Author Topic: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?  (Read 27056 times)

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Offline ReaPsTA

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Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« on: August 25, 2012, 04:56:48 PM »
First thing:  I know that Canada has the CFL and that the NFL is going to start playing games in London.  It's not like the game has no international appeal.

But still, I literally can't understand why the NFL isn't the most popular sport in the world.  Obviously, the fact it's super popular in America doesn't mean that it will be popular everywhere else.  That's easy to intutively understand.

Here's what isn't the reason:  I have a feeling that the average NFL fan is stereotyped as a guy who goes to church on Sunday morning, then rushes home in his truck to turn on the game and start throwing down cold ones with his buddies.

The obvious reason this isn't true is that it's a gross over-simplifcation.  Even NASCAR fans can't be fit into a stereotype this narrow.

But here's what's truly mindblowing about the NFL's popularity.  Both the fact that it's true and the fact that no one realizes it's true:

There is no cultural group within the United States that doesn't like Football.

Football fandom has nothing to do whatsoever with your job, political ideology, other hobbies, style of dress, social group, or whatever else you can think of.  Not only is there no type of person that is a football fan, there's no type of person that isn't.

And yet, it's still not popular outside America.  How?
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Offline Kotowboy

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2012, 05:12:14 PM »
We call it Rugby and you don't wear body armour.



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Offline Progmetty

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2012, 05:22:21 PM »
For most of the world I think cause they find it to be a violent mindless sport that doesn't require skills or brains, only physical fitness and sometimes just natural body hugeness.
Personally I hate it cause it -second only to basketball- bores the living fuck out of my brain cells, I do recognize it as the main sport here in the U.S though and try not to express my views around it's hardcore fans so I wouldn't be a party pooper :lol
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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2012, 05:25:34 PM »
I think a lot of people see how sloppy the majority of the 10 guys lined up as O-linemen/D-linemen look and then use it as a shitty excuse to generalize that all football players are out of shape and can't possibly rival the athleticism of their hotpants-wearing 170-lb. soccer/rugby heroes.

They also like to hide behind the weak-ass no padding/safety equipment thing even though >90% of the dudes that are delivering the hits in the NFL weigh more than 200 lbs. and, aside from the D-linemen, the remaining 6 players range from as quick as just about any soccer/rugby players to being fast enough to smoke the shit out of them in a foot race. Furthermore, the non-linemen defenders are, at smallest, the same size as soccer/rugby players and often times much larger and still made of rock solid muscle. Bottom line: in the NFL you're likely to take MUCH harder hits so I seriously doubt many of these rugby/soccer dudes would last very long without padding in the NFL. Let 'em come see if they wish.

Another way they try to slag American football is because of there not being continuous action yet that doesn't seem to affect their love for cricket.
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Offline Kotowboy

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2012, 05:28:43 PM »
Football and Cricket bore the arse off me.

Cricket seems to be 90% standing around doing bugger all.

I really enjoy snooker since the amount of tactical play and actual skill involved is amazing.

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Offline Elite

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #5 on: August 25, 2012, 05:29:26 PM »
Because of two things:

- Rugby
- Football (the real thing, with an actual round ball)
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Offline Pols Voice

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #6 on: August 25, 2012, 05:30:30 PM »
Well, I'm American and I don't like it. I used to as a teenager but I just lost all interest in it. To be honest, almost all sports bore the hell out of me now, with soccer being the worst. Ironically, the only sport I really enjoy watching is baseball, which is widely considered one of the most boring of all. :P
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Offline ReaPsTA

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2012, 05:33:11 PM »
For most of the world I think cause they find it to be a violent mindless sport that doesn't require skills or brains, only physical fitness and sometimes just natural body hugeness.

I'm emotionally torn about this answer.

My visceral reaction is that it's a verifiably wrong opinion.  The sport might be relatively simple for the individual player, but from the standpoint of coaching it and understanding it as a fan I'm pretty sure it's the most complicated popular sport in the world.  It's so complicated that they're releasing new camera angles this year because the old ones aren't sufficient.

On the other hand, this means the solution to its lack of popularity is pretty easy to figure out.  Put more effort into emphasizing the complexity of the sport.

What confuses me:  Americans almost always are able to intutively understand the complexity of the sport.  Even if they don't understand what makes a good or bad player, the understand that coordinating the movements of 11 guys effectively is tough work.  Assuming it's true that foreigners perceive the sport as stupid, why don't they make the same leap?

One interesting note:  Football video games are great for the sport because they let you actually call plays and understand what goes into making a Football team work.  I'm pretty sure that the Football video games I played as a kid are still the foundation for my ability to understand the game today.  I don't know this, but I'm pretty sure the popularity of Football in London can be correlated with the popularity of Madden.

Well, I'm American and I don't like it. I used to as a teenager but I just lost all interest in it. To be honest, almost all sports bore the hell out of me now, with soccer being the worst. Ironically, the only sport I really enjoy watching is baseball, which is widely considered one of the most boring of all. :P

I don't like baseball one bit but both times I've seen it live it was great.  I recommend trying the experience.
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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2012, 05:36:05 PM »
Another way they try to slag American football is because of there not being continuous action yet that doesn't seem to affect their love for cricket.

To be fair, cricket is not nearly as popular in the UK as it's made out to be, at least among younger people. I don't think I knew anyone there who was actually a cricket fan, and many of my friends had only a rough idea of how the game was even played.
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Offline Nekov

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #9 on: August 25, 2012, 05:37:53 PM »
Mmm, My thoughts on it:

1. The game doesn't flow. It is stopped and restarted after each play which makes it a little boring in my opinion because you spend half the game watching them plan the next play and getting into position.

2. Again in my non expert view on the game I feel like it depends a lot on 1 guy, the quarter back. I don't know much but it seems to me that if you have a lousy one your team is kinda screwed. I know that you can have a couple of good runners that can make up for it but in the end a good QB makes a real difference.

3. It's called football which is completely wrong in every sense. You have only one guy in the team that actually uses his feet to kick the ball and on the other hand that's not a ball they are using, balls are round :rant:

4. You have rugby which doesn't have any of the things stated above, it is stopped sometimes but it's in very specific scenarios, otherwise the game has a very nice flow. You don't have 1 guy that's more important than the rest but you really need to play as a team in every sense.

Another way they try to slag American football is because of there not being continuous action yet that doesn't seem to affect their love for cricket.

Cricket is boring as hell. I think only 40 countries in the world play it and most of those used to be English territory.
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Offline Pols Voice

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #10 on: August 25, 2012, 05:39:37 PM »
Well, I'm American and I don't like it. I used to as a teenager but I just lost all interest in it. To be honest, almost all sports bore the hell out of me now, with soccer being the worst. Ironically, the only sport I really enjoy watching is baseball, which is widely considered one of the most boring of all. :P

I don't like baseball one bit but both times I've seen it live it was great.  I recommend trying the experience.

I went to a bunch of high school football games when I was 13-15, so I was really into it for a while. I've only been to one NFL game though, but I don't live anywhere near an NFL team now. And forget about college. For some reason I just disconnected from sports in general. I think all the steroids scandals had a lot to do with it.
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Offline Jaffa

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #11 on: August 25, 2012, 05:40:13 PM »
I just find it to be exceedingly boring to watch, myself.  If someone makes a really impressive play and returns a punt for a touchdown or something like that, I can get into it, but most of the time, it just seems like large guys just repeatedly running into each other in order to move the ball very slowly down the field three or four yards at a time, with play being stopped every few seconds so they can get set up to run into each other again.
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Offline Zantera

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #12 on: August 25, 2012, 05:43:58 PM »
From my own experience, I just think there's way too many interruptions in American Football for people here to get excited. It's really 15-20 seconds of game, then just as many seconds (if not more) of pause. I enjoy American Football myself and watch it casually, but generally I think that's part of the reason.
On the other hand, Baseball is another sport that is huge in America but not as big in other countries.

We could turn the reasoning around, and ask why normal football (aka soccer) isn't popular in America? it's pretty much popular in all parts of the world, except for USA.

Offline ReaPsTA

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #13 on: August 25, 2012, 05:44:38 PM »
They also like to hide behind the weak-ass no padding/safety equipment thing

That's one of the worst arguments against football.  If the game were played without pads, at least one person would literally die every weekend.  The first football safety equipment was invented specifically because people were killed playing the game.  There's nothing pansy about it whatsoever.

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Another way they try to slag American football is because of there not being continuous action yet that doesn't seem to affect their love for cricket

Is cricket really that popular?

Because of two things:

- Rugby

Perhaps ironically, this is a compelling argument.  Maybe, in the rest of the world, rugby already fills the same needs that Football does in America.  In the rest of the world, it might be theoretically possible that Football can't become popular on its own accord unless it displaces the popularity of rugby.  Very abstract and maybe false, but worth considering.

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- Football (the real thing, with an actual round ball)

I really doubt this.  Football and soccer are different games that are popular for different reasons.  The intensity of the fandom surrounding soccer seems similar to the fandom surrounding football on the surface, but I don't believe it's ultimately the same.
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Offline Nekov

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #14 on: August 25, 2012, 05:48:33 PM »
@ Reap: Regarding the difficulty of the game, I think that's another reason for it not to be so popular. What makes other sports interesting is that while the teams have a defined way of playing there is a lot of room for improvisation which in my opinion tends to bring out the best plays. In basketball for example teams run plays and move the ball around the way they practice it but a lot of times that doesn't go well so the teams end up improvising and in many cases you get those sweet last second shots every fan loves. If your play doesn't go well in AM most likely the game will stop and you will need to start all over.
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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #15 on: August 25, 2012, 05:50:22 PM »
They also like to hide behind the weak-ass no padding/safety equipment thing

That's one of the worst arguments against football.  If the game were played without pads, at least one person would literally die every weekend.  The first football safety equipment was invented specifically because people were killed playing the game.  There's nothing pansy about it whatsoever.

Yeah, I'll defend football here and agree that's always one of the worst arguments. Trying to prevent death or serious injury doesn't make them sissies.
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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #16 on: August 25, 2012, 05:51:34 PM »
On the other hand, Baseball is another sport that is huge in America but not as big in other countries.

Eh, baseball definitely has an international appeal that american football lacks. Not so much in Europe, but it has established fanbases in South America, S. Korea, and Japan.
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Offline robwebster

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #17 on: August 25, 2012, 05:51:53 PM »
I'm going to prefix this by saying I actually know a. bugger all about sports, and b. a fair few American football fans here in the UK. As in, proper fans. A good friend of mine played American football locally for a few years - might still do, not heard from him as much lately.

So, with the preface that not only am I completely ignorant to this entire subculture but I'm trying to argue a rule that I've met living exceptions to - I think a huge part of it is the fact that it's got the word "American" in front of it. And the other huge part is that it's used the word "football" to describe something that, in the minds of a good majority of the planet's population, definitely isn't.

Real football, as people in every other country consider it, is one of the most beloved sports worldwide. Calling your sport American football sets it up as a direct opposition. A counter-argument. "Here's what we're going to do instead." The two sports needn't be mutually exclusive, but by insisting on calling it football, it feels like someone's looked at soccer and gone, "You can keep that bullshit with the sphere - we're going to don some armor and carry an egg."

On top of that, the word American is in itself a big sign that says "This isn't yours." When people follow a sport, they like to feel involved. They like to support their local team, feel like they're on the journey with their heroes. Very few people are going to feel personally involved with a sport that has a foreign country's name in front of it. Who's heard of the "English American Football Team?" I presume it does exist, and I presume it's got fans, but even just as a phrase, English American Football Team is, semantically speaking, nonsense. Giving a sport a particular geography limits its breadth innately. It's a psychological barrier. A big mental wall that, again, implies "The rest of you are not part of this."

If you started calling soccer football, and came up with a new name for American football, I think a lot of people would feel a lot more like it was a game they could be involved in. Because while there are fans worldwide, it's not really a global sport, and with a name like that I don't know if it ever can be. Hell of an image problem if you ask me. Which you didn't.

Offline Nekov

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #18 on: August 25, 2012, 05:55:52 PM »
On the other hand, Baseball is another sport that is huge in America but not as big in other countries.

Eh, baseball definitely has an international appeal that american football lacks. Not so much in Europe, but it has established fanbases in South America.

Not really, only in Venezuela
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Offline TheVoxyn

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #19 on: August 25, 2012, 05:59:09 PM »


Another way they try to slag American football is because of there not being continuous action yet that doesn't seem to affect their love for cricket.
Yea, because there are soooo many people who love cricket  :lol.

Offline El Barto

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #20 on: August 25, 2012, 06:01:16 PM »
I ate lunch a a few old British guys a while back, and I mentioned that I couldn't understand cricket to save my life.  They said that's OK because they can't figure out American football, either.  To appreciate the game, you really have to understand some of the subtlety.  If you don't understand all that, then it's just a sequence of individual plays with no flow, as others have suggested.  To me, a coach opting to go for it on fourth and 3 in his opponent's territory is just as thrilling as a great catch or kick return.  We can appreciate that because we grew up watching and playing the game.  Foreigners grew up playing soccer, so they never got immersed in the game. 
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Offline Progmetty

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #21 on: August 25, 2012, 06:07:02 PM »
1. The game doesn't flow. It is stopped and restarted after each play which makes it a little boring in my opinion because you spend half the game watching them plan the next play and getting into position.

Ah that hit the spot, one of the main reasons it's utterly boring for me.
On some level it's the same deal with Basketball, this last season I had to watch a game with some people at a cafe and I sincerely was throwing around looks of genuine shock at how often the fuckers would stop due to the short length of quarters, are we really watching this? the fucking thing lasted two and half hours and the only images I could recall from it the next day are the players going to their seats or the players getting up from their seats and the commercials.
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Offline Jaffa

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #22 on: August 25, 2012, 06:07:51 PM »
I think a huge part of it is the fact that it's got the word "American" in front of it. And the other huge part is that it's used the word "football" to describe something that, in the minds of a good majority of the planet's population, definitely isn't.

The second part, I can agree with, but I'm not sure about the first.  As far as I'm aware, we don't actually call it American football in America.  We just call it football.  The league is the NFL - National Football League - not the NAFL.  I believe it is only referred to as American football by people who aren't actually from America, and then only to distinguish it from 'proper' football, or what we call soccer. 

I could be wrong (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am), but I'm not aware of any Americans calling it American football.

I do agree that it would be smart to call it something other than football. 
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Offline TheVoxyn

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #23 on: August 25, 2012, 06:09:21 PM »
We call it American football because football is the main sport here and soccer is a stupid name for a sport where you kick a ball with your feet.

Offline jammindude

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #24 on: August 25, 2012, 06:11:28 PM »
Robwebster brings up a GREAT point.    You're identifying it by a term that says "this is ours" and creating the opposite of something that that term is known by everywhere else in the world.


That being said...let's go back in time to when the sport was invented. 

I'll admit that the name "football" is really something that doesn't make much sense.  So you're sitting around trying to come up with a name for this game.

What do *YOU* call it?
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Offline Jaffa

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #25 on: August 25, 2012, 06:12:27 PM »
We call it American football because football is the main sport here and soccer is a stupid name for a sport where you kick a ball with your feet.

I understand that.  I'm just saying that I don't think the people who invented the sport actually decided to call it 'American football'.  But again, I could be completely wrong about that.

What do *YOU* call it?

Soccer? 
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Offline ReaPsTA

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #26 on: August 25, 2012, 06:12:49 PM »
I find this post captivating.

I think a huge part of it is the fact that it's got the word "American" in front of it. And the other huge part is that it's used the word "football" to describe something that, in the minds of a good majority of the planet's population, definitely isn't.

I think this is totally true in and of itself.  But nothing exists in and of itself.  The popularity of the NFL shows the level of desire to see this sport.  I'd personally think that the name thing would cease to be an issue of the game were more effectively promoted.  And yet, I might be wrong. 

The next few years of Football in London will be an interesting test case for this.  The NFL definitely wants to expand internationally, and is making their first serious effort to do so.  If it works, then this thread will be sort of dumb, and the answer will simply be bad marketing.  If it doesn't work, then who knows...

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Real football, as people in every other country consider it, is one of the most beloved sports worldwide. Calling your sport American football sets it up as a direct opposition. A counter-argument. "Here's what we're going to do instead." The two sports needn't be mutually exclusive, but by insisting on calling it football, it feels like someone's looked at soccer and gone, "You can keep that bullshit with the sphere - we're going to don some armor and carry an egg."

I know you're not trying to be inflammatory - you're just summing up an argument, but I hate the notion that we're wrong to call American Football Football.  It makes the implicit assumption that we did this as a country purely to have it our own way as an act of defiance.  I don't know much more about the history of the game than what I've read on Wikipedia, but it seems the process was very organic.

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On top of that, the word American is in itself a big sign that says "This isn't yours." When people follow a sport, they like to feel involved. They like to support their local team, feel like they're on the journey with their heroes. Very few people are going to feel personally involved with a sport that has a foreign country's name in front of it. Who's heard of the "English American Football Team?" I presume it does exist, and I presume it's got fans, but even just as a phrase, English American Football Team is, semantically speaking, nonsense. Giving a sport a particular geography limits its breadth innately. It's a psychological barrier. A big mental wall that, again, implies "The rest of you are not part of this."

I can't really argue against this.

I'd actually bet that a lot of Americans like the fact that the sport is such an "American" thing.

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If you started calling soccer football, and came up with a new name for American football, I think a lot of people would feel a lot more like it was a game they could be involved in. Because while there are fans worldwide, it's not really a global sport, and with a name like that I don't know if it ever can be. Hell of an image problem if you ask me. Which you didn't.

Well, I didn't not ask you, so it's all good.

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I actually know... a fair few American football fans here in the UK. As in, proper fans.

Would you say there's anything different about these people from your other fellow countrymen?
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Offline Nekov

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #27 on: August 25, 2012, 06:13:58 PM »
I think a huge part of it is the fact that it's got the word "American" in front of it. And the other huge part is that it's used the word "football" to describe something that, in the minds of a good majority of the planet's population, definitely isn't.

The second part, I can agree with, but I'm not sure about the first.  As far as I'm aware, we don't actually call it American football in America.  We just call it football.  The league is the NFL - National Football League - not the NAFL.  I believe it is only referred to as American football by people who aren't actually from America, and then only to distinguish it from 'proper' football, or what we call soccer. 

I could be wrong (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am), but I'm not aware of any Americans calling it American football.

I do agree that it would be smart to call it something other than football.

That probably is true but for the rest of the world football is soccer so when we need to refer to the one you guys play there is a necessity of adding American in front of it to be able to distinguish them.

1. The game doesn't flow. It is stopped and restarted after each play which makes it a little boring in my opinion because you spend half the game watching them plan the next play and getting into position.

Ah that hit the spot, one of the main reasons it's utterly boring for me.
On some level it's the same deal with Basketball, this last season I had to watch a game with some people at a cafe and I sincerely was throwing around looks of genuine shock at how often the fuckers would stop due to the short length of quarters, are we really watching this? the fucking thing lasted two and half hours and the only images I could recall from it the next day are the players going to their seats or the players getting up from their seats and the commercials.

That's a problem with the NBA. They use every single timeout they have because they need to cut the game for publicity. Watch basketball outside the US and you'll see the games end up much more quickly because a) Coaches don't use every single timeout b) timeouts are shorter because publicity doesn't really matter, only the game c) Each quarter is 2 minutes shorter
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Offline TheVoxyn

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #28 on: August 25, 2012, 06:14:56 PM »
We call it American football because football is the main sport here and soccer is a stupid name for a sport where you kick a ball with your feet.

I understand that.  I'm just saying that I don't think the people who invented the sport actually decided to call it 'American football'. 

Ah, but it was decided to call the sport the exact same term as an already existing and widely popular sport. And the name doesn't even make sense.

Offline jammindude

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Offline Jaffa

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #30 on: August 25, 2012, 06:16:28 PM »
Again, not trying to defend our calling it football.  I already said it would be smart to call it something else.  I'm just saying don't blame us for the 'American' tag when we don't refer to it that way.
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Offline Nekov

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #31 on: August 25, 2012, 06:16:35 PM »

Quote
Real football, as people in every other country consider it, is one of the most beloved sports worldwide. Calling your sport American football sets it up as a direct opposition. A counter-argument. "Here's what we're going to do instead." The two sports needn't be mutually exclusive, but by insisting on calling it football, it feels like someone's looked at soccer and gone, "You can keep that bullshit with the sphere - we're going to don some armor and carry an egg."

I know you're not trying to be inflammatory - you're just summing up an argument, but I hate the notion that we're wrong to call American Football Football.  It makes the implicit assumption that we did this as a country purely to have it our own way as an act of defiance.  I don't know much more about the history of the game than what I've read on Wikipedia, but it seems the process was very organic.


Rip, the thing here is, why is the sport called football when only one of the players in the game actually uses his foot while all the others play with they're hands? It doesn't make much sense
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Offline Progmetty

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #32 on: August 25, 2012, 06:18:21 PM »
We can appreciate that because we grew up watching and playing the game.  Foreigners grew up playing soccer, so they never got immersed in the game. 

At the end of the day that's all there is to it frankly, familiarity and habit. The traditions and the practices of Americans that are built around their sports, I respect that and enjoy seeing it as it's one of the things that are really American the way foreigners saw America in the Hollywood movies. My weekend, my beer and hot dogs and my jersey of my team, BBQ later, pass out on the couch with the dog, etc. It was cool to see people like that when I came to the states cause I found it to be part of the culture I perceived America to be all my childhood and young life.
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Offline ReaPsTA

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #33 on: August 25, 2012, 06:18:32 PM »
I could be wrong (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am), but I'm not aware of any Americans calling it American football.

You're right.  It's just Football here.

Rip, the thing here is, why is the sport called football when only one of the players in the game actually uses his foot while all the others play with they're hands? It doesn't make much sense

Nope.  It feels right but is logically nonsensical.  But that's different than arguing against the name because it supposedly makes an ideological statement.
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Offline countoftuscany42

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Re: Why Isn't American Football More Popular Outside of America?
« Reply #34 on: August 25, 2012, 06:18:46 PM »
Because football is fucking stupid, and the pro players are the least intelligent, most overpaid douches in all of pro sports, save for basketball..