Superbowl XLIII and why I still don’t like watching American Football

So finally the day came when the steelers and cardinals were fighting for the ultimate football championship in Tampa. I was very excited to experience this truely American way of celebrating sports. Also because I followed the AFC and the NFC championships during the playoff season, and to learn more about the game I sat in sports bars and hotel rooms calling up friends just to understand how the game is played. Unfortunately for the teams that I was supporting in each game, they lost, all of them. It started with the Titans, the Panthers, the Giants and the Chargers bowing out. I’m not kidding, I supported all of them, and they lost! Then, I started supporting the Eagles and Ravens, and they lost. Now my experience clearly told me to support the favorites, the more experienced team and test this notion that my support led to a team’s demise, but I went with my guts and supported the underdogs, the Cardinals. And they lost too, the worse thing is, I knew it. Even with 2 minutes to go, when Larry Fitzgerald ran with the ball for a touch down, I knew the game wasen’t over. And eventually that turned out to be true.

Now, before I start slamming the game for what it has become, I must admit that this game was one of the more entertaining ones. So it was not that bad. However, that said, I know I’ll never get into it. Watching the whole season is going to be excruciatingly plainful, because of the way it is televised. I’m sick of watching a four hour telecast for a 60 minute game. It’s like watching a Twenty-20 game of cricket on anything other than ESPNStar, the telecast is badly produced, there are commercials everywhere (one good thing about superbowl is that commercials are not repeated, and they’re funny which made it less painful) and “the flow” is not there.

Compare that to a football (the sport that’s actually played with the foot) match, it’s 90 minutes, with commercials at the start, the end and the middle. And you get to watch 45 minutes of real action. But then not every soccer game (or how the rest of the world calls it, football) is entertaining, as in every sport. But I still would rather watch the emglish premier league, or the world cup, than NFL. It’s good to have it, but I can’t see myself glued to the TV like a fan should be. The game’s too commercialised and that takes the fun out of the sport.

Now, on this topic, I always used to wonder about why soccer is not famous in the US. I asked a lot of friends, and there is this divide between children who play soccer in schools, and those who end up becoming pros. And since last one year, I’ve listened to some of my favorite radio stations, read blogs and news, and it amazes me that there is so much of untapped potential for the game, and it goes to waste. One of the most strking features of American sports is that there is this definte need of a winner, in every game, be it pre, regular or post season. Any game you watch, has an overtime. Soccer doesn’t provides that… there extra time and penalties are only for some of the matches, and that is one thing apparently Americans hate. Then there is this notion of football game is boring because of scoreless draws or 1-0s. Which is true, but what the fulltime score doesn’t reflect is the quality of the game. I saw a 0-0 draw between Wigan and Aston Villa teams last weekend, and it was very entertaining, high quality stuff. But every match can’t provide that, and hence Soccer will always be the 4th or 5th sport. There is a niche audience for football in this country, and as long as the cost of brining the game to the viewers in US is less than the revenues, we would see Fox Soccer Channel or ESPN showing some of the games. That would be until someone decides to test the market with some real intent, like buying rights for the best matches of EPL, La Liga and Serie A… Those rights don’t come cheap, but if ESPN can show the game on a consistent basis for a couple of seasons, it can earn good revenues. Hopefully that day would come soon…