“That whole 11 minute thing has been one of the all time stupidest “stats” dumb reporters have been waving around for 25 years. It goes under the completely false assumption that the only time football happens is between the snap and the whistle. 90% of whether a play succeeds or fails is determined by pre-snap reads and adjustments, that 20 seconds BEFORE the snap, any “stat” that pretends that time doesn’t matter is, quite simply, a lie. And you know football better than that.” - discostu
Exactly my friend. It is rather insipid thinking.
It’s like comparing Chess to the game of “tic tac toe” and claiming Chess is inferior to the tedious Tic Tac Toe because the latter has so much more action. None of the stratagizing and thought that goes into Chess counts for anything; you must simply add up the time spent moving your objects.
Football is superior to ALL sports because of the previously cited reasons. Basketball has a prodigious amount of scoring and it bores the hell out of me because it is so monotonous. The guys are an average of 7 feet tall and score almost effortlessly.
They could shorten the games to 5 minutes because that’s what it always comes down to. Everyone would just step up the level of exertion to account for the shorter time and the END RESULT would usually be the same.
I have to snicker here a bit because I actually thought of chess as another example of a game where the unwashed might think stuff only happens in a certain very short amount of time but in reality there’s a lot going on outside that time.
I don’t know if football is necessarily superior to all sports because of its complexity, I still think the core athleticism of hockey makes it superior. But it is the most fun sport to over analyze, and it is probably the most layered sport, with a lot more going on that just the “action” part of the game.
And I will say that when basketball is played well, something you will almost never see in the NBA but still see a lot in college, it is a beautiful game to behold. The way good teams that pass and think and other things that are seemingly against the rules in the NBA make the ball move around in 3 dimensions can be awe inspiring.