Ann Coulter Is Right to Fear the World Cup

[Neil]

It would be nice if grumbler were to show up in this thread.  I want to hear what he has to say about this.

[alfred russel]

It would be nice if grumbler were to show up in this thread.  I want to hear what he has to say about this.

I'd be interested in his thoughts on the topic as well, but we are closing in on 100 replies. Imagine all the grammar errors he would need to pounce on before he could share his thoughts on the topic at hand.

[Agelastus]

It would be nice if grumbler were to show up in this thread.  I want to hear what he has to say about this.

I'd be interested in his thoughts on the topic as well, but we are closing in on 100 replies. Imagine all the grammar errors he would need to pounce on before he could share his thoughts on the topic at hand.

CC's in the thread; he'll skip the grammar in favour of the jugular.

[Neil]

It would be nice if grumbler were to show up in this thread.  I want to hear what he has to say about this.

I'd be interested in his thoughts on the topic as well, but we are closing in on 100 replies. Imagine all the grammar errors he would need to pounce on before he could share his thoughts on the topic at hand.

CC's in the thread; he'll skip the grammar in favour of the jugular.

And so the balance of nature is preserved...

[crazy canuck]

It would be nice if grumbler were to show up in this thread.  I want to hear what he has to say about this.

I'd be interested in his thoughts on the topic as well, but we are closing in on 100 replies. Imagine all the grammar errors he would need to pounce on before he could share his thoughts on the topic at hand.

CC's in the thread; he'll skip the grammar in favour of the jugular.

pfft,

At a mere 6'3'' he could barely get a good shot in at my shoulders before he hit the ground like a flopping Dutch striker.

[Norgy]

It would be nice if grumbler were to show up in this thread.  I want to hear what he has to say about this.

I'd be interested in his thoughts on the topic as well, but we are closing in on 100 replies. Imagine all the grammar errors he would need to pounce on before he could share his thoughts on the topic at hand.

You mean the grumbler who thinks "charactor" is a word? 

[Viking]

Soccer is fun to play.  But to watch, is often boring.  But that US-Belgium game yesterday was fantastic. 

Caring who wins makes a really big difference.

[Razgovory]

I didn't care much for watching sports until I was an adult.  I admit that soccer game was fun to watch.

[derspiess]

I think you have made my point.  Football is a game of stoppages of play which are far more lengthy than the play itself.  So much so that fans must distract themselves by having enough time to second guess coaching decisions which occur during the stoppages in play.

Your point is you don't like that.  Our point is we do. 

No, when I first brought up the issue that football was slow paced there was all kinds of disagreement.  Someone even tried to suggest it was fast paced.  Now you people seem to agree that football is slow paced but you embrace the stoppages in play.

You just said it was slow.  I won't argue that the overall pace is slow.  My point was that the action was fast.  But as usual you ignored important parts of my argument.

[alfred russel]

Soccer is fun to play.  But to watch, is often boring.  But that US-Belgium game yesterday was fantastic. 

Caring who wins makes a really big difference.

This is the problem soccer has in the US. Hockey too, to an extent. The US gets behind the international teams, but we just don't have personal connections with the professional clubs (an exception being in the northeast in the US for hockey).

[OttoVonBismarck]

You asked me whether the CFL was more popular than soccer in Canada.

I'm aware--but you also pointed out that soccer is "by far the most played" sport in Canada in addition to answering the CFL question. I wasn't sure if this was you saying soccer is the most popular sport in Canada or not. So I brought up that I (assumed) hockey is Canada's most popular sport even if it isn't Canada's most played sport.

This would mirror the situation in America where football is by far our most popular sport (as measured by fan interest, various polls, and television ratings--live attendance is murkier due to the other sports having vastly more games but per game football is much higher) but is not our most played sport.

I'm not sure how they'd rank, but I know bowling is generally claimed to be the most played sport. But bowling is seriously questionable as a sport (as it very nearly requires no athleticism, it couldn't be played by a quadriplegic but it stretches the already murky definition of sport.) After that baseball and its derivatives and soccer would rank very, very highly. Primarily because both have robust amateur leagues from very young ages up through adulthood. I know tons of people who are on adult baseball or softball teams and some who are in soccer leagues as well. Even for the kiddos, there's usually lots of opportunities to play baseball outside of the school system--Little League for example goes up through High School age and is separate from the schools (usually around here the kids who can't make the cut on the High School team will play Little League, but in some areas where the schools aren't big into it Little League has the best kids of that age.) Little League alone has 3m players annually, and this is only kids 4-18, and doesn't count the school system leagues and all the adult leagues.

Football on the other hand is basically exclusively played:

1. In "midget leagues", which are for kids typically grades 4/5/6.
2. In school teams for jr/sr/college kids.
3. Professionally (NFL mostly, Arena football in some form still exists etc.)

There aren't all these other leagues for football, largely because there aren't enough people interested in playing. You don't casually play full contact football into middle age like you might do with softball. I know a lot of people who have wrecked knees for life just from playing football for a few years in their late teens. To be honest football is a terrible sport for your health because of the way it evolved to emphasize maximum impact collisions (Rugby or Australian Rules Football players just don't lay each other out like that because the lack of armor makes it basically insane to do so, armor allows it to happen and prevents the immediate term catastrophic damage most of the time, but the long term problems are definitely there even aside from the concussion stuff.) Even aside from the health concerns, full contact football, like hockey, is expensive. Lots of expensive equipment, and you need big teams etc.

Flag football is played somewhat though, but that's different enough from tackle football as to not be the same thing (to me it's a much bigger difference than say, baseball vs softball, which are almost the same sport with slightly different equipment.)

[crazy canuck]

By most played sport I meant by kids and teenagers.  I dont know what the most played sport for adults might be in Canada.  It is probably hockey as a lot of mens leagues have limited hitting rules and so it is a low impact sport compared to say basketball which remains hard on the joints (all that running and jumping).  As a result kids that played hockey continue to do so well into their adult years.  Not so much for basketball.  I also suspect curling is up there in terms of adult participation (as much as it pains me to say).

[Grey Fox]

Baseball is upthere too for Adults.

[Admiral Yi]

Baseball or softball?

[Barrister]

By most played sport I meant by kids and teenagers.  I dont know what the most played sport for adults might be in Canada.  It is probably hockey as a lot of mens leagues have limited hitting rules and so it is a low impact sport compared to say basketball which remains hard on the joints (all that running and jumping).  As a result kids that played hockey continue to do so well into their adult years.  Not so much for basketball.  I also suspect curling is up there in terms of adult participation (as much as it pains me to say).

According to curling.ca there are 653,000 curlers in Canada, or 2.2% of the entire population.

I don't think it's #1 in terms of participation, but it's right up there.