Is Football the National Pastime?

[sancho2613]

I love to play baseball and I love to watch it in person but I fall asleep everytime I try to watch it on T.V. To me it's like bowling and Golf it's not to bad to play it but I just can't watch it...TOO SLOW....

[LMsexyAO]

There are a number of reasons why the NFL has dominated American sports over the last 20 years. Besides, obviously, the fact that football is more lucrative, it has also seen few steroid scandels, labor dispuits, and, with the nature of the game, a team who is mediocore one year can turn around to be a champion, and vice-versa. But what I think really makes football more exciting than baseball is the 16 game schedule. EVERY game counts in football. Period. With the MLB and NBA there are just so many games in such a long season that it's impossible to really become passionate about all of them, hell, even the players seem half-asleep on the field/court sometimes. Football, however, is full of emotion.

Hey, let's not bring golf down with baseball. The only sporting event I can't wait for besides the football regular season is the Sunday of any Major tournement.

[mredskins]

Does it really matter?? Seriously.

I like both football and baseball. I think baseball at times can be more suspensful then football. There is no clock in baseball you have to get the team out in the 9th, you can't just run out the clock.

To me if picking your nose is your favorite pastime so be it. Why argue something that has no measurable answer.

[mcarey032]

Baseball totally gave away its following. Look at the World Series. The world series is played generally on weeknights and is also played at 9 o'clock at night. They have basically alienated a generation by doing so many weeknight games and the sheer volume of games and teams have diluted the sport. Football on the other hand has it down correctly. There are 16 games and everyone matters. The playoffs are expanded to include and reward teams for a good season, unlike in baseball, where for years it was the top two teams played for that teams pennant and then went to the world series.
My guess is that your co-worker supports the bowl system in football. A totally unbalanced and stupid way to determine a champion. Rating wins and losses and arguing who had the better regular season when clearly in pro football or football as it is played in the rest of America, on the field, not by writers, coaches and computers. Baseball is good and so is college football is good too, but they are severely flawed.

[GusFrerotte]

Best line I have heard to answer your question Sheriff was a prgoram that dealt with the rise of the NFL. Baseball might be the nation's pastime, but football is it's passion.

[hooskins]

Ok how about this. A simply way to figure out is too total up the number of viewers and tickets sold.

I would think the NFL beats out MLB, but I don't know the statistics.

[hooskins]

Originally Posted by mredskins

Does it really matter?? Seriously.

I like both football and baseball. I think baseball at times can be more suspensful then football. There is no clock in baseball you have to get the team out in the 9th, you can't just run out the clock.

To me if picking your nose is your favorite pastime so be it. Why argue something that has no measurable answer.

Obviously it is hard to quantify, but there are numbers one can use to get an idea.

Also this is a forum, so those are the type of things people argue about. Why argue who are the best QBs all-time? Obviously there are factors which are qualitative, but isn't that what makes discussion fun?

[hooskins]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

I compared league revenue, league sponsorship deals, and TV viewership of the World Series and Super Bowl and all indicate that football is the national pastime. In 2006, the NFL generated more than $7B in revenue, compared with $6B for MLB. With regard to sponsorships, it's not even close. In 2006, football drew in more than $700M in sponsorship deals to MLB's $300M. Over the past two years, the nine World Series games have drawn just over 128 million viewers. Meanwhile, the last two Super Bowls drew 184 million viewers.

Didn't see this before I posted, but I would think this proves it and America has spoken.

[Campbell17]

nothing comes close to football.

[onlydarksets]

Originally Posted by mredskins

To me if picking your nose is your favorite pastime so be it. Why argue something that has no measurable answer.

Because it's our offseason.

Baseball shot itself in the foot by not instituting a salary cap and by striking in 1994. Everyone saw the players as greedy bastidges who care more about a buck than about playing the game.

The nature of football (physically demanding and grueling) weeds those types of people out, I think. Obviously people want to get paid. In football, though, your heart really has to be in it to be good. You look on Sunday, and you see people on the sidelines who obviously love the game.

[TrustinGibbs]

Baseball is the national passtime. Football is the national obsession.

[WillH]

ESPN should take a poll and put that tired old cliche to rest. I would wager my life that America would vote to rewrite the title to football.

[irish]

Baseball is the national past-time. Football is the national passion.

[JoeRedskin]

Let's look at this from another point of view- baseball was known as the national past time long before the explosion of money and exposure that occurred, IMO, sometime in the 80's. Why? Not b/c it was the biggest grossing sport (if it even was), but b/c everyone PLAYED it. When you threw a ball around, it was a baseball - every kid had a glove and baseball and most had bats.

BUT, as football became popular, kids started playing IT instead baseball - hell, you only needed on piece of equipment - the ball. With the advent of cheap footballs in the 70's and 80's (you may laugh at them - but who here didn't have a nerf football growing up?)

Again, as the balls became cheaper and smaller (K-2's anyone?), football got played more as THE pickup game. Almost any place can be a field, you can have legitimate games with as few as 3 people (okay, who's the permanent QB?) and, again, only one piece of equipment needed.

When the weather's nice outside, the kids on my street are playing football. Not baseball. Maybe basketball - but as only one kid's got a net, that's not nearly as often. They ALL have footballs so any 2 or 3 of show up and it's game time. I have NEVER seen them play, or even throw, a baseball.

Whether football became the national past-time b/c of the NFL or the NFL became an obsession b/c football became the national past time, I don't know. I do think that a reasonable argument could be made that the NFL owes its current competitive advantage over other pro sports to the advent of the nerf football.

[irish]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

Let's look at this from another point of view- baseball was known as the national past time long before the explosion of money and exposure that occurred, IMO, sometime in the 80's. Why? Not b/c it was the biggest grossing sport (if it even was), but b/c everyone PLAYED it. When you threw a ball around, it was a baseball - every kid had a glove and baseball and most had bats.

BUT, as football became popular, kids started playing IT instead baseball - hell, you only needed on piece of equipment - the ball. With the advent of cheap footballs in the 70's and 80's (you may laugh at them - but who here didn't have a nerf football growing up?)

Again, as the balls became cheaper and smaller (K-2's anyone?), football got played more as THE pickup game. Almost any place can be a field, you can have legitimate games with as few as 3 people (okay, who's the permanent QB?) and, again, only one piece of equipment needed.

When the weather's nice outside, the kids on my street are playing football. Not baseball. Maybe basketball - but as only one kid's got a net, that's not nearly as often. They ALL have footballs so any 2 or 3 of show up and it's game time. I have NEVER seen them play, or even throw, a baseball.

Whether football became the national past-time b/c of the NFL or the NFL became an obsession b/c football became the national past time, I don't know. I do think that a reasonable argument could be made that the NFL owes its current competitive advantage over other pro sports to the advent of the nerf football.

You can also include the rise of TV. A football team plays 1 game per week and everyone can look forward to that game and treat it as an event. Baseball teams play almost every day so the games are less of an event and less build-up surrounds each game and less analysis follows each game. Football also translates better to tv as the action is essentially centered around the ball (unlike baseball) and the ball is easily seen on tv.