in a great while,,, I love to watch Hockey,,, and when it comes to Football, I do enjoy playing the
game on my Playstation 3. I can not tolerate basketball and baseball, cause theyre just plain boring to me.

This can all be refuted by two words...SOCCER SUCKS.

[Behshad]

This can all be refuted by two words...SOCCER SUCKS.

Yep, good observation Dave Soccer sucks, but the true Football aint that bad
After all it was called football long before American Football was born!..which reminds me,,,, how come they call it FOOTBALL here in US!? Couldnt they come up with something more original!?
Specially in a sport when you rarely use "Foot" with "Ball" ?:) Shouldnt it be called "HandBall" instead!?:P

[MartyMoffatt]

Which team you do support, Marty? Swindon Town?

Unfortunately, yes. They've just been promoted to the 1st Division (what used to be division 3). They will never be a fashionable, profitable or successful team, but you have to support the local team, right?

Marty

[conversationpc]

This can all be refuted by two words...SOCCER SUCKS.

Yep, good observation Dave Soccer sucks, but the true Football aint that bad
After all it was called football long before American Football was born!..which reminds me,,,, how come they call it FOOTBALL here in US!? Couldnt they come up with something more original!?
Specially in a sport when you rarely use "Foot" with "Ball" ?:) Shouldnt it be called "HandBall" instead!?:P

Maybe since the quarterback puts his hands under the center's ass and balls, it could be called ass-ball?

[Behshad]

This can all be refuted by two words...SOCCER SUCKS.

Yep, good observation Dave Soccer sucks, but the true Football aint that bad
After all it was called football long before American Football was born!..which reminds me,,,, how come they call it FOOTBALL here in US!? Couldnt they come up with something more original!?
Specially in a sport when you rarely use "Foot" with "Ball" ?:) Shouldnt it be called "HandBall" instead!?:P

Maybe since the quarterback puts his hands under the center's ass and balls, it could be called ass-ball?

Good one but I belive that name is copyrighted by its players and teams

[conversationpc]

[dcvader]

Even Arena Football (AFL) is better than soccer.

[NealIsGod]

Even Arena Football (AFL) is better than soccer.

I'd even take this over soccer.

[Behshad]

Even Arena Football (AFL) is better than soccer.

I'd even take this over soccer.

So!? I'd take this over football anyday,,,(since you wanna keep the "battle" goin )



or even this:



There's less stoppage in Chess than Football
Also,, they attempt to make a "foosball" version of football was not such success, was it ?:P

[NealIsGod]

I'd even take this over soccer.

[conversationpc]

There used to be a really cool chess video game called "Battle Chess" that had 3-D animated pieces that would die in all sorts of comical ways when they were taken out by the opposing player.

[Behshad]

There used to be a really cool chess video game called "Battle Chess" that had 3-D animated pieces that would die in all sorts of comical ways when they were taken out by the opposing player.

I remember that game and it was awesome!
It was on 2(!) 1.44MB disks and you had to have at least 1MB of RAM to be able to play it .