Totally random question that I'd like to hear other opinions on: given the choice of watching a game from any major sport (I'm including college sports in this), which would you be most likely to actually watch?

Now, I'm assuming in this question that it's just a league-average game, so no bowl/playoff games, no heated rivalries, your favorite team is not involved, and you're not being subjected to either the worst or the best teams that any particular sport has to offer. Just, on balance, what makes for the most compelling event to watch?

For example, just throwing out random teams here, would you rather watch a Phillies-Cardinals game (in June) or a Jaguars-Browns game (in October)? A Magic-Blazers game (in January) or a Georgia Tech-Tennessee football game (early in conference season)?

My list would probably be in tiers:
1) MLB, NBA, College basketball

2) NFL, European soccer

3) College football, NHL

Are there other big sports that are more interesting to watch (I'm leaving out tennis and golf because those tend to either be big events or they're not on t.v.)?

I bring up the question because college football has returned, and I was arguing with a friend recently that I think college football is one of the more boring sports to watch on average. Unless you are a die-hard fan of some school, it's kind of brutal to watch games until bowl season gets near and you actually get some compelling match-ups. I would much rather watch a random college basketball game than college football game any day of the week. I realize, though, that beauty is probably in the eye of the beholder, which is why I'm curious to know what others think...

wtd3 wrote:
Australian Football.

Baseball is OK, American football takes a LONG time for a small amount of play, but I like it.

Tennis bah.

Great post and an interesting topic, Howl for you!

Here's how I'd rank all the sports I would ever consider watching. So basically, neither team in the game you are watching is your "home team", and it is no game of importance. Basically, you are flipping through the channels, bored, trying to find something to watch. Here's how I'd rank:


1) NFL
2) NBA
3) College Basketball
4) MLB
5) EPL (English Premier League Soccer)
6) College Football
7) Hockey
8) Golf
9) Obscure sports like Rugby/Cricket/Aussie Football/etc if I ever get the chance.
10) CW Jr. rolling over repeatedly back and forth in the same 3x3 foot area of floor.
11) Grasshoppers chirping.
12) Paint drying.
13) WNBA (A few good looking chicks. Key words = "a few.")
14) NASCAR

Greeting's,

After careful consideration I've come up with a list of my top 10 sports which I would watch in preferred order at any level professional or not.
EPL can you define what that is? Is it like coverage of the various leagues playing in Europe or is it the Euefa Champions league maybe the British Premiership?? I don't understand.

What's worked for me when I'm state side is finding a good Irish bar which will show my football (soccer to you yanks!) on a Saturday and my Gaelic on a Sunday.

So here's my sports:

1. Gaelic Footbal
Gaelic football is played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The primary object is to score by kicking or striking the ball with the hand and getting it through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins.
Players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying, soloing (dropping and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands), kicking, and hand-passing to their team-mates.
Gaelic football is one of the world's oldest games. It is one of the most played games in Ireland and is also commonly played in other countries. One of the first records of football in Ireland comes from 1308, when John McCrocan, a spectator at a football game at Newcastle, County Dublin was charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.
The Statute of Galway of 1527 allowed the playing of "foot balle" and archery but banned "'hokie' [sic] — the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves" as well as other sports. However even "foot-ball" was banned by the severe Sunday Observance Act of 1695, which imposed a fine of one shilling (a substantial amount at the time) for those caught playing sports. It proved difficult, if not impossible, for the authorities to enforce the Act and the earliest recorded inter-county match in Ireland was one between Louth and Meath, at Slane, in 1712. During the Irish war of independence the British banned the playing of Gaelic and imposed a fine or prison for those caught playing it. It is a professional sport, each County (Irish version of a state) has their own team but the players don't get paid they all have regular jobs it is considered an honour to play for your county and thats it. Match attendenc ranges from 20,000 people to 80,000.
If you want to see what it's like check out any of these YOUTUBE videos.


2. Hurling
I'm not going to give you a history lesson like with the Gaelic but it a fast dangerous sport, you gotta love it. Again if you want to have a look check out the following YOUTUBE link:


3.EUEFA Champions league Football (soccer)
The cream of Europe battle out to be number one.

4.British Premiership Soccer
Its starting to get boring because it's always about the same team Manchester United (snore), I'm a Liverpool FC girl but any Saturday footy rocks!

5.Rugby (International or European Cup only)
I hate national league matches they're boring.

6.NBA
It would be higher up my list but because of the time difference I only get to see it if I'm coming home from a night out on the town or if I watch re runs. I'm a Maverick's and Rockets girl divided loyalties. Favourite all time player Moses Malone!!!

7.Cricket
My Ex plays it, through him I got into it, great game once you figure it out.

8.American Football
Cowboys all the way!!!
Favourite all time player D.D. Lewis

9.AFL (Aussie Rules or Australian Football)
We get reruns of this its very like gaelic but very bloody.
See what happened when the Irish Gaelic plays met the Aussies for a match of International rules (a combo of AFL and Gaelic). Irish officials have refused to allow the two teams meet again because of the manner the Aussies play in. The poor Aussies had to come out and apologise. The funniest thing is the Irish scumbags that posted comments on the YOUTUBE, trying to makr themselves out to be tough guys.


10.Baseball
I get this game but I just can't enjoy it, I'm thinking about kicking it out of my top ten and replacing it with dodgeball which is always fun to watch especially under the influence. I'm an Astros fan (can you see the Texan trend) Favourite all time player Barry Bonds not because of his skill but because I think he's HOT!

Once again an incredibly long pointless posting......

Disappointed at the thought of having to spend Chanukah/Christmas in Houston visiting my mothers family my Texan cousin this weekend mailed with details of a suprise road trip ... Destination Minnesota Date December 20th, Location Staples Centre (Irish spelling), Wolves v Rockets, Section 131 Row 1 BEST CHANUKAH CHRISTMAS PRESENT COMBO EVER!!!

Great post hniriain, Howl for you!


Yes, I messed that up... I mean "English" premier league... not "European." Sorry about that!

As for my favorite team... it is also Liverpool FC! Awesome!!! I am glad to hear they are your favorites as well! I love Gerrard, he's amazing. I also like Torres and LOVED Crouch (who is gone.) But yeah, that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see that we had the same favorite EPL team...

Regular Season Games
1. NFL
2. College Football
3. NBA
4. College Basketball
5. Tiger Woods
6. Tennis
7. MLB
8. EPL
9. NASCAR


I put NCAA Football at 2 because life long NFL and College Football have been my #2 by far. I like the NBA better at this point BUT my favorite time to watch sports is Saturday and Sunday afternoons and the NBA refuses to consistently offer programming during that slot until the last month or two of the season. A high percentage of my NBA watching was via DVR last year... a lot of the tension/drama is lost when it isn't live.

Playoffs
1. NCAA Basketball - The first weekend. The Bracket.
2. World Cup
3. NFL
4. MLB
5. NBA - if they keep going like last year this will move up.
6. Bowl Games - souring on these very very fast... will USC/Texas ever be passed?
7. NHL - This only applies if the Wild are in.

1. NBA
2. MLB
3. Tennis
4. Golf
5. College basketball
6. Little League World Series Baseball
7. College Football

20.NFL I know it's strange for an American male to hate the NFL but these are my reasons:

penalties. Lots of them all the time.
multiple replays from 20 angles along with analysis from every announcer for every play.
play reviews "remember, there has to be overwhelming eveidence to overturn the original call!"
hotdoging and showboating after every successful play
How much of the game is spent getting back into the huddle and setting up? 80%?

I'm going to do it like Pants, as my order changes a bit for playoffs as well. I will include tennis & golf in both, factoring the majors to be the "playoffs"...

Reg Season:
1. NBA


2. College BBall
3. NFL
4. Tennis
5. MLB
6. WNBA

7. College Football
8. Golf
9. NHL
10. Nascar

NOTE: I also enjoy watching Track & Field & EPL a lot, but kept them out of the rankings for simplicity sake. I also would have put college hockey in my top 6 if I had included that. Also, the empty lines in both sets of rankings indicate the different tiers in which my interest level changes dramatically.

Playoffs:
1. NBA

2. College BBall
3. MLB

4. NFL
5. Golf
6. Tennis

7. NHL
8. College Football
9. WNBA

10. Nascar

1. NFL - no questions asked. It's pretty much the only sport I enjoy watching no matter who is playing. I actually like the NFL a good 3-4 times more than the NBA. I'm just such a big Wolves fan that it overpowers my love for football over basketball.

2. NBA - I'd have a hard time watching a Blazers/Magic regular season game. I love the Wolves though, and am a huge fan of good playoff matches.

After that, I could pretty much care less.

3. MLB - I can enjoy the playoffs to a degree but will rarely sit down and watch a whole game. It's something good to have on in the background.

4. College Football - I guess just because it's football, but it's not the same as the NFL.

5. College Basketball - Because I like basketball, but again, not the same as the pros.

6. NHL - I used to love playoff hockey. I'd stay up every night watching it when school was out. After the strike, I've stoppped paying attention to it.

DeROK wrote:
I'm with you on the NHL. I used to treat that like MLB... a fan come playoff time. Now I have ZERO interest. The odd thing is among people I'm around it would seem like the Wild are unthinkably popular. I couldn't care less. The only reason my interest peaked at all last year was my son being in preschool with Pavel Demitra's.

College Wolf wrote:
Great to hear that there are other Liverpool fans out there, I managed to make it to the very disappointing Aston Villa Liverpool match on Sunday. Very disappointing game they should have won. After Istanbul in 2005 Gerrard went up in my books, that match against AC Milan has to be one of the best comebacks in sporting history going from 3-0 down at half time to lifting the trophy. Gerrard's been at Anfield since he was 9years old can't really see him leaving.

www.duckyshack.co.uk/u/2503/f88580865.gif

Crouch is funny to watch I'd say he is skillfully clumsy!

Thank's for explaining EPL, its funny that when I think of European football I think of La Lig, Champions league etc. Although the premiership should be called the World premiership league it has that many different nationalities playing in it, although the British football assocation are considering limiting the amount of international players a team can have.

Warm, Fuzzy and Liverpool are not words I've seen in the same sentence before ha ha ha..

hniriain wrote:

That was one of the best games EVER! I have it saved on my DVR... it is simply glorious! I could not believe it, wow.

That link was... interesting... lol.

hniriain wrote:
Aah, memories.

The "International Rules" series is a bit silly. When you take one group of amateurs who play a non-contact sport and pit them against professionals who lay a contact sport, it is always going to get nasty. The business the Aussies guys were going on with is very light on compared to what you get in AFL proper.

[/quote]

Aah, memories.

The "International Rules" series is a bit silly. When you take one group of amateurs who play a non-contact sport and pit them against professionals who lay a contact sport, it is always going to get nasty. The business the Aussies guys were going on with is very light on compared to what you get in AFL proper.[/quote]

Not sure I agree with your comments on our "amateur" players. GAA rules and regulations prevent the major franchising of the game although the players train on the same level if not harder than pros in other sports such as premiership soccer. These guys don't get paid so they have to keep down regular jobs. Its a major thing, for example Playstation made a game Gaelic Games based on our season here. The game didn't take off because playstation weren't allowed to use the players names or physical features when building characters. The guys might not get paid as pros do but they put in the same effort.

GAA rules are funny, when they first entertained the idea of international rules it divided the country as Croke Park the stadium where the matches were played is like sacred ground one of the sports main rules is "No foreign sports should be played on our soil" eventually as you know the matches went ahead but only the final was played in Crokers .

Apparently after negoiations on "contact rules" Collingwood are going to Ireland to play Dublin on November 23rd I think!

To finish are there or are there not some cracking Irish players floating around the AFL ??? Colm Begley, Marty Clarke, Setanta o hAilpin etc...

hniriain wrote:
Not questioning the commitment and effort of Gaelic footballers, just that Australian Rules players are professionals, who therefore train more often than amateurs, and prepare on a weekly basis physically and mentally to play a high contact sport. It is within my living memory (I'm 33) that a majority of AFL players had "second jobs"; and some still do. Since the move to full professionalism, which coincided with a massive increase in TV rights revenue, the difference in the physical preparation of the players is stark.

There are a fair few right now - Tadgh Kennelly is the best of them, Sydney premiership player. Apparently he will return to Ireland in a couple of years to get that All-Ireland title he craves!

Of the others Marty Clarke is easily the best, he has a big future. Begley has had a mixed year in Brisbane - he needs to build up some bulk.

The O'hAilpins are a mixed bag. Big Setants has been in and out of the Carlton side and has a cult following in the league but in truth he is on the verge of being cut if he can't hold a regular spot in 2009. Aisake isn't going to make it I'm afraid.