The myth that America doesn't like football

BBC News ^ | 2nd June 2015 | Nick Bryant

[the scotsman]

'True, football, or soccer as it is known here, is not as central to American as it is to European, African or South and Central American life. Nowhere near.

Up until recently, the game has been unloved by the major US television networks, which have long bemoaned the lack of breaks in play, the paucity of goals and the glut of draws.

Absent from the US game are big-name male stars and big-name clubs. The New York Red Bulls will never rival the New York Yankees. Real Salt Lake pales, rather risibly, alongside Real Madrid.

However, football is no longer met with American indifference. Nor any more does it offer proof of America's sporting isolationism.'

[MAKOTHEDOG]

Watching soccer players fall down and wince in fake pain is just to much to take.

Make the goal as wide as the field and add a few more goalies and it might be interesting.

I have friends that are into it and they try to get me into it but they have failed. I have no problem that they like it. It is their thing and that is cool.

[1Old Pro]

Make the goal as wide as the field and add a few more goalies and it might be interesting.

or they could add another 10 balls, keep opposing teams on each half of the field, and throw the balls at each other. If you catch it the guy who threw it is out, if it hits you and you don't catch it you're out.

[Rummyfan]

Saturday I will watch the UEFA Championship game between Barcelona and Juventus. That will be enough soccer to last for the rest of the year....

[snowstorm12]

hockey is a more exciting superior product than soccer. If a person likes a game similar to soccer, why wouldn’t they just watch hockey? I doubt soccer will ever catch on in the united states.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Naysayers can whistle past the graveyard if they want. The fact of the matter remains that the USA/Portugal World Cup game drew 21 million viewers.

That’s more than watched the deciding game of the World Series (19.2 million viewers) and the deciding game of the NBA Finals (18 million viewers) — and baseball and basketball were aired by Big Four networks.

There are three million youth soccer players in the United States. Deride it if you will. The next generation sure doesn’t.

(I just wish we had played better against Motherwell!) WATP

[MAKOTHEDOG]

That sounds pretty exciting.

[Billthedrill]

I love football, myself. Apparently the rest of the world has a different interpretation of the sport, and as usual, the rest of the world is wrong. I mean, look, we're an apex predator. What makes us an apex predator is an opposable thumb, which enables a grip, around a stone axe, a spear, a rifle, or the opponent's throat. And what typifies soccer? You can't use that! You are forbidden by The Rules from employing the single attribute that has turned man from a fur-lingerie-wearing prey into a fire-breathing conqueror tearing the beating hearts out of his enemies and thrusting them, howling, toward the exultant war gods of the sky. And that's what I like about football, real football, not the dainty mincing across the pitch by lace-panty eunuchs but the screaming ecstasy of of tearing the reeking vitals out of an opponent and burning them on a fiery altar of pure, machismo lust!!!

Now, about baseball...

[rrrod]

Of course this is a myth.....I love watch my little grandkids play soccer, Keeps them in shape for a real sport later in life.

[rrrod]

correcto..the games are fixed, players are encouraged to fake injuries and its BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[the scotsman]

Like zzzz baseball or gay rugby?.

[miss marmelstein]

Ok, I’ll deride it. It stinks.

[Puppage]

There’s more concussions in soccer than football.

[sitetest]

“Doesn’t like football”?? What are they talking about?>> Ah..., they mean soccer. They’re right.

[Starstruck]

Maybe it would be more exciting if they gave 7 points every time they score. That way a 3-2 game would be 21-14.

[x]

Misleading title much?

Soccer is okay as a screensaver when you want to watch TV and there's nothing on. It's also good practice when the games aren't in English and you're learning a foreign language. Also, if it's a really big game and the whole world is watching.

Otherwise, it's not that easy to get into.

[Sicon]

You know why I don't like soccer, and why I think a lot of Americans don't like soccer? Because it's played by a bunch of effete wusses (yes, there's another word I'd prefer to use, but I try to keep it clean here on FR :-) Exaggerating contact or pretending to be fouled is flat out unsportsmanlike, but not in international soccer.

And tell me, what team of Americans would stand by and do NOTHING when an opposing player BITES one of their teammates? I am talking here about Luis Suarez, who has bitten opposing players no less than three different times. And in every instance, neither the bitten player, or his teammates, did anything about it. If Suarez tried that crap on an American, I would like to think he wouldn't have any of his horse-sized teeth left in his mouth as a result of the pummeling he'd receive.

The game itself isn't the problem, it's the worthelss preening peacock wusses that play it.

[SevenofNine]

That only good thing about soccer LOL!

[bobby.223]

Not just the end zone North! The tattooed up thugs do their spastic looking ‘hood rat dances’ all over the field, even after the most average successful type play they might be part of.

[Inyo-Mono]

Perfect!

[Zeneta]