World Cup 2006

[Devari]

The funny (and sad) thing about France - they have some of the top players in the world, and yet their squad is struggling like anything.

[Nuclear Raunch]

Yeah, that's a bit of a difference. Here, we don't let anyone substitute in, for then the whole team could just roughhouse the others and pay no price for it.

[edit] Quick question: do players congratulate each other after a match? Has a ref ever sent someone off for being unsportsmanlike?

Yes, it's customary for entire teams to shake each other's hands after a game. I have been trying to find a video of one of the most infamous incidents of unsportsmanlike conduct in recent history. It basically involved a player from the N.Y. Jets grabbing the facemask of the New Orleans Saints quarterback and twisting it around so badly it looked like he could have done some serious damage to it.

One of the victims teammates saw it and grabbed the attacking players helmet and jerked it off his head (took several tugs and the guy was getting MANHANDLED) and eventually he got the guys helmet off and threw it into the stands. It's one of those things where words don't do it justice, but I can not find the video for the life of me. Suffice it to say you rarely, if ever, see such an intensity in someone. I mean this guy was pumped up on adrenaline he couldn't even see straight and the other guy was just a helpless ragdoll, just praying that someone would come rescue him.

FYI the guy that ripped the helmet off is on the field for the sole purpose of protecting the quarterback. And believe me he does

[Devari]

What about jersey swapping, helping knocked down opposing players get up, and patting opposing players on the back?



Interesting story, I must say!

[The Beatles]

Devari -- yes, they switched to 3-5-2.

Nuke, the limit is around 15 or 16 or 23 here, I think. Don't quite recall.

Freak chance happens in all sports. A player like that would definitely be banned from association football for some time.

[Devari]

In fencing, we have something called a White Card - two year ban!

[Nuclear Raunch]

I think he had a short suspension, $25k fine, and he had to go to anger management. After that incident virtually every quarterback in the league wanted him on their team because they knew nobody would mess with them while he's around. It's funny, but the worst "crime" you could commit in the NFL is fail a drug test. Even if it's something banal like pot it's a 1 year suspension. You could pummel another player into the ground and as long as your blood's clean it'll be a 1 at worst 2 week suspension.

2 year ban How do you aquire a white card anyway?

[The Beatles]

Yes, to quote the Declaration of Revocation...

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

No offense inteded!

[Devari]

2 year ban How do you aquire a white card anyway?

Not sure - I've never actually heard of it happening. What you mentioned the American football player doing would probably be enough!

Our cards:

Yellow - Warning
Red - Point to opposing player
Black - Expulsion from tournament (I've heard of this, but it was overturned because the ref was just being a jerk)
White - 2 year ban

Two yellows = 1 Red
Three yellows = 2 Reds
Four yellows = 3 Reds

And so on... The yellow is only a one-time warning per bout - any yellows after are actually reds.

[Nuclear Raunch]

Watched those highlights, someone got a redcard for touching the ball with his hands

Guess it's official, the only position I would have a prayer of playing is goalie. Actually, considering my arm length is just a hair shy of 32" and my vertical jump was 39" I probably could have done it semi-decently. But alas, a lack of interest in the sport and 3 knee injuries torpedoed my career before it ever started.

I'm actually kinda surprised those goalies arn't 6'6"+. Anyone who's ever watched basketball knows there's a few tall, agile athletes around. Would think one would make an ideal goalie.

[Gen. Volkov]

What about jersey swapping, helping knocked down opposing players get up, and patting opposing players on the back?

That happens in both kinds of football.

And Raunch, the penalties for false starts and offsides vary. I've seen the refs give anywhere from 5 to 15 yards for one.

[Nuclear Raunch]

Not in NFL. NFL rules are explicit on theconsequences for every penalty. They try harder than any other organization to ensure that all their refs would call every game the exact same game. Whether or not their successful is debateable, but they do try http://www.nfl.com/features/rulebook

In response to some of the shoutbox stuff, NFL has a much higher attendance-per-game than any other sport in the world. Considering how much attention has been garnered for it so far I honestly believe it will eventually be a world-wide sport. Some changes me be adopted from the NFL's rules to suit European viewers better, but the sport itself has an entertainment value that's hard to rival.

I'm not entirely sure if it will be bigger than futbol because pretty much any country can have a national team that will compete in the World Cup. That helps fuel national pride and interest in the sport, rather than an American football game where most countries could never field a competitive team.

In 1995 the NFL launched a developmental league in Europe known as NFL Europe. This league has had the usual start-up instability but has still managed to pull in an average attendance only 6,000 people behind the average attendance for the UEFA (Europe's futbol league) To be fair, the UEFA has a huge disparity between the top and bottom attendance-wise, but all in all the attendance for a fairly new developmental league aint half bad.

I don't know much about FIFA, but the NFL is by far and away the best sports organization (talking business side here) of all the ones I've seen. If they set their mind to expanding their popularity worldwide I think they have the brains and the financial clout to do so.

[The Beatles]

Sure they do. I mean, Disney became big in Europe because they had the brains and financial clout to make it popular. McDonalds is big in Europe because they had the brains and financial clout to make it popular.

Football (association) didn't need any of that because it's a historically European sport. (Count the colonies in with Europe here, as football was old enough to be exported automatically with success.)

So I too am curious to see what will eventually prove more popular: NFL's basketball, spoon-fed to a public via advertising, or the historically big sport that everyone takes a pride and interest in (we certainly do in Hungary, depite not having had a decent side since '82). I really can't predict the outcome.

As an aside, in Hungary, few people I know care much about the UEFA (we call it the European Cup); it's treated as a kind of intermission break between World Cups.

[Gen. Volkov]

NBA is basketball, NFL is football Beatles.

As to the penalties.. I guess I watch too much college football and get it confused with pro football. And I agree, sometime in the near future, football will become an Olympic sport, just like basketball did. I believe soccer already is one. I dunno if football will ever surpass the popularity of soccer in Europe though.

Oh and fun fact, even though soccer is supposedly more popular in Canada, a higher percentage of Americans play soccer than the percentage of Canadians do. If that makes any sense.

[Devari]

Football isn't supposedly more popular in Canada, is it?

[Gen. Volkov]

According to you it is... my info may be inaccurate in that regard, but it is a fact that a higher percentage of the American population plays soccer than in the Canadian population. I think hockey is Canada's most popular sport though.