4 ms·

>> Sports are a special case as, arguably, they're mostly boring This only applies to american football, where you have on average 12 minutes of actual gamepla

by mamon 6y ago

>> Sports are a special case as, arguably, they're mostly boring This only applies to american football, where you have on average 12 minutes of actual gameplay over 3.5 hour match. Soccer or basketball are much more dynamic, and therefore can be entertaining on their own, no social context required.

martin_a 6y ago
Why the downvotes? This is a valid opinion. As a former american football player I find that watching the game is not as exciting as playing it. From the outside, and if you don't know about all the micromanagement and stuff going on, american football looks rather "static". Other sports are much more "obviously dynamic" and are therefore probably better suited to be watched through TV or VR.
- buran77 6y ago
  I had to do a search for that [0] and surprisingly (for me, not watching the sport except snippets in movies) it's actually real. The downvotes may come from people who took that as an unrealistic exaggeration. [0] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-were-just-1206-minutes-of-actual-gameplay-during-the-super-bowl-2015-02-02 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-were-just-1206-minut...
  - tobr 6y ago
    I’ve also never watched American football, so forgive me. This sounds incredibly dull. Can someone ELI5? What is going on for the rest of the game? Why do people watch?
    - elif 6y ago
      A lot of the time in the second half of the game is intentionally wasted by the team with the lead. A lot of the time throughout the game is wasted intentionally by game procedure, e.g. refs are setting up for the next play. Of course there are varied reasons individuals have to watch, but the overwhelming majority of it's market success can be ascribed to tribal desire to see your team win.
    - mbg721 6y ago
      An NFL game consists of a series of designed plays, and the 12 minutes is just the execution time. In between plays, there are formation changes and setup, so fans can guess at what the offense is planning and how the defense is reacting. (That happens in other sports too, but here there's a formal beginning and end to each play.) Then there are also breaks between quarters and after changes of possession, where genuinely nothing is going on.
    - biztos 6y ago
      To anyone else confused: ELI5 means "Explain (it) Like I'm Five (years old)." Now I'll try. Caveats: I don't watch American football on TV, but I watched it some when I was a teenager. I mostly remember how to play, and while I don't think it'd be safe to do it at my age, I do like to play catch with an American football whenever I get the chance. I wouldn't mind watching a game now, but only live and very close to the field. The thing is there's a lot of strategy, and each play is a meticulously, often spontaneously, planned action by the Offense (team with the ball) which the Defense does its best to disrupt. That disruption is almost always at least partially successful, forcing improvisation on both sides. In particular the quarterback (guy who throws the ball) often has to rethink the plan in real time as people chase after him -- he really really doesn't want to be tackled, for his own protection as well as for the game -- and somehow make this work with people who are running around at some distance from him. When it works it can be awe-inspiring and utterly unexpected. These things -- the strategy, the plan on the field, the disruption, the improvisation, the danger -- are all directly and intimately connected to the physical and mental abilities of the players, which are routinely pushed to their limits, sometimes to the point of causing permanent damage. This is all the stuff of human drama, and as in most human dramas the decisive physical events don't take up that much of the time. Another thing I'd add is that compared to a lot of other sports American Football offers an interesting combination of extreme chaos (the tackle, etc) and extreme precision (the long-distance pass to the wide receiver). Soccer by contrast never has that much precision and is much more about mastering the ever-present chaos, most of it very slow paced; basketball can go long stretches without getting very chaotic at all despite things constantly happening. (I know some people will take umbrage here, but I'm ready to defend these points!) I can't think of another sport that so closely tracks an idealized version of warfare and group combat. Though I'd love to see other examples. All that said, familiarity has a lot to do with how much you can enjoy watching a lot of sports. If you grew up surrounded by the culture of Sport X there's probably stuff in it you will like to watch. I like to watch squash, because I played it enough to understand what's going on. I have a friend who watches hours of snooker online. Even golf draws an audience. Even cricket!
      - martin_a 6y ago
        > I can't think of another sport that so closely tracks an idealized version of warfare and group combat. I've heard the term "it's chess but played with fridges" before and I think that fits. Besides that: great explanation.
tcskeptic 6y ago
Also cricket and baseball quite frankly.
lancewiggs 6y ago
And rugby, rugby league, Aussie rules etc are essentially aerobic physical contact sports not anaerobic impact sports. These sports have relatively few stops, and certainly no time for advertisements outside of the half or quarter time breaks. And there are no bulky pads and helmets, and the physicality is just as dynamic, if not more, than US football. Cricket is like baseball, where it tends to be on in the background and you pay attention at each delivery/pitch. Cricket can last 5 days though... As an outsider in the US I was struck by the crazy high percentage of time dedicated to advertisements - even to the extent of intentional breaks for that purpose.

by mamon 6y ago

martin_a 6y ago

Why the downvotes? This is a valid opinion. As a former american football player I find that watching the game is not as exciting as playing it. From the outside, and if you don't know about all the micromanagement and stuff going on, american football looks rather "static". Other sports are much more "obviously dynamic" and are therefore probably better suited to be watched through TV or VR.

buran77 6y ago
I had to do a search for that [0] and surprisingly (for me, not watching the sport except snippets in movies) it's actually real. The downvotes may come from people who took that as an unrealistic exaggeration. [0] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-were-just-1206-minutes-of-actual-gameplay-during-the-super-bowl-2015-02-02 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/there-were-just-1206-minut...
- tobr 6y ago
  I’ve also never watched American football, so forgive me. This sounds incredibly dull. Can someone ELI5? What is going on for the rest of the game? Why do people watch?
  - elif 6y ago
    A lot of the time in the second half of the game is intentionally wasted by the team with the lead. A lot of the time throughout the game is wasted intentionally by game procedure, e.g. refs are setting up for the next play. Of course there are varied reasons individuals have to watch, but the overwhelming majority of it's market success can be ascribed to tribal desire to see your team win.
  - mbg721 6y ago
    An NFL game consists of a series of designed plays, and the 12 minutes is just the execution time. In between plays, there are formation changes and setup, so fans can guess at what the offense is planning and how the defense is reacting. (That happens in other sports too, but here there's a formal beginning and end to each play.) Then there are also breaks between quarters and after changes of possession, where genuinely nothing is going on.
  - biztos 6y ago
    To anyone else confused: ELI5 means "Explain (it) Like I'm Five (years old)." Now I'll try. Caveats: I don't watch American football on TV, but I watched it some when I was a teenager. I mostly remember how to play, and while I don't think it'd be safe to do it at my age, I do like to play catch with an American football whenever I get the chance. I wouldn't mind watching a game now, but only live and very close to the field. The thing is there's a lot of strategy, and each play is a meticulously, often spontaneously, planned action by the Offense (team with the ball) which the Defense does its best to disrupt. That disruption is almost always at least partially successful, forcing improvisation on both sides. In particular the quarterback (guy who throws the ball) often has to rethink the plan in real time as people chase after him -- he really really doesn't want to be tackled, for his own protection as well as for the game -- and somehow make this work with people who are running around at some distance from him. When it works it can be awe-inspiring and utterly unexpected. These things -- the strategy, the plan on the field, the disruption, the improvisation, the danger -- are all directly and intimately connected to the physical and mental abilities of the players, which are routinely pushed to their limits, sometimes to the point of causing permanent damage. This is all the stuff of human drama, and as in most human dramas the decisive physical events don't take up that much of the time. Another thing I'd add is that compared to a lot of other sports American Football offers an interesting combination of extreme chaos (the tackle, etc) and extreme precision (the long-distance pass to the wide receiver). Soccer by contrast never has that much precision and is much more about mastering the ever-present chaos, most of it very slow paced; basketball can go long stretches without getting very chaotic at all despite things constantly happening. (I know some people will take umbrage here, but I'm ready to defend these points!) I can't think of another sport that so closely tracks an idealized version of warfare and group combat. Though I'd love to see other examples. All that said, familiarity has a lot to do with how much you can enjoy watching a lot of sports. If you grew up surrounded by the culture of Sport X there's probably stuff in it you will like to watch. I like to watch squash, because I played it enough to understand what's going on. I have a friend who watches hours of snooker online. Even golf draws an audience. Even cricket!
    - martin_a 6y ago
      > I can't think of another sport that so closely tracks an idealized version of warfare and group combat. I've heard the term "it's chess but played with fridges" before and I think that fits. Besides that: great explanation.

tcskeptic 6y ago

Also cricket and baseball quite frankly.

lancewiggs 6y ago

And rugby, rugby league, Aussie rules etc are essentially aerobic physical contact sports not anaerobic impact sports. These sports have relatively few stops, and certainly no time for advertisements outside of the half or quarter time breaks. And there are no bulky pads and helmets, and the physicality is just as dynamic, if not more, than US football. Cricket is like baseball, where it tends to be on in the background and you pay attention at each delivery/pitch. Cricket can last 5 days though... As an outsider in the US I was struck by the crazy high percentage of time dedicated to advertisements - even to the extent of intentional breaks for that purpose.