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I wonder if this could have something to do with the popularity (well, the existence) of American Football. It's a very physical contact sport. Obviously, when

I wonder if this could have something to do with the popularity (well, the existence) of American Football. It's a very physical contact sport. Obviously, when a team is losing badly and the other is continuing to run up the score, emotions can run wild, and so there's a stronger possibility of unnecessary injuries. Maybe it's felt to be better to just "take a knee and run out the clock", where possible. If you compare with baseball, I don't know that I've ever heard of a strong aversion to running up the score. Maybe you're not exactly sending out your substitute batter in the top of the ninth when you're up 10, but I've never seen a team give up and not put in a reasonable effort. Wildly disparate scores seem pretty common in basketball as well. Even in college (American) football, scores of like 70-0 are not that uncommon. You only really quit trying in football when you can run out the clock, or you pull your starting players to prevent injuries.

ghaff 6y ago
Even in American football, there aren't really a lot of benchwarmers who are just there as backup. The backup quarterback obviously and teams do indeed sometimes put the backup in during the fourth quarter if they have a big lead. Though I doubt that would happen often in a playoff game. (And, yes, teams will manage the clock towards the end of the game but that's far more about playing it safe than having an aversion to running up the score.)
- bscphil 6y ago
  You're right, perhaps I should have been even more assertive that "not running up the score" isn't that big a thing even in American sports. I think a clear case of this though is when a team has the ball with the lead and less than 2 minutes to go, and the other team has no timeouts, it's customary to just take a knee ("victory formation") rather than going on a drive and trying to score again.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    That's not about not running up the score though. That's about doing the absolutely safest thing to run out the clock. Teams will do that even if they have a small lead because it's almost foolproof. (I'm sure some quarterback has fumbled though.)

ghaff 6y ago

Even in American football, there aren't really a lot of benchwarmers who are just there as backup. The backup quarterback obviously and teams do indeed sometimes put the backup in during the fourth quarter if they have a big lead. Though I doubt that would happen often in a playoff game. (And, yes, teams will manage the clock towards the end of the game but that's far more about playing it safe than having an aversion to running up the score.)

bscphil 6y ago
You're right, perhaps I should have been even more assertive that "not running up the score" isn't that big a thing even in American sports. I think a clear case of this though is when a team has the ball with the lead and less than 2 minutes to go, and the other team has no timeouts, it's customary to just take a knee ("victory formation") rather than going on a drive and trying to score again.
- ghaff 6y ago
  That's not about not running up the score though. That's about doing the absolutely safest thing to run out the clock. Teams will do that even if they have a small lead because it's almost foolproof. (I'm sure some quarterback has fumbled though.)