Football or Football or Futbol or Soccer or..

[Ryantology]

I know nothing of American football, but I think that the Super Bowl is played around Thanksgiving(?)

First Sunday in February, though there are always a slate of games on Thanksgiving, usually involving teams I hate.

Is american "football" also infected with that disgusting disease called hooliganism?

Nothing even remotely approaching what happens in Europe. The worst you usually get is people throwing snowballs at Santa Claus. Or, that one time, when fans threw beer bottles onto players and refs because the refs blew a call. Such incidents are rare and always newsworthy.

I've watched American Football and I think the game is great; I can definitely see why it is so popular and I like it. My girlfriend is from Boston so I naturally support the New England Patriots (who won against the New York Jets last night, go Pats!). I know their quarterback is Tom Brady (and until very recently, they also had Tim Tebow) but other than that I don't know anyone.

I understand why but ew.

The only thing I dislike about American Football is the word "football", because having watched the game, I still don't understand how it can be justified. I mean, granted the ball can be kicked at some points, but usually only in the 4th play and after a touchdown. A more accurate name might be "American Rugby" as the games are quite similar.

Kicking used to be a marginally more important aspect of the game in its earliest days. I'd be okay if they renamed it Handegg.

Edit: I should also add, I love the fact that in the professional games, pretty much every decision by the ref is made by going back and looking at slo-mo replays to make sure the decision is correct. In English football (soccer) there have been a number of controversies in recent years over goals that were disallowed despite replays showing them to be actual goals.

You'd think that would prevent really terrible calls, but replays only overturn on-field decisions if the people who made them find incontrovertible evidence that they made a mistake. They tend not to, even when the mistake is obvious to everyone present. Honestly, I like the replay idea in theory, but in practice, it slows down a slow game even more. I definitely do like the fact that coaches can make challenges.