No, no, no. Not that football - American football! More specifically the NFL. I can't wait. I also happen to think the NFL Sunday Ticket is probably the best invention of the past 10 years or so, with the possible exception of the internet mass expansion of fantasy football leagues. Seriously, is there a more all-consuming sport in the U.S.? The Sunday Ticket costs $200 to see all the games, and for me it's a no-brainer. It would have to go up to around $500 for me to even bat an eye before buying it. Am I the only freak that gets this excited about football - or any other sport for that matter? So I'll ask in the form of a question - not a poll - simply too many options. 1.) What's your favorite sport? 2.) What's your favorite team? (Or person, if it's not a team sport) 3.) Do you actually spend money to see these games? (Either in the form of TV packages or actual tickets to the game.)

I'll of course go first:

1. NFL - obviously
2. Pittsburgh Steelers (I live in Maryland but grew up in Pennsylvania)
3. Abso-freakin'-lutely. As I said, I'll spend $200 per year on the Sunday Ticket to watch as many games as I can at home, and then I'll spend another $100 or so for a pair of tickets to a Steeler game - if I can get my hands on them that is.

Well my absolute favorite sport used to be
Formula 1, but since nobody seems to able to challenge Ferrari and Schumacher in any form it's really not that fun to watch anymoore (oh I so miss the days of Senna and Prost *sigh*). So currently my favorite sport would be Ice Hockey with Tennis as close second. I do not spend money to see either of these though, Ice Hockey is interesting only on the international level and there aren't any big tennis tournaments here.

EDIT: Oh I have spent money on Formula 1 once. In Hungary 97, and that was quite expensive indeed.

1. Basketball.
2. Plannja, the local elite team.
3. I pay to go to see the playoffs.

1. NFL and College Football Rocks
2. Pittsburgh Steelers/New York Jets. Hate it when they play each other. Wish Pittsburgh would of drafted Byron Leftiwitch.
3. I pay to go to the steelers/bengals game every year. I never miss a Marshall University Thundering Herd Football Game. :wave:

Pittsburgh Steelers/New York Jets ACK! No fair! You can't have TWO favorite teams in the same league! Sure, you could have a favorite pro team and a favorite college team, but you can't have two favorite pro teams or two favorite college teams any more than you can have two wives or two husbands!

Egad! A sports bigamist in our midst!

1. Basketball
2. Pro - Lakers; college - UCLA
3. Rarely, unless you count my cable bill

1. Soccer
2. Ajax Amsterdam
3. Sometimes and for major tournament like the Euro2004, we have a local club here called Willem II where I often go to see how they get their asses kicked.

* Football
* Feyenoord Rotterdam
* No particular favourite player, it's a teameffort. :p

The NBA comes in a good second place though. I always considered myself a Chicago Bulls fan, but when Jordan quit, i found that i really don't give a crap about about the Bulls, so i guess i was more of a Jordan adept than a Bulls fan. My favourite team in the NBA has been the New York Knicks for quite some time now, even though they play terrible at the moment.

Favourite player... same story, don't really have one, not since Jordan retired. I enjoy watching Billups play, but he's a Piston unfortunately.

1- Hockey
2- Montreal Canadiens
3- I put up 20 bucks every september in my hockey pool, but that doesn't count as "spending money" because I ALWAYS WIN!!!! (Well, ok, I won once about five years ago, but still :rolleyes: )

1) Cricket, then rugby union

2) The New Zealand Black Caps cricket team, then the NZ All Blacks rugby team, then my local North Harbour rugby club

3)I do go to some games, especially test matches and one day internationals but I don't have a season ticket or anything like that for the National Provincial Championships or the Super 12. Tickets to rugby tests are pretty expensive these days so I don't go to many of them.

1) Football (the one in which you use your feet :p )
2) Helsingborgs IF (local team I mostly enjoy whining about how much they suck, at the moment they are dead last)
3) Not at the moment. I used to go to most of the home games but for the last three years they have sucked so bad that I refuse to support the lazy heartless bastards.


I have a question about the NFL, how long is the season and how many games do they play? The season seems to be extremely short. It starts sometime in September or late August and the Super Bowl is in January. That is only half a season compared to the other team sports, isnt it? Also, is it always only one game per week during season? If the handfootball season is this short it must be hell to be a true fan with no games for almost two thirds of the year.

1) Hockey
2) Toronto Maple Leafs
3) Depends

1. Football
2. Olympiakos
3. No. The last game, that I went to see, was a champions league game against Lyon four years ago. After this I had to join the army and after the end of my military service I have promised to myself that I will not to go any game regardless of its importance or the opponent until the owners of the club decide to spend some money and bring good players.

Joacqin, if i'm not mistaken the regular season lasts 16 weeks, after that the playoffs start. The reason it's so short, is that it's quite a rough game, and most teams can consider themselves happy if they still have a decent roster by the time the playoffs start, due to injuries and all.

Anyway, check http://www.nfl.com/ for some good information on American football.

1. Football!!
2. How 'bout them Cowboys!! (Go Dallas!)
3. Who needs to spend money when you have CABLE!

1) Rugby Union. Also love one-day cricket and european club level football (EPL, Champions League). Not so much a fan of the football World Cup, or even Euro championships.

2) The All Blacks New Zealand Rugby team. I also support the Black Caps (NZ cricket) and Arsenal (football).

3) I don't go to live rugby matches anymore cause I miss all the action sitting so far up in the stands, but I do buy merchandise like shirts, scarves, etc.

Hmm, this getting confusing with all the people saying 'football'. As discussed in a thread earlier in the year (http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=006132) , there are at least 6 sports that people could be referring too when they say 'football'.

1. (American) football!
2. CFL - Saskatchewan Roughriders; NFL - New Orleans Saints
3. No money spent...though I've gotten in free to about 3-4 Argos games (they're the nearest CFL team to where I live).

Question to the americans here: Why do they call american football....well american 'football' all they do is pick it up with their 'hands' and thrown it to their team mate.

So there is a thing called fieldgoal but that happens only 5% in the game.

They should call it: 'walk a few feet and get hammered to the ground ball'

*running away before he gets clobbered* ;)

1) Real football
2) Liverpool
3) Planning a trip to England this fall, just to see one match at Anfield

1. Toss-up between Hockey and Baseball

2. Philadelphia Phillies, with the Philadelphia Flyers a close second, and the Philadelphia Eagles 3rd.

3. Yes! I have full season tickets to the Phillies this year, and I'll probably get them again next year. I usually go to 3-5 NHL games per year. I rarely go to football games, I prefer to watch it from home - better camera angles and a comfy sofa make for better football viewing.

1) Ice Hockey

2) Toronto Maple Leafs - followed in order of preference by the Montreal Canadians, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks - o.k. I admit it, I am kind of biased towards Canadian teams ;)

3) Almost never. If I am given free tickets I will spend the money on dinner/parking/public transit required to attend the game but I have never paid for tickets or to receive any sort of extra tv coverage.

No money spent...though I've gotten in free to about 3-4 Argos games (they're the nearest CFL team to where I live). It is kind of funny, a local radio station was giving away an assortment of free prizes to people who answered trivia questions. One of the prizes was a pair of Argos tickets. After all of the other prizes were claimed and the next three people had turned down the Argos tickets the host finally just announced that anyone who actually wanted the tickets should just phone in and they could have them without answering any questions. For the next half hour there were repeated mentions that the tickets were still available until someone finally called in to say he would take them.

[ July 09, 2004, 14:01: Message edited by: JSBB ]

@joacquin

On football:

Every team plays 16 regular season games. Throughout the course of the regular season, there are weeks that certain teams have off, called "byes". Each team has one bye over the course of the season, so that means the regular season is 17 weeks long. They never play more than one game per week, and the games are almost always on Sunday (there is a weekly Monday night game, and there are always two Thanksgiving games). The first week of the regular season is usually the weekend following Labor Day, so yes, it's usually early September.

Additionally, there are four "pre-season" weeks as well. These games are also televised. So each team plays 20 games a year at minimum. There is a week off between the last week of preseason games and the start of the regular season, so that part of the season lasts 22 weeks. Then there are 4 weeks of playoffs, with the Super Bowl occuring on the 4th week. The Super Bowl always lands on either the last weekend of January, or the first weekend of February.

So all told, the football season actually lasts a total of 26 weeks, although your team may only be playing 20 of those weeks, and only 16 of those weeks the games actually count. Fortunately because almost all the games land on a weekend, you can see most of them.

@Aldeth. A sports bigamist eh :lol: ...is there a penalty against this...if so I plead insanity.

1. NFL football!
2. New Orleans Saints
3. Nothin'.

Incidentally, any NFL fans here NOT seen "Any Given Sunday"? Go Oliver Stone!

(...uh, in this one context...)

Incidentally, any NFL fans here NOT seen "Any Given Sunday"? Go Oliver Stone!

:confused: Don't tell me you actually liked that movie Grey! You're the last person I see enjoying such a film. Didn't you think that was way over the top? Especially the part with the eyeball on the field (I think that was only in the EE DVD)? I mean, how could that even happen?

As an aside, I'm not the least bit surprised that your favorite team is the Saints. I didn't know you were a football fan, but if I had to guess what team you rooted for, it would have been the Saints.

@ Apeman - I have no idea why we call American style football "football". The closest comparison sport is rugby, and I think that is referred to as football by some people as well. I'm sure we could find out if anyone did some research into the origins of the game. Although I do admit that most sports have some basis for their names in fact. For example baseball has bases, and basketball has baskets. But of course, this does apply universally - where does the work "hockey" come from?

It is generally agreed that the word hockey comes form hoquet - which is an old French word meaning a shepherd's crook or bent stick.

Don't tell me you actually liked that movie Grey! You're the last person I see enjoying such a film. Didn't you think that was way over the top? Especially the part with the eyeball on the field (I think that was only in the EE DVD)? I mean, how could that even happen?OK, the eyeball was just dumb...and the cursing, the debauchery, the general tackiness was completely out of line...not the kind of movie I could easily recommend. But still! It was the kind of movie to make you proud to be an NFL fan!

As an aside, I'm not the least bit surprised that your favorite team is the Saints. I didn't know you were a football fan, but if I had to guess what team you rooted for, it would have been the Saints.Yeah, it's ironic...football is as close to Catholicism as I get. Far better Charlton Heston's team in Any Given Sunday - the Crusaders!

Speaking of which...someone once told me that we may think it fun to have tomahawk chops and raindances for teams with Native American names...but just imagine if every time the Saints scored, the fans genuflected and a fake priest came out to give communion?

Not to be off-topic, but is it really so unreasonable to ask the Redskins to change their name to something more symbolic of Native American battle prowess, like the Braves or Tomahawks or some equivalent?