What is the World's Best Sport?

[bluearth]

This is only for sports that require a ball of some sort and there is a scoring system.

I personally believe it is American Football (Gridiron)

I'll try and explain my opinion, starting with the negatives of the sport.

- Start and stop play. Each "play" lasts only 5-10 seconds. Then there is a 20-30 second "break" while the defense and offense reorganize and line up in their next formation. This is a necessary evil for American football though, as things I will touch on later like stats and organization would be impossible if the game never had any stoppage. Also, on any given play there may be a score. Many other games may be constant, but how often are the teams a threat to score when they're passing the ball or puck around midfield?

- Alot of commercial breaks. This can get annoying at times. An American football game lasts around 3 hours, and a portion of that, along with halftime and timeouts, is commercials. But there is a positive to this though as there are no advertisements on the field or on the players uniforms. Other sports may have non stop action but the players and field is littered with advertisements to pay for the broadcast of the game.

- Helmets prevent us from seeing the players. The helmets and padding prevents us from seeing the players faces. We don't get to see the determination in their eyes or the raw emotion that well when they're covered up in the helmets and padding. But there is a positive to this as there are some really cool looking uniforms and helmets out there like the Raider's Pirate and silver and black, or San Diego's lightning Bolt uniforms.

Now for the positives

1. No matter your body type, there is a position for you to play in American Football - There is no other sport in the world with athletes that vary in size as much as American Football. There is no other sport where a 5'6" 160lb player can share the same field with a 6'10" 370lb player and both be elite at their position. In the trenches you have huge sumo wrestling esque players battle while fast and agile players battle for the ball down field. Very different from basketball that demands you be at least 6'2" to even have a shot or soccer which does not tolerate any heavy players.

2. So many ways to score, so many ways to handle the ball - There is no other sport where you are allowed to kick the ball, throw the ball forward, throw the ball backwards, and carry the ball. You can score 3 ways, by carrying the ball into the endzone, by throwing it to another player in the endzone, or kicking a field goal through the goal posts. There is so much variety to this. Most sports only have one way of scoring, by putting an object into a net past it's keeper.

3. Creativity -

YouTube - ‪Best Fake Punt Ever (Bills/Titans)‬‏

4. Stat Keeping - American Football can be broken down into an exact science with extremely detailed stat keeping. There is no guessing someone is having a good year or a bad year. With stats like quarter back rating and yards per rush/catch you know everything there is to know about the performance of the players.

5. Near Perfect Balance - In some sports shutouts are all too common. But in American football shutting out the opposing offense is possible but something very difficult to obtain. On the offensive side if the players are good enough and execute then they are unstoppable. Its amazing to see how easily some teams score but how some struggle so much to score. Also, there is not too much scoring or too little scoring. The average game features 6-7 "scores", but a game can feature just 1 score or as many as 15 scores.

6. Visibile Progress - They're at the 30...they're at the 20. The story of a game can be told very clearly.

7. Highly visible difference in team styles - More visible at the college level then the professional level. Some teams will line up with 5 receivers every play. Some times will bring in 3 tight ends in a bunch every play and run the option. How many other sports have such dramaticly different looks in styles of play?

8. Heroes - Now there are heroes in every sport, but outside of basketball and maybe baseball I dont think they can touch the heroics possible in American football. A QB leading his team down the field for the winning last second score is one of the most heroic things in sports. Its just not possible for some other sports for a player to simply "take over" and will his team to victory like it is in American Football. What Michael Vick did to the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football last year is a prime example.

YouTube - ‪Michael Vick - Philadelphia Eagles Highlights‬‏

9. Physical contact - Not necessarily hits but the physical nature of the sport is impressive to watch. I have to admit personally its more entertaining for me watching a 260lb linebacker try to bring down an athletic freak like Adrian Peterson in the open field then highly aerobic athletes like Tennis players or soccer players play at a high level for a long time.

10. Highlights - American Football is a highlight real in the making. Touchdowns, spectacular catches, tackles, kicks, runs, interceptions, etc etc etc. I'm not trying to knock on soccer but what highlights are there in the sport? Made and missed goals?

11. The 1st down - This one simple thing, the first down, is probably the most dramatic rule in all of sports, especially in the closing minutes of a game.