Dave’s Football Blog

For the first week of this new blog format, we’ll take a look at the six most popular football games on the planet, in no particular order but the one I choose, and give a brief overview of where they come from and where they might be going.

Just how popular is football in America?

Consider this: The most-watched sporting event on U.S. television for the second weekend in February was… wait for it… the Pro Bowl. Yes, the National Football League’s all-star game, which players consistently disrespect and pundits loathe more and more every year, outdrew every basketball game, every car race and every other televised sport that weekend.

Why? Because it was football, kid.

That’s not the only sign that football — or “gridiron,” as some folks outside of America call it — has long since replaced baseball as America’s #1 sport. The NFL has set records for paid attendance four years in a row. NBC is paying the NFL $650 million a year for its Sunday Night Football package, and ESPN is paying the NFL $1.1 billion per year for the TV rights to Monday Night Football. Fantasy football is a multi-million-dollar business that only widens the NFL fan base. We won’t even talk about all that gambling revenue.

That’s just for pro football, too. This doesn’t begin to touch upon college football, a huge business in itself, and high school football, which many small-town Americans take far too seriously.

All of this is for a variation on rugby that barely draws any interest outside of North America. When sports fans from other continents watch American football, they complain that it has too many stops and starts and too many strange formations. In rugby, players just line up on their sides and go. They don’t need 25 seconds to set up a play.

Well, to understand why American football is the way it is, you have to understand something about Walter Camp, the man who literally built the gridiron more than 12 decades ago…

(More after the jump.)

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For the first week of this new blog format, we’ll take a look at the six most popular football games on the planet, in no particular order but the one I choose, and give a brief overview of where they come from and where they might be going.

Somewhere in the Land Down Under, there are people in high places who want you to believe that Association Football is “the only true football” — and how could that be if you can’t kick a guy in the shins, hmm? — and therefore it’s the only form of football that should be promoted on the continent. A couple of good runs in the World Cup will give you just this sort of ego.

The soccerroo onslaught, however, hasn’t even put a dent in the audience for Aussie Rules. In fact, as of last year, the Australian Football League has the highest per capita attendance of any sports league on the planet, and most indicators suggest that these attendance figures are stilll growing.

In America, though, Aussie Rules is still thought of as some bizarre afterthought that used to be shown on ESPN in the early 80s. That’s patently unfair. Once you figure out what’s actually happening on that oval pitch, you realize that Aussie Rules is really fun to watch. It’s a high-action, high-scoring, high-contact game that doesn’t get nearly enough respect here in the Northern Hemisphere, because nobody here really understands the rules.

So what are those rules, anyway?

(More after the jump.)

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For the first week of this new blog format, we’ll take a look at the six most popular football games on the planet, in no particular order but the one I choose, and give a brief overview of where they come from and where they might be going.

I’ll be honest with you. Rugby is probably my least favorite form of football to watch.

Perhaps it’s because I don’t get all the nuances and subtleties of a good rugby match. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with American football, and when I watch rugby, I start thinking that guys like Walter Camp and John Heisman had the right idea.

Of course, what Americans like me might think is largely irrelevant here, as rugby is arguably the second most popular football code on the planet. It plays second fiddle to soccer in Europe, but it still has a strong following there, not to mention a huge fan base in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. National teams compete in Six Nations and Tri-Nations competitions every year, and there’s even a Rugby World Cup coming up in September, though I doubt ESPN will pimp that as much as they did the FIFA World Cup last summer.

So how did rugby manage to separate itself from the Football Association? Well, if you believe the legend, it starts with a brat named William Webb Ellis…

(More after the jump.)

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For the first week of this new blog format, we’ll take a look at the six most popular football games on the planet, in no particular order but the one I choose, and give a brief overview of where they come from and where they might be going.

I have a confession to make.

Not too long ago, I used to believe that Association Football — or “soccer,” as the American kids like to call it — was evil. I even wrote as much on this very blog. I had always looked beyond the game itself, choosing to tie it directly to all the violence and hooliganism that happened around it. Those nutters in Italy and France could have given me more ammo for that viewpoint in the last few months, too.

The truth, though, is that I’ve been horribly biased for a very long time, and it’s time I came to terms with that bias. You see, I took a corner kick in the crotch when I was 13.

(More after the jump.)

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And now for something completely different…

If you’re a first-time visitor to our lonely little planet from somewhere else in the galaxy, here’s something you should know.

No matter where on Earth you may travel, chances are you’ll find people who are absolutely crazy about football — just not always the same kind of football. There’s one game called football in America. There’s a slightly different game called football in Canada. The British have two different forms of football, both of which are played in many parts of the world. If you travel to Australia or Ireland, you’ll see completely different forms of football in both those countries, too.

Yet just about everywhere, the most popular sport is called “football.” How did that happen? And why are we all so protective of our own native football games?

When I launched Dave’s Football Blog in 2004, it was focused almost entirely on the National Football League, with occasional jaunts into other forms of professional American football. That all changes today. From here on out, this blog will attempt to examine the origins and the evolution of football — all kinds of football. How did all these different games called football come to be? Why are we all so obsessed with them? And where might football go as we progress through in the 21st century?

Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Damn, Dave, what brought this on?”

It was a couple of things, actually. For starters, last summer during the 2006 World Cup, I looked up the word “football” in Wikipedia, and I discovered there was a lot more to the history of these sports we all call football than 40 Super Bowls and a handful of soccer games. It’s a topic that not enough people explore, and I wanted to use this blog for that exploration.

Why this blog? Well, quite honestly, things have changed around this here series of tubes. When I started this blog in 2004, I felt like I was doing something unique and interesting. Now you’ve got the likes of Deadspin, NFL FanHouse and Kissing Suzy Kolber out there, along with hundreds of other football blogs and fan sites. Being just another NFL blogger isn’t as unique and interesting as it used to be. Besides, I’m an NFL FanHouse contributor myself. It’s one thing to compete with others, but competing with myself last season was a royal pain in the arse.

So it’s time for a new adventure. We’re going to explore this thing called football in ways that most people don’t, because despite what certain school board members in Kansas might tell you, football didn’t just drop out of the sky in its current form. No, my friends, football evolves, and no one football game is any more “real football” than any other. These are all just man-made games with man-made rules, and how we all decided on those rules is a story that never gets told, but should be.

I’m sure I’ll get parts of this story wrong along the way, too, so feel free to post a comment if you see anything that looks incorrect or incomplete, or if you just want to add to the conversation. Reader participation always makes a blog more interesting, and besides, nobody really learns in an echo chamber, do they?

So climb aboard, and let’s take off on a brand new ozone expedition. You never know what we might find along the way…

A few people have emailed me to ask about this old post and whether or not I meant it. After much careful consideration, I have decided that Dave’s Football Blog is not retiring.

No, my friends, Dave’s Football Blog is graduating…

Starting February 26, you’ll never look at football the same way again. See you then…

To get your regular dose of NFL blogging during the offseason, check out these excellent sites:

NFL FanHouse
Carolina Panthers FanHouse
Pittsburgh Steelers FanHouse
Football Outsiders
Kissing Suzy Kolber
Deadspin
With Leather
We Are the Postmen

Just because Prince is a Jehovah’s Witness now doesn’t mean he forgot how to get your attention…

I’m debating whether people will be talking more about this than the fact that he sang a Foo Fighters song. At least one blogger, though, thinks that “All Along The Watchtower”/”The Best of You” medley may have been an anti-war statement.

Of course, the full halftime show is already on YouTube: Part 1, Part 2.

I see you, Courtney Love, and you can kiss my purple ass!

UPDATE (2/7): It just occurred to me… Didn’t the Foo Fighters cover “Darling Nikki” a few years ago? That must be why Prince covered them in this show. Dave Grohl probably inadvertently helped pay for Prince’s settlement with Carlos Boozer…

All the gamblers were praying that the Bears could pull out one last miracle drive to cover the spread, but it was not to be. Tony Dungy met Lovie Smith in the middle of the field and told him, “Guess what, Lovie? You’re the first black head coach to lose the Super Bowl! Oh, snap!”

Seriously, though, Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning got the monkeys off their back. Those monkeys can go back to doing Bud Light commercials. Manning will do the rest of the commercials. Hopefully, those ads won’t be as lame as the majority of the ads shown during this game…

Albert was going to rewind the DVR and show some latecomers the Prince concert, but he accidently changed the channel, so we lost the entire queue. Albert said, “Sorry, dude, I pulled a Rex Grossman.” At least we get to see the trophy presentation in the pouring rain…

Don Shula brought the trophy to the winners stage. The Colts players touched the trophy all the way through Shula’s walk to the stage. He had this look on his face that said, “Yeah, keep touching. You fuckers should never have left Baltimore.” Meanwhile, Tony Dungy was the first to thank God, and Peyton Manning was named MVP and gets the ticket-me red Cadillac. He has the biggest shit-eating grin, too. On the bright side, he’s actually crediting his team and not throwing anyone under the bus.

Meanwhile, Edgerrin James and Mike Vanderjagt are slitting their wrists in the bathtub right now…

And that’s that. Another glorious season of NFL football is in the books. The party in Indiana will last through the start of training camp. Should be fun times up there. Time to pack up the sandwich remainders and depart the Rebel Base. The lawyers didn’t stop us, either. Take that, Goodell!

Two minutes left, and the Colts are running out the clock. The only question left is who will be MVP.

Peyton Manning? 25 for 38, 247 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT.

Joseph Addai? 19 carries for 77 yards, 10 catches for 66 yards.

Dominic Rhodes? 19 carries, 112 yards, 1 TD.

My vote right now is for Rhodes.

NFL Network may have showed the best commercial of the night — all manner of team fans looking somber at the end of the season, followed by a caption, “It’s so hard to say goodbye.” Then they showed Brett Favre tossing a ball around. “For some, it’s even harder.” I laughed my ass off at that one…

Yeah, it’s Bad Rex(TM) tonight. He just threw another pick, this time to Bob Sanders. I don’t think it could get any uglier for him tonight…

Someone asked, “What are those white things on the field?” They were towels. Albert declared they were Rex Grossman’s panties. Someone else replied that he threw them at Prince during halftime, but Prince threw them back. Sounds like Chicago, doesn’t it?