Surprise secret to soccer appeal

BBC News ^ | January 4, 2006 | BBC News

[Right Wing Assault]

American football, basketball and baseball have millions of followers, but they can't match soccer for sheer excitement, says a team of scientists.

The reason is its element of surprise, claim researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US.

Football is more likely to produce an unexpected result, such as a "giant killer" win in the FA Cup.

Scientists analysed results from more than 300,000 games played over the past century.

They reviewed five sports: ice hockey, football, baseball and basketball in the US, and English football.

The team decided to make unpredictability - how often a leading team is overcome by an opponent with a worse record - the best measure of how exciting a league is.

"If there are no upsets, then every game is predictable and hence boring," co-author Eli Ben-Naim told New Scientist magazine.

The results of the analysis showed that the "upset frequency" was highest for soccer, followed by baseball, hockey, and basketball. American football came last on the list, and so was labelled the least exciting sport.

But there was a twist in the tail.

When the scientists looked only at data from the past 10 years, English Premiership football and baseball swapped places.

One interpretation of the finding might be that soccer has become more predictable in recent years.

[1rudeboy]

During the 90's, some lefty sociologist on the West Coast ruminated on the homoeroticism of NFL football. He compared the players on the field, and their "stances," to baboons displaying their genitals to their peers as a gesture of submission. What a hoot.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Caution: Beware the false giant puffball, a.k.a. the poison goalpost fungus, common in grassy fields throughout much of the Earth.

False Giant Puffball (Poison Goalpost Fungus) Note the cracked surface about to erupt, ejecting enough spores to victimize up to 22 people at once!

This mushroom is so deadly, merely inhaling the spores rearranges your brain's neural synapses, making you race endlessly back and forth across a field, stopping occasionally to jump up and down and cheer or curse insanely, never resting until death from exhaustion ensues.

Poisoning is so virulent, relatives of the victim, especially the parents, have been known to succumb as well!

[Stu Cohen]

Nothing, and I mean nothing (apart from maybe the Highlander Games and kilts) is gayer than "lining up behind center" and "taking the snap" in American football. Sorry.

You've obviously never seen a wrestling match.

Look, these are the sports:

Basketball
Baseball
Football (American)

Hockey (Even though Hockey is soccer on ice, I would call it a sport because people get their teeth knocked out and they beat the snot out of anyone who wrongs them. They are heterosexual soccer players who have the balls to slide around on ice)

Those are the only sports. Everything else is a game, past time, or hobby.

Except for soccer.

Soccer is a cry for help.

[1rudeboy]

I bet you just love those tights American football players wear.

[noblejones]

Tighter ofssides enforcement over the last couple of decades has taken what little interest soccer could generate. Clearly these folks never actually watched a soccer game. I can't recall a legitimate breakaway goal since World Cup in Mexico City, 1986.

[Katya]

The NBA players that end up on the US Olympic team are all prima dona's....who spend all their time showboating, and can't play on a team. That's why our basketball players will get beaten by a swedish TEAM at some point.

[Chewbacca]

Go Seahawks!!!!

[driftless]

"not a soccer fan"

Just reduce the number of players from eleven to eight and throw out a lot of the goofy offsides rules. Soccer would then be interesting. Oh, and allow the ball to be batted with closed fists. I suspect I have a great chance of the world football (soccer) association implementing my suggestions. (/sarcasm)

[Stu Cohen]

I bet you just love those tights American football players wear.

I'm not a big fan of the tights, but they keep the pads in place. You know, the pads that protect you when some 300lb linebacker tries to knock you senseless.

I don't know if you've ever worn them, but there is a big 1" thick pad inside the tights that covers the crack of your ass (to protect your tailbone), so your gay fantasies would be almost impossible to accomlpish in a full football uniform.

Soccer on the other hand .....

Well, I think I know why some of them wear knee pads.

[Arkinsaw]

Next season, Arkansas will have a better record than Tennessee, and more importantly, Arkansas will come out of this season with a better recruiting class than Tennessee.

Good chance Tennessee will get Mustain. Not sure how Razorbacks can have a better recruiting year than Tennessee unless we get him.

[1rudeboy]

I have never seen a soccer player wearing a kneepad. I don't think they are even legal.

In any case, I was responding to a troll. Do any of the NFL threads ever have someone come on board and say "football is gay?" I'm curious. I find it difficult to imagine that anyone can be so confused about their sexuality to do that.

[Stu Cohen]

I'm curious. I find it difficult to imagine that anyone can be so confused about their sexuality to do that.

For a bit of irony, look at the ad directly above your post.

[Stu Cohen]

Doh! The ad changed. It was a man in women's clothing.

Most likely a soccer player ;-)

[1rudeboy]

[Stu Cohen]

ROFLMAO!!!!!

[Churchillspirit]

Soccer is a socialist game. You gotta play with both hands tied behind your back.

Soccer = English football . i.e. the skill is to move the ball with the feet.

Why American football is so called baffles me.

Almost as exciting as English Rugby football

[1rudeboy]

[MARKUSPRIME]

LOL

[al_c]

Soccer more popular than American sports? Well, isn't htat a kick in the face to all the soccer haters ...

[najida]

I thought the appeal was all those cute guys running around in shorts. :)