SI shows that some of the writers have no brain cells (1 Viewer)

[Charles J P]

Football is a mutation of a sport in which originally the ball was kicked MUCH more than it is now. In fact, many of those old rules are still legal, but they are never taken advantage of because they arent strategically wise that people dont even know they exist.

I beleive you used to be able to kick the ball on every down. If your own team member caught it, it was the same as a pass reception. The idea was that when footballs were more round in shape (like a rugby ball) you could probably kick them farther than you could throw it. However, now quarterbacks can throw the ball as far as they pretty much want, and much more accurately than just booting it.

 

[BrianB]

Fan violence is not associated with only one sport, it happens in a lot of them.

Interestingly, I was just reading a thread on DVDTalk about violence in the crowds at baseball games, how "enjoyable" it was to watch, how regular it was.

 

[Mark Leiter]

What is wrong with a tie? All a tie means is that for that particular game the teams were evenly matched.

I for one have no interest in whatching a tied contest. I go to or whatch on TV a contest in order to see the drama of a winner and a loser. If the two oposing teams are evenly matched then so much the better. But, if there is even the slightest chance that a winner would not be declared, then what would be the point???? I mean I would have been able to read about how evenly mached these teams were in the paper.:rolleyes

 

[Yee-Ming]

Curiously, one of the more boring European Cup Finals I remember watching was AC Milan hammering Red Star Belgrade 4-0 in the late 80s. Sure, the goals were nice, but the rest of the match wasn't. Conversely, I have seen pretty exciting 0-0 matches.

Fan violence: what BrianB said. From personal experience (I've been to maybe a dozen English league games) I have never seen any violence; the problem, whilst still in the background, has in large part been reduced and contained.

And I echo the comment about it being rather curious that, for instance, Chicagoans trashed their own city after the three-peat. Right or wrong, at least the football hooligans were fighting "the enemy" (don't get me wrong, I don't condone this in the least); I can't understand people vandalising their own city.