Beckham Signs $250 Million Dollar Contract to come to L.A. Galaxy

[coolian2]

Posh certainly got herself on a good wicket. No wonder she didn't go running when the affair stuff came up, look what she'd have missed out on!

Soccer is a really REALLY boring game. But then, so is american football. I mean, i don't even get why its a sport, and one that is watched so frequently.
Baseball - now thats a game. Love it.

But the king of all sports games. AFL. Watch an evenly matched game once, and you'll never go back. 2 hours of on the edge of your seat, screaming chanting watching the clock count down...omg. Nothing beats it!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhahahahahahaha!

 

[dazzlingamy]

OI

its true!!!

 

[Canadiens1131]

OI

its true!!!

It's like me trying to convince people in India that CFL football is the greatest thing on the planet - nobody cares.

 

[bayernfc]

Why would anyone want football (sorry soccer) to be popular in America? Next thing you know they'll be introducing cameras and stopping matches every other tackle...for a "review". Sorry I like it to stay an actual game not an excuse for advertising.



But by all means....take all of the overrated has-beens. Beckham, Ronaldo....you're welcome to all of them.

 

[Chizip]

Sorry I like it to stay an actual game not an excuse for advertising.

At least we don't soil our jerseys with advertisements.

Could you imagine a Yankees jersey with a big old "Cingular" written across the front?

 

[bayernfc]

I agree some jerseys are hideous, but at least we can watch an entire 45 minutes without regular stops for Ads. That's the main reason football won't work in the US. Not to mention the ever decreasing attention spans don't allow for enjoyment of matches without a fight or a goal every other minute.


Let's face it, the only mention the world cup final got in the US network was when the Zidane scenario happened. It was bigger than when US got to the 1/4 finals four years back.

 

[toscano]

At least we don't soil our jerseys with advertisements.

Could you imagine a Yankees jersey with a big old "Cingular" written across the front?

right. Instead you turn a 1hr game like Football into a 3 and a half hour marathon in order to fit in the advertising which might otherwise be on the shirts.

so instead of seeing "Cingular" on the Jerseys for 90 minutes and don't fuck with the game, you see Ford, Bud, and Cialis ads for 2 hours instead, along with the 1 and a half hours of sleep-inducing inactivity known as "baseball". Oh well, at least you can claim a true "world series", because we know the US is the best in the world at baseball as shown by.......well..........

This 5 minutes of out of shape fat guys and steroid addled goons brought to you by you're-gonna-get diabetes-askyour-doctor-for-insert-overpriced-name-brand-prescription=here.. The next 5 minutes will be brought to you by you-can't-get-it-up-any-more-because-you-sit-on-your-fat-ass-all-day-watching-sports-with-no-advertising-on-the-shirts-so-we-fit-in-by-doing-this-to-you

See you at the next "TV timeout"

 

[bayernfc]

What really bugs me about the general US attitude towards sports is the "entertainment" value. Everything has to be a "show", complete with cheerleaders, mascots, half-time shows and the works. Call me ignorant but I just don't get it.

 

[toscano]

What really bugs me about the general US attitude towards sports is the "entertainment" value. Everything has to be a "show", complete with cheerleaders, mascots, half-time shows and the works. Call me ignorant but I just don't get it.

It's to make up for the lack of entertainment in the actual "sport" itself. I mean, have you ever SEEN a game of baseball ? Ohmigod......

 

[Chizip]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmsAqO_QQFE

 

[toscano]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yW-4w-p6Fk

Love "the cloud...." line !

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

right. Instead you turn a 1hr game like Football into a 3 and a half hour marathon in order to fit in the advertising which might otherwise be on the shirts.

so instead of seeing "Cingular" on the Jerseys for 90 minutes and don't fuck with the game, you see Ford, Bud, and Cialis ads for 2 hours instead, along with the 1 and a half hours of sleep-inducing inactivity known as "baseball". Oh well, at least you can claim a true "world series", because we know the US is the best in the world at baseball as shown by.......well..........

This 5 minutes of out of shape fat guys and steroid addled goons brought to you by you're-gonna-get diabetes-askyour-doctor-for-insert-overpriced-name-brand-prescription=here.. The next 5 minutes will be brought to you by you-can't-get-it-up-any-more-because-you-sit-on-your-fat-ass-all-day-watching-sports-with-no-advertising-on-the-shirts-so-we-fit-in-by-doing-this-to-you

See you at the next "TV timeout"

if you knew anything you'd know there are no tv timeouts in baseball... that's more of a basketball/football thing. sheesh.

seriously though... without commercials baseball games would be, oh, 10 seconds quicker. the warmups for the pitchers? they happen in little league games, too. it has nothing to do with advertising. it's the sport. if they didn't go to commercials between half innings, there would just be video of guys running off the field, guys running on the field and the pitcher taking his warmups.

euro's and other soccer/futball fanatics find baseball boring. yayy for them. i find soccer to be mind numbingly boring to the point where i'd rather watch an old man take a shit than sit through an entire match. you're annoyed by how sports in america are "all about entertainment instead of sport." i'm annoyed by snobbish attitudes that just because i find soccer to be boring that i'm some stupid ignorant american.

you watch what you wanna watch, we'll watch what we wanna watch, and then we'll all be happy.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I agree some jerseys are hideous, but at least we can watch an entire 45 minutes without regular stops for Ads. That's the main reason football won't work in the US. Not to mention the ever decreasing attention spans don't allow for enjoyment of matches without a fight or a goal every other minute.


Let's face it, the only mention the world cup final got in the US network was when the Zidane scenario happened. It was bigger than when US got to the 1/4 finals four years back.

that's because we americans are intrigued by giant douchebags, so yes... it got a decent amount of coverage for about, oh, 2 days.

and for the attention span thing... there's nothing i find more exciting than a low scoring pitcher's duel, esp. one that goes to extra innings. 0-0 heading into the 9th? that's heaven for me.

and oh, just wait... there will be a huge name soccer player busted for steroids within the next few years. it will happen. athletes are athletes, no matter what the sport... baseball, soccer, football, hockey, track, swimming, cycling, ping pong... and athletes look for whatever edge they can get. just because no one's been caught doesn't mean it isn't happening.

 

[Chizip]

i like how people outside the US accuse baseball or being a long, boring game, but then claim people from the US don't like soccer because of short attention spans

those statements seem to contradict each other

 

[toscano]

if you knew anything you'd know there are no tv timeouts in baseball... that's more of a basketball/football thing. sheesh.

seriously though... without commercials baseball games would be, oh, 10 seconds quicker. the warmups for the pitchers? they happen in little league games, too. it has nothing to do with advertising. it's the sport. if they didn't go to commercials between half innings, there would just be video of guys running off the field, guys running on the field and the pitcher taking his warmups.

euro's and other soccer/futball fanatics find baseball boring. yayy for them. i find soccer to be mind numbingly boring to the point where i'd rather watch an old man take a shit than sit through an entire match. you're annoyed by how sports in america are "all about entertainment instead of sport." i'm annoyed by snobbish attitudes that just because i find soccer to be boring that i'm some stupid ignorant american.

you watch what you wanna watch, we'll watch what we wanna watch, and then we'll all be happy.

The TV timeouts was in reference to Football and Basketball, you know, the ultimate equality sports. Where else can a bunch of fat guys make so much money in "sports". Good thing there are so many breaks for the likes of shaq and Ted Washington, otherwise they'd be dead by now. Why not send the pitchers out right away ? Why don't they "warm up" while their team is hitting. TV, pure and simple. The worst thing that could happen to Soccer would be for it to gain mass popularity in the
US and high TV ratings. It would get ruined by TV. I love American Football, but to watch it live is as bad a way to spend a Sunday afternoon as you could imagine. the DVR MUST have been invented to watch football. I watched 4 playoff games today in the time it would take to watch one full game live. Tricky staying away from the scores but I made it.

As for the baseball shit, gimme a break. Little league games are quick, see, there are no TV timeouts, extended "7th inning stretches" and 3 times as much dead time as live time. I'm not annoyed by all the extraneous entertainment, but I understand why it's needed for most American sports. I've spent quite a few afternoons with the binoculars on the Cheerleaders, better than watching a bunch of mostly fat sweaty guys stand around doing nothing.

I will admit the last minute or so of a Basketball game can be occasionally exciting. All 30 minutes of it.

But baseball ? Not one redeeming quality.

 

[toscano]

that's because we americans are intrigued by giant douchebags,

.

Oh c'mon, call it like it is, it's called the NBA

 

[toscano]

i like how people outside the US accuse baseball or being a long, boring game, but then claim people from the US don't like soccer because of short attention spans

those statements seem to contradict each other

I love how americans call Soccer boring because of the supposed lack of scoring but will watch a 0-0 baseball game for 4 hours and call it a "classic"


Spassky vs. Fischer is more exciting

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

The TV timeouts was in reference to Football and Basketball, you know, the ultimate equality sports. Where else can a bunch of fat guys make so much money in "sports". Good thing there are so many breaks for the likes of shaq and Ted Washington, otherwise they'd be dead by now. Why not send the pitchers out right away ? Why don't they "warm up" while their team is hitting. TV, pure and simple. The worst thing that could happen to Soccer would be for it to gain mass popularity in the
US and high TV ratings. It would get ruined by TV. I love American Football, but to watch it live is as bad a way to spend a Sunday afternoon as you could imagine. the DVR MUST have been invented to watch football. I watched 4 playoff games today in the time it would take to watch one full game live. Tricky staying away from the scores but I made it.

As for the baseball shit, gimme a break. Little league games are quick, see, there are no TV timeouts, extended "7th inning stretches"

ummm duh, little league games are only 7 innings long, having a 7th inning stretch would just be silly.

and i find it interesting that the 7th inning stretch is for TV, considering that the 7th inning stretch "events" are done for the stadium crowd while the tv is in commercial. and yes, go to a high school game, and the pitcher will warm up in between innings. must be for the huuuuuuge TV ratings.

they did the same thing in the early 1900s, also for the huge television audience.

 

[namkcuR]

Continuing with the de-railing of this thread:

Baseball is boring. It's slow and you're just sitting around waiting for someone to hit the ball, and each player spends half the game just sitting around waiting to get to the plate to take their swing, and if you actually go to a baseball game, you have to listen to endless chants(LET'S GO YANK-EES/YANK-EES-SUCK - there's chanting in all sports but for some reason baseball chanting strikes me as more annoying than the rest), and from what I can tell, more cheating takes place in baseball than in any other major sport.

I went to a Yankees-Mets game at Shay Stadium in May of 2005, and I went to a Bulls-Knicks game at MSG in November of 2006(just two months ago), and that basketball game was about 1000000000000000000000000000000000000 times more enjoyable and exciting than the baseball game was. I spent the baseball game cheering for both teams to get as many outs as they could in as little time as possible so that the game would end sooner. I spent the basketball game cheering and cursing and being intensely into the game - it was hugely entertaining.

As for Soccer....I also find it infinitely more entertaining than baseball - every single time down the field you think someone's gonna finally score a goal and they almost never do, so it's nerveracking and ultimately pretty exciting depending on who's playing.

If I had to rank sports in terms of excitement, with #1 being the most exciting, I'd have to say:

1.Basketball
2.TIE: International Soccer/Tennis
[Sizeable Dropoff]
3.American Football
4.Hockey
[Huge Dropoff]
5.Baseball
6.American Soccer

This is, of course, all my opinion.

 

[zonelistener]

I actually love watching Fox Sports World (AKA the soccer channel)

Not to mention the ever decreasing attention spans don't allow for enjoyment of matches without a fight or a goal every other minute.

Fights?

I thought that the bored soccer fans in the stands made up for any fights missing on the field?????

Most violent fans...why? Because their favorite sport starves them of any offensive scoring!

 

[bayernfc]

I thought it was gonna be "you watch what you like, and I watch what I like".... so I couldn't care less, just stating an opinion.


Well atleast in Canada, I do get a bit more footie coverage. Ah well, have fun with Beckham, hope he's worth it! As soon as I'm done Uni, I'm out of this continent!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

This is, of course, all my opinion.

and this opinion is correct... because it's yours. so it's correct to you.

i was at the exact same mets/yankees game as you were... (and it's shea stadium, btw)... it was the one the day of the u2 concert at MSG, yes?

i had a great time, fully enjoyed the game, and was heavily involved in the chants that you hate so much. it was an unbelievable atmosphere.

saturday i went to the st. john's/uconn game at the garden. i left midway through the 2nd half. it was mind numbingly boring because the level of play was soooo terrible. 26-16 at half time. very low scoring. was it because it was low scoring that i didn't like it? no... it was because it was low skill that it was so awful... turnovers, low shooting percentage, airballs missing left on a free throw... it was awful. now to be fair, if not for the fact that if i didn't catch the 11:15 train home the next one wouldn't be for another 2 hours AND the fact that i got the tickets for free, i probably would have stuck it out to the end. but, alas, i did not.

and i love basketball... i coach basketball... i've played it all my life. but that particular contest was just god awful.

and this is my opinion... and it's correct. because it's mine.

(except for how awful that game was... it really really was.)

this whole ignoring of opinion thing just really pisses me off when it comes to soccer fans. i don't think soccer is an awful sport, i don't think soccer players are terrible athletes, or that it doesn't take a tremendous amount of skill to play the sport... i don't belittle the sport it's self.

I JUST DON'T LIKE IT. i, me, personally find it to be amazingly boring to watch. that doesn't mean it is to you, and that's fine. to each his/her own. i can't stand it. it's not that i don't get it. trust me... i get it. i just dislike it. i understand the rules well enough to follow it if i so chose. i chose not to. that's it.

you don't like baseball or basketball or american football or tidly winks? fine... don't watch it.

 

[randhail]

and this opinion is correct... because it's yours. so it's correct to you.

Nice post, you've been the voice of reason today.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Nice post, you've been the voice of reason today.

that's a frightening thought.

 

[toscano]

ummm duh, little league games are only 7 innings long, having a 7th inning stretch would just be silly.

Well I 'm glad we're agreed it's a silly comparison to use little league as a comparison, how did it get into the conversation again ?

and i find it interesting that the 7th inning stretch is for TV, considering that the 7th inning stretch "events" are done for the stadium crowd while the tv is in commercial.

Oh, so 7th inning breaks are the same length as the rest ? hmmm.....

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

you take our superstar in a sport that you don't care about and we'll have one of your games in a sport we don't care about in return?

LONDON -- London was chosen Tuesday to stage the first NFL regular-season game outside North America.

"There is no better place to begin this initiative than London," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. "It is one of the great cities of the world with an established and growing fan base for our game."

The venue and teams for next season's game will be announced later.

NFL owners voted in October to play up to two games outside the United States every season for the next five years. The international series will kick off with the game later this year in London.

Britain, Germany, Canada and Mexico have been identified as the top markets for NFL games outside the United States. China and Japan were ruled out of the running.

While the London venue hasn't been announced, the favorite option is the new Wembley Stadium, which is due to open this spring after years of delays.

"There are many NFL fans in London -- both American and non-American -- and this will be a spectacular sporting occasion," Mayor Ken Livingstone said. "After [the] success in winning the 2012 Olympics and Parlalympic Games, we want to bring Londoners the greatest of non-Olympic sports."

Details are expected to be announced by Goodell before the Feb. 4 Super Bowl in Miami.

The NFL staged its first regular-season game outside the United States in 2005 when 103,467 fans watched the Arizona Cardinals play the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City.

London hosted several NFL "American Bowl" preseason games in the 1990s. The city also had a franchise, the London Monarchs, in the World Football League -- now called NFL Europe -- but the team folded.

 

[Hewson]

ummm duh, little league games are only 7 innings long, having a 7th inning stretch would just be silly.

Actually, Little League games are 6 innings.

 

[MrPryck2U]

Did you y' all hear that Beckham fancies himself to be an actor?

Oh yeah, I guess baseball or soccer/football are boring for people with boring minds.