Dallas Cowboys get slaughtered by the New Orleans Saints

[SlavikSvensk]

I remember watching a bit of the superbowl a couple of years back and thought it was deathly boring, the build up was more interesting and in football the build up to big games seems interminable. I remember Samuel L Jackson saying there was something wrong with a game where they don't score after watching a Liverpool game (back in the days of Houllier, so I can understand him not being that impressed!), but they didn't score for ages in that superbowl either.

I mean I'm used to end to end football, a sport where they move a few yards forward at a time just doesn't do it for me. And I heard they made the game less defensive too to make it more interesting, I can't imagine what it must have been like before...

Hollywood films gave me the impression american sports were interesting, but then when I actually watched them I didn't really like any of them and American football seems the worst of the bunch.

We did come up with the word soccer, but we don't use it though! Idiots aside.

well, it's insanely complicated. the story is funny though. football, american football and rugby were all the same sport up until the mid 19th century, when they started differentiation from each other. when you look at old american football film (i mean black and white from the early part of 10th century), it's MUCH more like rugby. then it slowly changes, bit by bit, into the game it is today.

a typical game might have 6 scores in total, and action moves in one-direction at a time, though it can switch on a dime. the basics are simple, move the ball down the field and score. you have 4 chances to go 10 yards, and if you don't, you lose the ball. every 10 yards you get a fresh set of 4 chances (or downs). the defense tries to stop you, or get the ball away from you, so their team can take over. positions are highly specialized in a way they are not in football. the game is super violent, but not in a bloody, ears-come-off way like rugby, in a more car collision, broken bone sort of way.

[Will]

well, it's insanely complicated. the story is funny though. football, american football and rugby were all the same sport up until the mid 19th century, when they started differentiation from each other. when you look at old american football film (i mean black and white from the early part of 10th century), it's MUCH more like rugby. then it slowly changes, bit by bit, into the game it is today.

a typical game might have 6 scores in total, and action moves in one-direction at a time, though it can switch on a dime. the basics are simple, move the ball down the field and score. you have 4 chances to go 10 yards, and if you don't, you lose the ball. every 10 yards you get a fresh set of 4 chances (or downs). the defense tries to stop you, or get the ball away from you, so their team can take over. positions are highly specialized in a way they are not in football. the game is super violent, but not in a bloody, ears-come-off way like rugby, in a more car collision, broken bone sort of way.

Wow, they make it seem much more interesting in films and stuff, like someone makes a run, the QB picks him out and he hopefully scores a touchdown, none of this slowly shuffle up the field nonsense and having to stop the opposition moving a mere 10 yards 4 times to get to 'attack'... Surely it's pure patriotism americans actually enjoying that!

[SlavikSvensk]

Wow, they make it seem much more interesting in films and stuff, like someone makes a run, the QB picks him out and he hopefully scores a touchdown, none of this slowly shuffle up the field nonsense and having to stop the opposition moving a mere 10 yards 4 times to get to 'attack'... Surely it's pure patriotism americans actually enjoying that!

nah mate, it IS exciting. any play can get a TD, it's just that you NEED 10 yards (at least). the start-stop thing = tension and release. it's like with football...people who can't see the excitement just fundamentally don't understand the game.

[Will]

nah mate, it IS exciting. any play can get a TD, it's just that you NEED 10 yards (at least). the start-stop thing = tension and release. it's like with football...people who can't see the excitement just fundamentally don't understand the game.

But there's no chance of the defending team scoring 'til they've stopped the opposition moving 10 yards 4 times? Or 'til after the attacking team has scored presumably, which ever happens first?

[SlavikSvensk]

But there's no chance of the defending team scoring 'til they've stopped the opposition moving 10 yards 4 times? Or 'til after the attacking team has scored presumably, which ever happens first?

wrong! a defense can indeed score, but in order to do so, they need to take the ball away. that means they either force an offensive player to drop the ball or they intercept a pass. teams with defenses that score at least once a game usually make it really deep into the playoff tournament at the end of the year. some teams live off of this. the chicago bears, for example, have a defense that routinely scores 2 or 3 times a game and once scored 5 times this year.