and why baseball sits there between the 2?
Why football is bigger than basketball in the US?
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Football is the biggest sport in the world. Unless you mean rugby, then I don't know
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I’m sure someone will add a very deep and thoughtful perspective about the role of machismo and violence in the American psyche at play here, but I think there are several things at play here.
The drama of the sport, which is tied into a lot of other elements here. Sure it’s thrilling to watch someone leap for a basket or send a tiny baseball out into the stands, but there’s something visceral about the long throw and the epic leap, potentially paired with a large guy about to end all of this with a powerful smash. Seeing someone turn and weave through strong swift attackers. Or seeing someone shut down another team’s strategy with a quick assessment and nimble hands. It is fast moving and hard hitting. It’s strategy and mind games and power and aggression.
In some ways, it’s the Goldilocks sport - faster than baseball, but slow enough to showcase strategy compared to basketball. (There are strategy and tactics at play in basketball but I think for the casual viewer it can feel more like dudes running back and forth. Football broadcasts give you dudes drawing on the screen and replays to show you the tactics and strategy at play. There’s this in bball too, but punditry is such an epic part of the ritual in football.)
The season is short, which heightens the drama - you can’t “fix” a shitty season in the same way you can longer seasons and an injury can completely rewrite the season as there’s not enough time to come back.
The NFL season is 17 games.
In contrast, NHL (hockey) is 56, the NBA season is 82 games and MLB (baseball) is 162.
This condensed amount of time makes it easy to follow, especially with most games clustered on the same day of the week (Sunday.). In contrast, basketball can be played over multiple games in the course of a week for just one team. In football, each team only plays one game a week (in addition to a bye or off week). Because the season is shorter, it can better maintain viewer interest, where the longer seasons have ebbs and flows.
Additionally, as you get into the postseason, football is a win or go home scenario. There are no home and away legs like soccer and no best of 7 games series like baseball, football or hockey. Again this creates drama and a must watch urgency.
I personally find it boring and frustrating in basketball or soccer when teams are essentially playing a game a certain way because they know they can just go home and win in their own arena. In football, it’s one chance to get it right. Win or go home.
It’s this sense of drama - paired with tradition that makes the Super Bowl so compelling. People who don’t like, watch or know about football flock to Super Bowl parties. And they probably have their whole life.
When the Super Bowl is happening, America stops to watch it, regardless of who’s playing. Stores are quiet, streets are a little emptier. (I hear it’s actually a wonderful time to go shopping - unless it’s a grocery store or liquor store. I wouldn’t know. I always watch it.)
The NBA Finals, in comparison, are driven by the fandom of the teams, the athletes involved and/or the drama of that specific series. If the Lakers are in the Finals, sure LA is watching. If Lebron is playing, sure you’ll get a wider base of people watching. But the Super Bowl, everyone watches - no matter who’s playing.
Part of it is the drama and the other part is the tradition, as I mentioned. In the US, kids play sports as little kids and then potentially onto high school then potentially onto college. They play basketball and baseball and soccer too, but let me tell you tailgating at an SEC football game (in the South) does not compare to any baseball or basketball tailgate I’ve ever been to.
selfmate was asking me if my college had a basketball or football team - duuuude, the majority of US colleges have basketball and football teams. We love our sports.
And this emphasis is certainly heightened in specific parts of the country where the ritual of football - Texas’ famed “Friday Night Lights” or high school football - is a community event.
There is something weirdly Everyman about football. Pro players are not Everyman - they are highly conditioned athletes represented the top tier of college athletes - just 1.6% of the nation’s 73,000 college football players get drafted to the NFL.
But I think there is a feeling that “anyone can play football.” This isn’t basketball (where you need to be tall) or hockey (good on skates and with sticks) or baseball (can pitch, catch or hit). You could fundamentally just be the dude on the line that blocks (ie stops people from getting through). (There’s actually a lot of skill that goes into that role, including understanding the plays of your team and your opponent, but for the dreamer on the couch who maybe played in that position in high school, it’s possible in their minds.)
This is a very long answer but I think I’ve touched on some of the key components. To summarize:
- drama
- tradition
- urgency
- Everyman appeal
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Display More
I’m sure someone will add a very deep and thoughtful perspective about the role of machismo and violence in the American psyche at play here, but I think there are several things at play here.
The drama of the sport, which is tied into a lot of other elements here. Sure it’s thrilling to watch someone leap for a basket or send a tiny baseball out into the stands, but there’s something visceral about the long throw and the epic leap, potentially paired with a large guy about to end all of this with a powerful smash. Seeing someone turn and weave through strong swift attackers. Or seeing someone shut down another team’s strategy with a quick assessment and nimble hands. It is fast moving and hard hitting. It’s strategy and mind games and power and aggression.
In some ways, it’s the Goldilocks sport - faster than baseball, but slow enough to showcase strategy compared to basketball. (There are strategy and tactics at play in basketball but I think for the casual viewer it can feel more like dudes running back and forth. Football broadcasts give you dudes drawing on the screen and replays to show you the tactics and strategy at play. There’s this in bball too, but punditry is such an epic part of the ritual in football.)
The season is short, which heightens the drama - you can’t “fix” a shitty season in the same way you can longer seasons and an injury can completely rewrite the season as there’s not enough time to come back.
The NFL season is 17 games.
In contrast, NHL (hockey) is 56, the NBA season is 82 games and MLB (baseball) is 162.
This condensed amount of time makes it easy to follow, especially with most games clustered on the same day of the week (Sunday.). In contrast, basketball can be played over multiple games in the course of a week for just one team. In football, each team only plays one game a week (in addition to a bye or off week). Because the season is shorter, it can better maintain viewer interest, where the longer seasons have ebbs and flows.
Additionally, as you get into the postseason, football is a win or go home scenario. There are no home and away legs like soccer and no best of 7 games series like baseball, football or hockey. Again this creates drama and a must watch urgency.
I personally find it boring and frustrating in basketball or soccer when teams are essentially playing a game a certain way because they know they can just go home and win in their own arena. In football, it’s one chance to get it right. Win or go home.
It’s this sense of drama - paired with tradition that makes the Super Bowl so compelling. People who don’t like, watch or know about football flock to Super Bowl parties. And they probably have their whole life.
When the Super Bowl is happening, America stops to watch it, regardless of who’s playing. Stores are quiet, streets are a little emptier. (I hear it’s actually a wonderful time to go shopping - unless it’s a grocery store or liquor store. I wouldn’t know. I always watch it.)
The NBA Finals, in comparison, are driven by the fandom of the teams, the athletes involved and/or the drama of that specific series. If the Lakers are in the Finals, sure LA is watching. If Lebron is playing, sure you’ll get a wider base of people watching. But the Super Bowl, everyone watches - no matter who’s playing.
Part of it is the drama and the other part is the tradition, as I mentioned. In the US, kids play sports as little kids and then potentially onto high school then potentially onto college. They play basketball and baseball and soccer too, but let me tell you tailgating at an SEC football game (in the South) does not compare to any baseball or basketball tailgate I’ve ever been to.
selfmate was asking me if my college had a basketball or football team - duuuude, the majority of US colleges have basketball and football teams. We love our sports.
And this emphasis is certainly heightened in specific parts of the country where the ritual of football - Texas’ famed “Friday Night Lights” or high school football - is a community event.
There is something weirdly Everyman about football. Pro players are not Everyman - they are highly conditioned athletes represented the top tier of college athletes - just 1.6% of the nation’s 73,000 college football players get drafted to the NFL.
But I think there is a feeling that “anyone can play football.” This isn’t basketball (where you need to be tall) or hockey (good on skates and with sticks) or baseball (can pitch, catch or hit). You could fundamentally just be the dude on the line that blocks (ie stops people from getting through). (There’s actually a lot of skill that goes into that role, including understanding the plays of your team and your opponent, but for the dreamer on the couch who maybe played in that position in high school, it’s possible in their minds.)
This is a very long answer but I think I’ve touched on some of the key components. To summarize:
- drama
- tradition
- urgency
- Everyman appeal
thank you for the great answer my friend
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thank you for the great answer my friend
I love football. It’s good to hear my answer made sense.
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because it's better
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Display More
I’m sure someone will add a very deep and thoughtful perspective about the role of machismo and violence in the American psyche at play here, but I think there are several things at play here.
The drama of the sport, which is tied into a lot of other elements here. Sure it’s thrilling to watch someone leap for a basket or send a tiny baseball out into the stands, but there’s something visceral about the long throw and the epic leap, potentially paired with a large guy about to end all of this with a powerful smash. Seeing someone turn and weave through strong swift attackers. Or seeing someone shut down another team’s strategy with a quick assessment and nimble hands. It is fast moving and hard hitting. It’s strategy and mind games and power and aggression.
In some ways, it’s the Goldilocks sport - faster than baseball, but slow enough to showcase strategy compared to basketball. (There are strategy and tactics at play in basketball but I think for the casual viewer it can feel more like dudes running back and forth. Football broadcasts give you dudes drawing on the screen and replays to show you the tactics and strategy at play. There’s this in bball too, but punditry is such an epic part of the ritual in football.)
The season is short, which heightens the drama - you can’t “fix” a shitty season in the same way you can longer seasons and an injury can completely rewrite the season as there’s not enough time to come back.
The NFL season is 17 games.
In contrast, NHL (hockey) is 56, the NBA season is 82 games and MLB (baseball) is 162.
This condensed amount of time makes it easy to follow, especially with most games clustered on the same day of the week (Sunday.). In contrast, basketball can be played over multiple games in the course of a week for just one team. In football, each team only plays one game a week (in addition to a bye or off week). Because the season is shorter, it can better maintain viewer interest, where the longer seasons have ebbs and flows.
Additionally, as you get into the postseason, football is a win or go home scenario. There are no home and away legs like soccer and no best of 7 games series like baseball, football or hockey. Again this creates drama and a must watch urgency.
I personally find it boring and frustrating in basketball or soccer when teams are essentially playing a game a certain way because they know they can just go home and win in their own arena. In football, it’s one chance to get it right. Win or go home.
It’s this sense of drama - paired with tradition that makes the Super Bowl so compelling. People who don’t like, watch or know about football flock to Super Bowl parties. And they probably have their whole life.
When the Super Bowl is happening, America stops to watch it, regardless of who’s playing. Stores are quiet, streets are a little emptier. (I hear it’s actually a wonderful time to go shopping - unless it’s a grocery store or liquor store. I wouldn’t know. I always watch it.)
The NBA Finals, in comparison, are driven by the fandom of the teams, the athletes involved and/or the drama of that specific series. If the Lakers are in the Finals, sure LA is watching. If Lebron is playing, sure you’ll get a wider base of people watching. But the Super Bowl, everyone watches - no matter who’s playing.
Part of it is the drama and the other part is the tradition, as I mentioned. In the US, kids play sports as little kids and then potentially onto high school then potentially onto college. They play basketball and baseball and soccer too, but let me tell you tailgating at an SEC football game (in the South) does not compare to any baseball or basketball tailgate I’ve ever been to.
selfmate was asking me if my college had a basketball or football team - duuuude, the majority of US colleges have basketball and football teams. We love our sports.
And this emphasis is certainly heightened in specific parts of the country where the ritual of football - Texas’ famed “Friday Night Lights” or high school football - is a community event.
There is something weirdly Everyman about football. Pro players are not Everyman - they are highly conditioned athletes represented the top tier of college athletes - just 1.6% of the nation’s 73,000 college football players get drafted to the NFL.
But I think there is a feeling that “anyone can play football.” This isn’t basketball (where you need to be tall) or hockey (good on skates and with sticks) or baseball (can pitch, catch or hit). You could fundamentally just be the dude on the line that blocks (ie stops people from getting through). (There’s actually a lot of skill that goes into that role, including understanding the plays of your team and your opponent, but for the dreamer on the couch who maybe played in that position in high school, it’s possible in their minds.)
This is a very long answer but I think I’ve touched on some of the key components. To summarize:
- drama
- tradition
- urgency
- Everyman appeal
That must've taken forever to type
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because it's better
now now my friend...let's not go that far....
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As a red blooded American, let me just say that football is the best sport on Earth. But I do like watching other sports like soccer, mma, basketball, as well as a slew of sports you see in the Olympics.
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LMAOOO
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