American Sports: All style, no substance.
Since my move from England to America, the one thing I have been most disappointed by is the sport. I am a huge football fan, and I mean European football, which is a high pace, technical game with plenty going on at all times. It brings in huge crowds, is fantastic entertainment and the level of competition is very high.
Obviously, despite David Beckham’s move to Los Angeles, football, or soccer as it is called in the USA, does not have as big a following. Although every year, statistics show more and more people getting involved in the sport which is great to see. So to satisfy my need for watching sports, I have had to look around and see what is on offer in America and Canada.
American Football is the biggest sport in the USA and I can see why, there is a lot of talking, shouting, cheering, parading and dancing, but not a lot of action. Watching a game is an event in itself, and, don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere is fantastic. The actualy game itself, however, is incredibly boring. Nothing happens and when it does, the plays last for around 10 seconds. It definitely did not tick any boxes. Rugby is far superior as a sport.
Baseball was another of the sports that I could not get in to. Much like football, the whole occasion is there and the atmosphere, but there is little to no action and it is plagued by constant stoppages. Basketball also fell short of the mark. I dont understand a sport being non-contact, I think its ridiculous. For some of the fouls in Basketball you can’t even tell what happened. It also seems very easy to score.
Despite the above sports themselves not being great, I have nothing but good things to say about the way America embraces sport in general. With scholarships open to young talent and plenty of money backing each of the sports and high quality coaches ready to relay their knowledge, American sport is very solid and well supported, with even junior leagues and college leagues being rather prestigious. The rest of the world could learn a thing or two here.
So, I was chatting to my brother who works in economics and he thinks that there is massive return in buying stocks for home heating oil. He is one of those people who is of the standpoint that America is trying to take over the world by taking over the Middle East. I must say I am getting sick to death of the fact that everyone seems to have the same reasoning on this.