Why Americans Don’t Like Football

It’s football, folks, not soccer

Image from britannica.com

With EURO 2020(1)? in full swing, it seems like a perfect time to reminiscence about the topic from the title of this article: why Americans generally don’t care about football.
Ever since we’ve arrived in the US, a quarter of a century ago, I was perplexed that the most popular sport in the World isn’t popular here. All this time I was trying to come up with valid reasons why it is so, considering that Americans are suckers for everything British😎, and there’s hardly anything that’s more British than football. They’re also big sports fans, as well. I’ve had countless discussions with my American friends, colleagues, who are all certifiable sports fans. Here are some conclusions.

• First of all, in the US, they call it by the wrong name: it’s football, not soccer! I know, I know, there’s another sport in the US called football, but that one isn’t played by foot, so…
• From an objective point of view, the game of football is a bit funny, a rare ball sport that’s not played by hands. Moreover, players are, other than the goalie (it’s properly called a goalkeeper), penalized if they accidentally touch the ball by hand. Go figure!
• The scoring is too low. 4:3 scoreline in football is on a higher side. Too often games end up with a 0:0, 1:1 score. There’s is an easy fix for that: just multiply each goal by 6 or 7 and — voilà! 😄
• Grassroots are missing. Kids aren’t playing football on the street corners, in someone’s backyard. Here, everything is organized, and revolves around parents' schedules.
• There’s no tradition of playing football in the US, as there’s no tradition of playing baseball elsewhere, save for Japan, the Caribbean Islands, and few other places.
• It’s all about money. Since there are several major sports in the US, there’s simply no room for yet another one. All the while, when Ronaldo removes Coke bottles from his press conference and asks for water, Coca-Cola’s shares drop $4 billion! There’s a huge football market, and stars are truly global.
• Professional sports leagues here, including MLS, are closed systems, whereas football leagues everywhere consist of several tiers, with promotions and relegations, which ultimately make them more interesting, from fans' perspective.
• No need for expensive equipment, all you really need is a ball, any ball. But, it goes against consumer culture.
• Commercial breaks. It’s unfathomable to have 45 mins of something uninterrupted on TV in the US. As a consequence, sports games on TV here are too chopped, constantly interrupted by commercials, they’re almost unwatchable. There is no reason for a 48 mins basketball game to last 3 hrs.
• It goes against proclaimed individualism. In football, tactics are everything, and, while there are huge individual stars in football, the opportunity for individual dominance is more limited than in other sports.
• It’s too complicated, especially some rules (offside).
• It’s boring. I can certainly relate to that, some football games are real snoozers. It’s the same way I see baseball. The opposite is true, too: some football games are real crackers!

They’ve asked a Scottish football fan who is he rooting for.

For Scotland, of course — he replied — and whoever is playing against England! 😄