fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2325 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2325 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 037 secrets from Secret Submission Post #332.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I desperately want to walk with you anon, if only to clear the air away from all the frozen threads, but I'm afraid I've never been able to get into sports. I like playing them. Rugby is my favorite. I just can't watch them. I think it's mostly because I can't stand to watch people get injured. Which is a problem if you like rugby.

But maybe I can talk to you a bit about baseball? There's the argument going around that the reason US people aren't as into baseball anymore as they are into American football is because of how long baseball takes. However, American football takes for-freaking-ever and most of that time commercials are going on, it's half-time, or they're replaying footage. So why do you think interest has waned for baseball?

(I'm afraid that's the only discussion I can offer, unfortunately. You're free to ignore it for people who actually know what they're talking about. It's totally cool.)

It's an interesting question. Well, first, I don't think interest has necessarily waned for baseball - it doesn't get as high ratings on TV as it did back in the day, but that's probably a function of more channels - and it's still incredibly lucrative in terms of TV contracts and it gets amazing, amazing attendance. So it's still going strong - it's just more regional than it used to be, and football has passed it by being insanely successful.

So why is interest so strong for football? I think there is something to the comment about the pace of the game. Yes, they both take very long and have a lot of breaks - but the difference is that baseball has kind of a slow, mellow pace. You have shorter breaks with more of a rhythm and when the action does happen, it's less intense. With football, you have periods of nothing and then periods of VERY intense, violent, extreme action. This also applies to the schedules of the two sports - baseball takes a really long time and has games constantly, football only has a few, very spread out games which consequently matter much, much more individually. Even in the playoffs, it's one game versus a series. So I think the pace is part of it. And also the fact that baseball is much more violent and physical.

I think the other thing is that there's an element of spectacle in football that's not really present in baseball - because football has such an insane media presence, it's omnipresent, everyone's watching it, it's a kind of all-consuming presence on the media landscape that you can devote yourself to in a way you can't with baseball. Baseball takes a long time, it's slow, it's pastoral, you have to be patient, because each individual game doesn't matter much. It takes time to unfold. Football is always NOW and always THE MOST IMPORTANT THING and always HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THIS EVERYONE. I mean, the Super Bowl is the apogee of this, but it's true generally. Football is just BIG in a way that baseball isn't, and I think that's a large part of why Americans like it more - as a culture, as a society, we love bigness and spectacle and omnipresence and hegemony.

So I think those things combined - the pace, the intensity, the violence, the spectacle - are the reasons why football has attained insane popularity in a way that football hasn't. And, on a personal note, those things - in addition to the extreme negative health consequences of playing football, which we learn more and more about as time goes on - have led me to pretty much forsake football, which I've been a fan of for a long time. After the last Super Bowl, I decided that I was going to stop following football and focus on baseball more, and also try and follow other sports more. Hopefully I can actually keep that resolution.

Wow! Thank you so much for the in-depth reply. I haven't ever had anyone willing to explain it to me like that before. Also, thank you for putting it in a way that someone like me, a person who's not very into sports, can still understand and appreciate.

What you say makes a lot of sense and really explains the difference well. I wonder how it will go in the future because people are starting to be more wary of American football since with each passing year we are getting more and more information on the negative health effects. Also, I feel people are becoming more aware of how long they're actually spending watching the TV vs. actually seeing any of the game. Then again, it seems almost too insanely popular. Of course, they thought that about western films and now those are but a thing of the past.

You decided to boycott American football? I haven't heard of someone doing that before but I can understand your reasoning. Good luck in sticking with it.

[ SECRET POST #2325 ]

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