What do you think of Messi?

[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]
It's terrible that I have to do this, but:
This is *not* an attempt at a cheap blow, it's an *honest* question -
What is it that people see in football (or any other 'spectator sport' for that matter)? I mean, I don't like playing football myself, but I could imagine that others enjoy playing the game. However, I just can't wrap my head around the pleasure many people seem to get from *watching* others they don't even know play a game. Can anyone explain this to me?[/QUOTE]

Watch either of these videos. If these don't show you the attraction of football then words never will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ajduHx5hc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WUiu_RbENA

[QUOTE]

[b]greaserkat wrote: [/b] When he does something with the Argentine National Team, like Baggio did with Italy, Maradonna with Argentina, Pele with Brasil, Romario with Brasil, Beckenbahuer with Germany, then ask the question again.[/QUOTE]
And Garrincha in Brasil (World Cup 1958 , 1962)

good answer!

[QUOTE] [b]tcc wrote:[/b]
A lot of interest is fuelled by betting.[/QUOTE]
i don't think that's the predominant aspect of why. it maybe for home/pub viewers - but not the fans who go to live games.

i think there,s more to do with the Roman colleseum origins of "spectator sport". civilised society requires entertainment
1. it keeps the masses engaged
2. it takes some of their money back off them

organised football is (i believe a british working class invention - the working classes needed soemthing to do, so clubs were formed, following from that mounds (kops) were built for people to stand and watch from - (kop comes from Spion Kop, a battle site from the boer war)

anyhow, most of the origins came from this. if you look at most british (football terraces - as was) - they rose about 1906 - the year of the battle. stadia are a new thing. crowds grew from a few dozen initally and some form of covered terrace was required.

apols if i rambled a bit

[QUOTE][b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b] Watch either of these videos. If these don't show you the attraction of football then words never will.[/QUOTE]

Those were great clips.

@Thomas

Varying levels of investment and different motivations of course, some of which are relatively uncomplicated. It's simple entertainment at one level, distraction from the mundane, and there is pleasure in depth of knowledge in anything, the history and the in and outs of a sport no exception.   But perhaps the most powerful thing is the way in which it ties people to things.  Sometimes from very early on to parents, often fathers, or older siblings, and later on to friends and places and the wider culture.  Once you accept a team as a proxy of sorts for people or things or places that you love, or qualities that you value like loyalty or perseverance or grit for example, a game or championship easily becomes a moving narrative whose appeal would need no explanation in another context.  Hard work well rewarded, bad behaviour avenged, triumph thwarted, delayed or realized, David and Goliath stories, emotions of the players reflected and absorbed by fans in both success and failure. Sometimes just the simple joy in happiness for the achievement of others. All shared with thousands of people who feel the same way, often in one very special place or moment in time.  Every time I see Sidney Crosby's OT goal in the 2010 Olympic hockey final it makes me tear up. And I've probably seen it 50 times. I know the whole sequence by heart, I know what's coming, and it still get me every time.

[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]
It's terrible that I have to do this, but:
This is *not* an attempt at a cheap blow, it's an *honest* question -
What is it that people see in football (or any other 'spectator sport' for that matter)? I mean, I don't like playing football myself, but I could imagine that others enjoy playing the game. However, I just can't wrap my head around the pleasure many people seem to get from *watching* others they don't even know play a game. Can anyone explain this to me?[/QUOTE]
Watch either of these videos. If these don't show you the attraction of football then words never will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ajduHx5hc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WUiu_RbENA
[/QUOTE]


Nice, especially since I hate England and Spain.

This video made me cry when I watch it live, as I'm a HUGE Chivas fan. Thsi was probably one of their best victoroes ever. You can even hear in the announcers voice, in the last two goals, the feeling fottball brings to you

http://youtu.be/l_16PZiOk9o

@GreatfulFan
I know exactly what you mean. still feel the same about Vinatieri's FG against the Rams. Years of mediocrity and sh*t erased with one kick as time expired. fantastic

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
@GreatfulFan
I know exactly what you mean. still feel the same about Vinatieri's FG against the Rams. Years of mediocrity and sh*t erased with one kick as time expired. fantastic[/QUOTE]

Thanks to the ref's fucked up call in the Raiders-Pats game

[QUOTE]

[b]greaserkat wrote: [/b] This video made me cry when I watch it live, as I'm a HUGE Chivas fan. Thsi was probably one of their best victoroes ever. You can even hear in the announcers voice, in the last two goals, the feeling fottball brings to you[/QUOTE]
You said "the feeling football brings" to you, but really the game being played is mostly incidental in this kind of discussion.  For you it's football, for me it's hockey, for others maybe NFL/CFL football or baseball.  The kind of sports fan who cries at a special set of late football goals or an Olympic gold medal overtime victory is in some ways just a set of personality characteristics waiting for a sport.  And it does't surprise me that there would be overlap between that kind of sports fan and people passionate enough about music to dedicate time to a music forum.

[QUOTE] [b]greaserkat wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
@GreatfulFan
I know exactly what you mean. still feel the same about Vinatieri's FG against the Rams. Years of mediocrity and sh*t erased with one kick as time expired. fantastic[/QUOTE]
Thanks to the ref's fucked up call in the Raiders-Pats game
[/QUOTE]
no. the ref explained it wrong at the time, but got the reversal decision spot on :-)
you're not a bitter silver n black are you?

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]greaserkat wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
@GreatfulFan
I know exactly what you mean. still feel the same about Vinatieri's FG against the Rams. Years of mediocrity and sh*t erased with one kick as time expired. fantastic[/QUOTE]
Thanks to the ref's fucked up call in the Raiders-Pats game
[/QUOTE]
no. the ref explained it wrong at the time, but got the reversal decision spot on :-)
you're not a bitter silver n black are you?[/QUOTE]
Hell no, Red and Gold all the way!! And Brady's arm was not moving forward when the ball came out

[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b]
@Thomas
[...] Once you accept a team as a proxy of sorts for people or things or places that you love, or qualities that you value like loyalty or perseverance or grit for example, a game or championship easily becomes a moving narrative whose appeal would need no explanation in another context.  Hard work well rewarded, bad behaviour avenged, triumph thwarted, delayed or realized, David and Goliath stories, emotions of the players reflected and absorbed by fans in both success and failure. [...][/QUOTE]

So then, essentially, what you are saying is that the appeal of football is, on some level, contagious magic, taken in the anthropological sense as described by Sir James George Frazer, which means it's the same basic feeling that inspires, for instance, Voodoo cultists - it's a primitive (not in a derogatory sense, but literal, derived from primal) form of religion.

[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]
It's terrible that I have to do this, but:
This is *not* an attempt at a cheap blow, it's an *honest* question -
What is it that people see in football (or any other 'spectator sport' for that matter)? I mean, I don't like playing football myself, but I could imagine that others enjoy playing the game. However, I just can't wrap my head around the pleasure many people seem to get from *watching* others they don't even know play a game. Can anyone explain this to me?[/QUOTE]
Watch either of these videos. If these don't show you the attraction of football then words never will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ajduHx5hc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WUiu_RbENA
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the vids, but sorry, it really doesn't do anything at all for me. I suppose football is just one of those things I don't get.

[QUOTE]

[b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b] So then, essentially, what you are saying is that the appeal of football is, on some level, contagious magic, taken in the anthropological sense as described by Sir James George Frazer, which means it's the same basic feeling that inspires, for instance, Voodoo cultists - it's a primitive (not in a derogatory sense, but literal, derived from primal) form of religion.[/QUOTE]
No.  For god's sake.

And I was talking about my feelings about sport fandom, not football, as I have no experience of football.

[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]
It's terrible that I have to do this, but:
This is *not* an attempt at a cheap blow, it's an *honest* question -
What is it that people see in football (or any other 'spectator sport' for that matter)? I mean, I don't like playing football myself, but I could imagine that others enjoy playing the game. However, I just can't wrap my head around the pleasure many people seem to get from *watching* others they don't even know play a game. Can anyone explain this to me?[/QUOTE]
Watch either of these videos. If these don't show you the attraction of football then words never will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ajduHx5hc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WUiu_RbENA
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the vids, but sorry, it really doesn't do anything at all for me. I suppose football is just one of those things I don't get.[/QUOTE]
I live in America, and I'm pretty big on American football and follow baseball casually (baseball games are freaking boring, but I can get into American football games). However, I've never really seen the appeal of...wait for it...soccer myself. A sport where winning by more than one point is a big win seems kind of boring to me. Then again, I would probably like it a lot more if I lived anywhere other than the US.

Oh well, I'm happy with what I've got.