Football is a brutal, violent, repetitive pile up of grunting brutes with little finesse or interest

[omega minimo]

beyond moving a few yards and falling down again, WAITING for one incredible pass or play. :boring:

Which some people -- who might prefer another sport with less contact, less brutality, less grunting, fewer violent pileups of bodies and more frequent moments of brilliance or magic -- prefer not to watch.

That's not so hard to understand.

Go Saints! Go NOLA!!

:yourock:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Socially acceptable infliction of long term brain damage and concussion.

Article in The New Yorker talks about special brain damage football players get, often having dementia and strokes and dying young as a result. Caused by too many concussions and high impacts.

[yurbud]

26. when I saw your subject line, I thought of the same article.

[cherokeeprogressive]

50. Ooooh, you mean like SOCCER?

?

[Warpy]

2. They need to reduce the endless timeouts

Signals from the sidelines as in baseball could determine the plays. They don't have to go into a huddle so that there can be six minutes of beer and car commercials. What makes US football so eternally annoying is the time they take to fall on top of each other in that cow pasture. It's a slow, slow game with relatively little action for the time expended and nobody knows when the bugger will finally be over so the other programming can finally start.

That's my gripe. I don't expect the rest of the world to conform to my taste in entertainment, I know my taste is odd. However, the way it's played today with maximum numbers of witless commercials extending the game time beyond all reason really has to stop.

I can see a time it's totally relegated to cable/satellite because the games will take 6-8 hours just to run all the commercials.

[RaleighNCDUer]

58. Of course, there are alternatives -

I spent those hours re-watching Shrek, Shrek 2, and Shrek the Third.

I guarantee I laughed more, the music was better, and I didn't have to see a single commercial.

[provis99]

3. well, its better than war, I guess.

War is the sport of kings and the upper class; the rest of us make do with football and baseball.

[Warpy]

5. Wrong place

[omega minimo]

34. The kings and Bankster class send "the rest of us" to fight their wars.......

[KonaKane]

4. That's why I am a Soccer fan instead.

nuff sed.

[Warpy]

6. Soccer also gives players brain injuries

from the head shot. Perhaps some very lightweight headgear could alleviate that problem, like light, ventilated bike helmets. Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing. I can actually watch soccer from time to time. In Spanish.

[KonaKane]

19. I don't care what language it's in. Soccer is the "beautiful game".

Hands down.

[Warpy]

21. Yes, and ultra light headgear wouldn't diminish it

I'd hate to see them encumbered by all the junk lumbering US football players wear. The skill of the game would plummet.

[tuckessee]

22. Do you know why so many people play soccer?

It's so they won't have to watch it.

[KonaKane]

24. Soccer is so much more fun to watch than foo'baw.

Foo'baw is these two hour plus running spurts of a few seconds of play interrupted by long breaks of players scratching their asses, refs agreeing on calls, and sportscasters bellering about nothing. At least soccer has a "flow" of play.

[omega minimo]

35. Perfect word: "flow"

:thumbsup:

[The Midway Rebel]

7. Obviously, OPdid not witness the slow mo replay of Saints conversion points.

That was a move a artistic beauty approaching ballet.

[wial]

8. being aware of the gravity of the brain injuries

caused by those high velocity collisions takes the joy out of it for me too. There can be grace and beauty to the game, but same with a movie star smoking a cigarette. pulverized brains, rotting lungs, no thank you.

[madrchsod]

9. that`s why i love soccer ...

[JCMach1]

11. Obvious never sat in the back of an ambulance holding your players leg together

While they rush him to the hospital!

Soccer can also be rough.

[flvegan]

10. They should check out a proper game of rugby, then.

Probably make them cry.

[Odin2005]

13. I don't get how anyone could play that, a cross between football and soccer with no pads.

:wow:

[flvegan]

17. England v Wales this weekend was very nice.

I watch, won't ever play...valuing my body parts and all.

[Odin2005]

12. Better place to have young males' aggression channeled instead of killing people.

[jobycom]

14. So is life.

And yet I choose to enjoy it.

[napi21]

15. Football is the current replacement of the gladiators. Many

people love it then and love football today! I must admit, when two teams are playing in th SB that I have no interest in, I don't watch. But I ALSAYS watch when the Steelers play...even though I moven from Pgh, in 1987, I still love them. Today's game I watched every minite! NOLA went through so much tradedy in the last few years and are still dealing with it, they deserve some gread things, and I thing this win will go a long way to giving them that!

[napi21]

16. Football is the current replacement of the gladiators. Many

people love it then and love football today! I must admit, when two teams are playing in th SB that I have no interest in, I don't watch. But I ALSAYS watch when the Steelers play...even though I moven from Pgh, in 1987, I still love them. Today's game I watched every minite! NOLA went through so much tradedy in the last few years and are still dealing with it, they deserve some gread things, and I thing this win will go a long way to giving them that!

[MichaelHarris]

18. I agree!

That's why I love it. I love it so much I became a sport's photographer, some of my photos from past games:










©Michael Harris

[omega minimo]

38. Good photos, Esp. like #3 and #4

:thumbsup:

[MichaelHarris]

41. Thanks!

They always say, make sure you get the eyes and the ball. Problem is, it's very hard to get the eyes and the ball.

[omega minimo]

47. The eyes?????!!!!!!

As if there is a person there? :wow:

This thread has made me realize the obvious: the fact that the players are all wrapped up and inhuman looking is part of why it bores some of us. Michelin men with numbers on the back. Good luck finding the eyes.

[MichaelHarris]

52. It's sort of a general

rule in sports photography, and really in photojournalism. Shoot for the eyes.

[omega minimo]

56. You are a professional

"Shoot for the eyes" is a setup and a bit of a joke when your person is enclosed in football costume, but still a good guideline and habit, for photographing human beings, when you can actually SEE the human beings.

Your shot #3 is really remarkable, capturing the action in a classic composition of a triangle. You may have been shooting for the eyes, but the only ones you captured were the fat schlub on the sidelines in the middle of the pix.

Your photo tells the story and conveys the drama with the three bodies, captured in relation to each other.

[proteus_lives]

20. Blah, blah.

Another condescending DU elitist post.

"We should only watch sporting events where no score is kept, there is no physical contact but interpretive dance performed by transgendered minority immigrants with flags (not balls, down with the patriarchy!) made of recycled material by vegan Buddhist monks. And it should only be broadcast on NPR and PBS."

:eyes:

[omega minimo]

40. No, it's a response to all the dumb arguing over elitism, IQ and brutal sport.

As OP states, "It's not that hard to understand."

Your pathetic attempt at a paraphrasing reveals much about your inability to comprehend.

You know better than to try to put words in my mouth. :think:

[proteus_lives]

46. Yeah, I should.

It's pretty hard to stick anything else in there, your foot is taking up all the space.

[omega minimo]

48. lol you poor thing

:spray:

Pathetic. I can acknowledge you think that's what someone somewhere is saying, but it sure as hell ain't the OP.

Why can't you acknowledge that?

[proteus_lives]

55. Acknowledge what?

Another condescending ramble from omega minimo?

I'm doing that! :rofl:

[omega minimo]

57. Work on your reading comprehension.

Calling other people "condescending" is no excuse for being an idiot.

[proteus_lives]

59. Work on your people skills.

If you weren't so condescending, you'd have more recs.

[Political Heretic]

54. LOL

[fishwax]

23. nothing wrong with not wanting to watch

but the posts about how people who do enjoy football (or other team sports) are less intelligent, less liberal, less mature, etc. are pretty silly. Entertaining, at times, but silly :)

[omega minimo]

44. Maybe they just have short attention spans.

[BlueJazz]

25. I predict the Saints will win by...ah...14-17 points.

[cliffordu]

27. I didn't watch the Stupor Bowl.

Who won??

[pansypoo53219]

28. contact?

watch aussie rules football.

[ddeclue]

29. Anyone who claims this really doesn't understand football.

[Forkboy]

30. I know. It's awsome.

[Swamp Rat]

31. Way'at New Dat!

:hi: :hug: :party:

[Forkboy]

32. Swampie!!!!! You old hound's tooth!!!!

I don't even know what that means, but it's always sounded good to me. I hope someday I'm a hound's tooth! :)

:hi:

[Swamp Rat]

33. I'm a 'duotone textile pattern'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houndstooth

... exspecially after booze and weed. :D :party:

My god, I can still hear everyone screaming and partying all over the city!... louder than any Mardi Gras ('cept in da Quarter).

[Forkboy]

36. I'm having an art flashback!

That's where I heard it before! Fuck it, it fits you...in a good way! :D

I hope the party is raging. I know when the Pats won the shit hit the fan. We partied a lot as well! ;)

[Swamp Rat]

45. heheheheheheeee!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlxuunir64Y

[omega minimo]

49. !!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO NOLA !!!!!!!! GO NOLA !!!!!!!!!!

:yourock: :toast: :woohoo::grouphug:

[Swamp Rat]

51. WHO DAT?! .............. NOBODY!!!!!!!

:woohoo: :hi: :hug: :party:

[omega minimo]

53. What amazing SPIRIT in dat place!!!

:toast: :pals:

[Cali_Democrat]

37. Oh come on!!!

Football is a great sport and exciting to watch. These two teams were passing oriented and were much more "finesse" than many other teams in the NFL.

[Forkboy]

39. I'm betting the OP isn't a hockey fan either.

[omega minimo]

43. Hockey players probably need the protective gear of footballers .....

but at least in hockey you can see individual players rather than Michelin men with a number on the back.

[omega minimo]

42. That would be a good game, then.

As someone else pointed out here, many of the pileups and ponderous timing of the game are commerical-dependent.

I acknowledge the occasional finesse of the game -- the question is how long you have to wait for it.