The NFL season has sort-of started, blah blah blah. Despite me not being too excited about the upcoming year of football, I am sure millions upon zillions of Americans are anticipating the opening kick-off, when the real actual season starts. With incredible competition and incredible games in MLB occurring on a weekly basis, and with the NBA reaching a new level of popularity with its influx of SuperTeams rising to the challenge (By 2011-2012, the SuperTeams will consist of: Lakers, Heat, Knicks, Celtics, Magic), its harder to really anticipate the stories that are going to unravel in the NFL.
With the NFL lockout being imminent as well, I find it hard to truly be motivated. But in this article I am going to reveal just why exactly the NFL is the powerhouse that it is today despite its stupid rules, lack of true rivalries, and less competition than the other professional sports like MLB, NBA, and even the NHL. Is it because football is the best sport out there? Hell and no. Do Americans play football more often than basketball or baseball? Nope. Nonetheless, the NFL is #1 and by a longshot, and here are the reasons why:
Reason #1: Shorter Season
The MLB and NBA run at around 8-9 months. That’s a long time in this ADD society to spend following your favorite team. The NFL however runs at a tight, extremely simple schedule: 6 months, 16 games, one-and-you-are-done playoff system. The bottom line is the NFL is much easier to follow, and much easier to build around your schedule of life. If the NBA can shorten their playoff schedule (their playoffs last around 3 months) I can guarantee that they would gain more viewers. If MLB can shorten their schedule to a smoother 132 games, there would be more weight on their games and would also benefit with more viewers. The NFL fans have it easy, they don’t need to put forth much effort to really check up on their team and the standings, which connects this to our second reason.
P.S. Are the NFL players honestly complaining about their “rough” 4-game preseason? If they get injured during the preseason, it’s simply because they were not tough enough to withstand the actual season mayhem.
Reason #2: Less Investment
To support your team, all you have to do is tune in once a week. That is all. In the NBA there are 2-3 games a week, and in MLB sometimes 4-5 games a week—not including potential doubleheaders. And they usually play on Sundays, which is an offday for most of America. How easy is that? Yea, there are some Monday, Thursday, and even Saturday games, but for the most part Sunday is where you’ll find most of your ballgames. Even the Super Bowl, the championship, falls on a Sunday.
Reason #3: Not as many statistics to follow
If you think this reason has nothing to do with NFL’s popularity, check out the world’s most popular sport in the past century. Soccer has the fewest stats amongst all professional sports by far. Soccer is a team game; it never has a team depend solely on one player to carry the team. Fewer stats, fewer things to keep track of when checking out your team—leading to the sport becoming much easier to follow overall. Soccer is a universally accepted game since it can translate so well into so many different languages—because, fewer numbers, less of a chance of any confusion in translation. You kick the ball in, you score, and you make sure to fake your injuries every once in a while.
In this ADD society, the fewer numbers, the better. Baseball has an insane amount of statistics; it is a pure numbers-by-numbers game. Since it’s more an individualistic sport, there are many more figures to keep note of when following a team and their players. Same with the NBA, which contains a more individualistic nature. With the NFL, some players have the easiest stats of all sports (kickers, the defense peeps).
Reason #4: Easier set of rules than most major sports
Once again, soccer falls into this category. Soccer’s universal appeal is based on its easy set of rules that has a few minor annoyances. Football is quite simple to learn, and doesn’t have a deep set of little rules like basketball, and especially (especially) baseball. With that, people can pick up the NFL much quicker than the NBA or MLB. So why isn’t soccer more popular in the US? Simple: ties. You think I am joking? Think of the uproar after the 2002 MLB All-Star game.
Reason #5: Some of the best sports broadcasting are associated with the NFL
Not sure if you guys saw the NBA Playoffs on ESPN, but that was embarrassingly sad. Now compare that to the World Cup, which was informative, energetic, and without random banter about stuff. I am very sure that the major uprising of the NBA in the 90s was because the NBA on NBC was such a brilliant piece of sports broadcasting—and the second it shifted to ABC the production values went downright downhill. I am sure that has led to weaker ratings, even though this previous NBA season was pretty exciting. To watch the NBA I depend on TNT as much as possible before having to make the painful switch to ABC when the Finals come on.
Now, look at the NFL on Fox: amazing, and it has been very good for the past several years. The NFL on NBC isn’t half-bad either, despite then attempting humor one too many times. Even the ESPN broadcasting of the NFL is not as irritating as ESPN’s broadcast of the NBA—as they have a much more dedicated staff. With good commentators and analysts covering the NFL games, they become more bearable to watch than Jeff Van Gundy’s interpretation of the NBA. Of all sports, football has the best broadcasting and the best crew supporting their games.
Reason #6: Shorter Playoffs
NBA and NHL Playoffs take forever. MLB playoffs take around a month and require at least 11 games of baseball to finish. The NFL playoffs? 4 games, no questions asked. The championship? Not a best of 5 or a best of 7, but a best of 1. The playoffs are quick, always sudden death, and like the season are much easier to follow than the playoffs of any other sport.
Post-Note: College Football doesn’t even have a playoff and look what success it has---despite the poorer schools never ever ever having a chance at the championship games.
Reason #7: Americans are still good at the sport
Yea, I said it. When the other countries start beating us---or when too many minorities start taking over the top slots, you won’t see NFL in such a high horse. See: NBA for a couple of years, the MLB, eternally the NHL, and eternally soccer.
Reason #8: The NFL female fanbase is much stronger (The cheerleaders are better-looking too)
If your dreamgirl has to love sports, your chances are much better if you are an NFL fan--this is a fact. That definitely helps the viewership of the NFL.
Although....
.......soccer female fans will forever be the best....hence forever making it the most popular sport in the entire planet...see the correlation?
Good night. Random typing over.
P.S. Yes, I predict that the Knicks will become a superteam. That is, when the Hornets start sucking and Melo' and Chris Paul start talking. Stop laughing.
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