I'd rather spend an intimate evening with Richard Kiel than watch (American) football

Well, it's pants that everybody but YOU wears then.....

Yeah, it'll never be BASEBALL, with it's too-long season, OBSCENELY overpaid athletes (c'mon, the Mets Burnitz makes 10 mil!), glacial pacing, and requisite George F. Will handwringing every time the DH is mentioned.

Face it Steve, the NFL is the big man on campus. Baseball is just there to kill time between the Super Bowl and training camp.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love baseball but football is probably my favorite. Just such electricity within every game and since the games are spread out weeks apart, they are much more meaningful. The build-up over the course of a week is incredible.

Yes, we know...

Well...football is kind of outclassed. They'd have to institue 15 work stoppages, slow the pace of the game down to a crawl, and extend their season to overlong yawn-inducing status to reach the "heights" where baseball is at.

I keep telling you, lad, separate the wonderful legacy of Baseball from the current crap that it's become.

Baseball should always be revered for being America's sport at one point and for being such a homespun, heartfelt played game with players that really cared. And then like every other other major American sport, money entered the picture, and now it's just a shadow of former itself like other major two (football, basketball).

The only difference is that baseball players and owners are greedier than the other two sports, and the action is more boring. Nothing like having a team of 9 guys playing, yet only one player does anything at any given time. The other EIGHT sit off camera thinking about what they're going to have for dinner that night.

All sports (even Hockey, sadly) are wrought with bullshit.

For me, baseball seems the closest to who I am and what my sensibilities are.

Take that back about hockey, or I'll...I'll... well, I'll do something, goddammit.

I think it's just the fact that Atlanta only has one winning sport, Baseball, that keeps you away from the others....

Well, that and the fact that 55% of Atlanta residents are from other states...

Let's not blast each others' favorite sport (though that's how this thread began). Nick's post was the most level-headed of all.

Personally, I find enjoyment in almost all of the major sports. I don't really "hate" any... except I'll point out how tacky the NBA game has become and that it's definitely second-rate behind NCAA basketball as far as excitement and integrity of the game. Still, I follow pretty much all of the major sports. Yes, even World Cup Soccer. And the playoffs are ALWAYS good. Even in basball. October baseball is exciting as all hell to watch. Every pitch is tension and drama-packed, especially in a close series.

That said, I'd definitely cast my die with football. And I love BOTH the NCAA and NFL games equally. College football, because of its pagentry and raw emotion (plus it contains my favorite sports team of ALL, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish). The NFL, because of its speedy and quality players/atheletes at the top of their games.

And I have valid reasons for loving football so much. One of my earliest memories was sitting on a grassy hill on a picnic blanket with my mother as my father was coaching a football team down on the field bellow us (he was an assistant coach at Texas Tech). And every Fall weekend during my childhood football was a magical event in my house. On Saturdays, it was The Irish. On Sunday's, the NFL. Personally, I take offense at all of the football hate.

As Nick said, we just gravitate to the sport which best fits our sensibilities. That's good enough for me.

If that's the case, then my answer is none. I have teams I semi-follow in all three major sports, but ultimately it matters to me little.

Modern-day sports are way too flashy and money-driven to be truly interesting.

While this is indeed true of almost ALL sports (including The Olympics, which may be the worst "perpetrator" of all) I still submit that there is a lot of emotion and passion to invest and spend in sports, especially college football and basketball. I'm emotional, up-and-down wreck during ND football games. But, in the end, it's great fun and a great release. Plus, it's who I am.

You're right...I should've amended my statement to modern PROFESSIONAL sports. Because we know there isn't aaaaaaany money in college athletics, right? wink

Unless you're Chris Webber.... wink

Top Fuel Dragsters...nothing even comes close.

Well, maybe golf.

Where did I say that??? Of course there is. That's why I said "almost ALL sports". I didn't discriminate or single out pro sports. I was just pointing out that, inspite of the fact that sports today are driven by $$$, there is still ample reason to invest and spend in some of them emotionally, especially the college games where raw emotion reigns supreme.

Even Adam Sandler comedy isn't as recurring and you're MUCH better.

Carl, I rarely use winking smilies, so I thought mu usage of one here would be a giveaway that I was mostly joking with you.

There's money in all sports that MAKE money. All of them. I don't care what they say otherwise.

I completely agree. That's why I brought up The Olympics, which passes itself off as some "pure" event with "amateur" atheletes and is the most corrupt of all. It makes Major League Baseball look like the Little Leagues when it comes to purity.

The number one negative influence on sports these days (that has precipitated all of the ungodly amounts of $$$) is ironically the same thing that helped to build them: television. NONE of the sports would have nearly the cash were it not for the unreal network rights contracts.

There's that and ESPN, which I like but is definitely to blame for all of the "hot-dogging" that is rampant in sports these days. Why show a solid 5 yard run for a TD when you can show the WR juking and jiving after a 2 yard catch? Damn, that stuff annoys me...

Is it possible to create a "motor sports" forum for Kronos and....uh.....whomever, I guess... to hang out in? wink

No need...I AM the Motorsports Forum!

I just like to give the "Sports" forum a little *unh* now and then just to remind them what a true sport is all about.

Heh heh...watch the feathers fly now boys and girls!

Nope. I completely disagree. I never even attended Notre Dame myself (though I've been there many times), yet no sports team gives me more pride. But then, I'm Irish Catholic.

Being raised in the South back in the 70's (where you had to pass 37 protestant churches to find the only Catholic one in town... usually vandalised) I took great pride in the Irish beating the hell out of schools like Alabama.

I haven't watched much American football (mainly because it's on in the middle of the night) but the game it's based on, Rugby, is fantastic.

Was this really important enough to warrant ressurecting a six year old thread?

Didn't care about sports then. Not gonna start caring now.

Pro bowling is just too flashy these days. I liked it when it was about the...uh....sport.

And beer frames.