i am sparticus: American Football

American Football

Continuing in my series of 'Sports That Suck (That Just Happen To Be American)'... American Football.
As George Will once said (and I have no idea who George Will is, but it's a good quote) "[American] Football combines two of the worst things in American life. Violence punctuated by committee meetings." And that's pretty much all it is. Everyone lines up, someone yells out some numbers, they throw a ball backwards, everyone runs into everyone else and the ball gets thrown (or if you are lucky, kicked) forward. Four things now can happen. The ball is caught and run with up the pitch, the ball is caught and run with down the pitch, the ball is dropped or referee randomly blows a whistle. Either way, the game stops after five seconds and everyone huddles around for about half an hour, while the coachs shout and point at complicated diagrams. Then everyone lines up again slightly further forward or backward to where they last where, and repeats the procedure. Eventually someone crosses a line, puts the ball down and does a little dance. The wikipedia entry for American Football states that a game typically lasts for "one hour of game time, which translates into three to four hours of real time". That's right, up to three quarters of the game involves people huddling around and talking. Genius!

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