1)The obvious point is that it combines athleticism/physicality with strategy and mental focus.
2)Another is that the coordination/timing needed for teamwork to succeed is incredible, yet you get amazing individual performances as well.
3) And the combination of speed vs. power-one play can be brute force, the next acrobatic grace. A lot of variety.
Those are enough!

But as I watched the replay of Cowboys/Giants 1993 (Emmitt’s Shoulder Game, as I think of it), I thought, “There’s NO way I’d rewatch an entire game for my favorite team in any other sport!”
Highlights, sure, but the whole actual game?

What I realized is that in football, every play is a minidrama. EVERY play counts. In baseball and basketball, there are lulls, and the games go on, and while Baskeball is nonstop action, you don’t get the feeling every play counts. At the end of a close game, you could go back to each possessions and say how it would have helped if done differently, but you don’t get that feeling during the game-until the 4th quarter of a playoff game, that is, then you start to feel every possession is crucial.

The key to football is the genius of the idea that the team needs 10 yards in just 4 downs to keep the ball. That means every play is crucial and important. Every play sets up your team getting the next first down it needs to continue. There are no giveaway plays in a football game (excluding blowouts, I guess). Assuming you have 2 good teams playing for something, there’s not a time in the game where attention wanders and you feel, “I’ll check back in the 4th qtr. This series isn’t important.”
  First down? Key. 2nd down? Don’t want 3rd and long. 3rd down? Most important down of the game! Then start over….
     There’s something about that that keeps me riveted, even to a game from 16 years ago that I already know the conclusion of.

and overall great write up.

great post man. the carlin bit is hilarious. i’m a very un-militaristic person in general, but i guess i channel it thru football lol. because i love that part of the game.

i love it because it is the extreme of so many different aspects. it is at once the most brute force game and the most agile game and the most intellectual game. At once nasty and graceful and complex.

I love the unique shape of the football. that it isn’t round so it bounces randomly. that it sails through the air in a perfect spiral using aerodynamics to travel further than a round ball could.

I love the gear, the armor, that the helmet and pads allow it to be played at full speed and force and intensity, yet usually no one gets hurt (too badly).

i love the specialization, and the depth of strategy and tactics, the special teams plays, the game plan, the season plan, the franchise plan, far beyond any other game.

I love that it is a game of fractions of inches and seconds. I love how most games really could go either way, anything can happen, and the craziest things do happen.

I love the crowd excitement of it (even thru the TV), the not knowing what will happen next and the anticipation of each play, and the outpouring of extreme emotion when the stakes are high and a big play happens. and I love how the crowd can directly play a role in the game.

I love the battles in the trenches, warriors with extreme physical and mental traits and skilled training, facing off like Sumo wrestlers in mortal combat for a few long seconds down after down after down.

I love the runner whose job it is to get the ball as far forward as he can however he can, with 11 guys trying to tackle him to the ground however they can, whether he has to slide past, fake out, spin away from, jump over, duck under or run over them.

I love the tackle, the big hit, the sounds of the pads smacking together, two athletes elite in speed and strength running full force into each other!

I love the pass and the catch, and maybe most of all lol, the diving catch, the perfect arching spiral, body horizontal and outstretched to the fingertips, the precise vision and timing and body control to be at the exact spot at the exact moment to meet the ball with the hands and then gain control and secure it from the impact of the ground or other player. i love that about football.

Football kicks hell out of any other sport period, IMO. You can witness extreme violence, incredible strength, ballet like moves, gutsy performances, chess matches, heartbreak, unbridled joy, and disbelief all in one 3 hour game. And…you can do it sitting in your comfy chair while eating and drinking.

Out there with the team, wearing that medieval looking brace with his bull horn.

I don’t think he’ll have to worry about the players respecting him.

I can’t even begin to count the reasons why I love football. The strategy and competition are amazing. But there are two feelings in football that I cannot replicate anywhere else in life.

Nothing in the world feels like scoring a touchdown. Not sex, not a homerun, not a breakaway dunk. Nothing. Nothing in life has ever felt the same as catching a slant, turning up-field and splitting the safties, and going to the house.

Also, nothing in life compares to catchin’ a DB slippin, and gettin that “whooo” shot right in front of your own sideline. When you hear that “Ooooooooohhhh” from your own teammates…..there are few prouder moments in life.

Most people like me who thought they had a shot and blew it are bitter. I know guys who can’t watch the game because it makes them sick. Not me though, I love watching other guys fulfill their dreams. Draft day makes me smile. I love watching people get to the mountain top.

because this means that each play and game seems to have greater impact on the outcome of the season. For example, we can look back on 2008 and select a relatively few plays that were the difference between a trip to the playoffs and a trip home (overtime in Arizona), or having to endure the Romo-bashing by Tedious-TEX…

It certainly makes for colorful and impassioned blogging!

I can still hear him do that baseball/football routine…priceless.

I would rather watch a Bengals vs. Seahawks preseason game right now than watch the NBA playoffs. When people talk baseball or basketball to me, I swear my face just blanks. When someone talks football, and even better if they know what their talking about, I light up and can bond with a complete stranger.
What’s funny to me when I talk to rabid fans of other teams, is that they talk and talk about their team’s issues and I respond with relative issues the Cowboys are having.

As in Jim’s post, football is a game of strategy. It reminds me of chess. One small move or bad play can open up the loss of your knight (a turnover), and then you’re left having to make up (yardage/points). Take an opponent’s bishop (FG after a turnover) or rook (pick 6) and the momentum—just like that—is back in your favor.

Fall is my favorite season too. The NFL year begins at the end of summer, takes us through fall, and keeps us pumped through winter. Because of this season-crossing, we all reap the benefits of watching games thru blazing heat, pea-soup fog, rain, snow, whatever condition Mother Nature offers.

Whoohoos, yesses, various expletives, and beer-bubbled spit often adorn my tv screen. But it’s all in passion and fun when it comes down to it.