Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Why Is America So Fascinated With Football?

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The American football style has developed from a combination of rugby and soccer. Football is much younger and developed only in the nineteenth century. This is one of the most popular sports in the United States. American football attracts millions of spectators and thousands of enthusiastic players.

Football in the US has a culture all its own. In high schools football is the center of much of the student activity; everyone comes out to cheer on their school's team, the homecoming games and dances are almost bigger than prom, and the football quarterback is typically the most popular boy in school. It's almost an institution.

Football rules are fairly complex. Those who don't understand them, or care, can find the game slow moving and boring. On the surface it looks like running and tackling is all the players do, but actually the strategy is difficult and confusing. The coaches and assistants spend years studying offensive and defensive moves that go into making touchdowns. Often they aren't given enough credit for their hard work.

The first professional football game was played in Pennsylvania in 1895. Within a decade many colleges formed their own teams for football and apart from that many other teams also came up. The American Professional Football Association was formed in 1920 to give a fillip to the game. In 1922, the American Professional Football Association was converted into the National Football League.

The NFL and football are very popular in the US and has given many superstars and celebrities to American Football. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest attractions on television, as it is the finals for each season of football. It attracts millions of spectators even from Canada.

The Super Bowl is a big source of revenue for the television channels as they charge a huge amount for advertising. Every second of the Super Bowl is made interesting, especially the star- studded half time which is remarkable to watch.

Why is football so wildly popular in the United States? Many people think its because of the game's violent nature. Tackles are hard and rough, many players end up severely injured. Also, many people find the anticipation quite exciting. Anyone who has played football at one time or another enjoys thinking up what strategy they would employ given the current situation. Yelling at the coach for a poor plan also seems to be a favorite of many spectators.

Football has turned into an attractive professional sport. It is as popular as baseball and hockey. Canadians play a different style of football which has slightly different rules from the one played in the US. But it is not as popular as it is in the US.

Young children, both boys and girls start playing football early on. Teams used to be made up only of boys, but now the girls are proving that gender doesn't have to play a part in sports.

Matt Ristman
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