Aussies, Canucks, and Yanks. Football/Gridiron question.

[Walker]

Aussies, Canucks, and Yanks. Football/Gridiron question.

Okay, so, I was thinking about football, because my brother made a smartass comment about not wanting Vick back in the NFL and how he should be playing Arena Football or the CFL, and I made a return comment about how that would be mean to the Canadians, but I would love to see him smack into the goalposts or something.

So, from there, I got into reading about the differences between American and Canadian football (like goalpost positioning), though I didn't get into the Aussie version.

The thing I was wondering was this-- how important/popular is your version of football?

In the US, American Football has eclipsed baseball, to the point of being the most popular spectator sport. I don't know how sports stack up exactly in Canada, or the relative popularity of Canadian vs. American football there.

The other thing I was curious about was if anyone else thought that it would be cool if someday they did, I don't know, a World Bowl? International Bowl? Some of those names might be copyrighted, but just some level of international football competition, combining the different versions.

And yes, I know that this is a bit iffy, not least because the CFL is sometimes seen as a minor league to the NFL's major league.

I'm especially curious about the Aussie version, which is why I'm heading for Wikipedia now.

EDIT: Ooops. Clearly, I didn't do enough research. There is no "Aussie version," excepting that weird almost-kinda-sorta Australian Rules football that seems to combine American/Canadian with Rugby and Soccer and is played on a round field. So I really AM asking about Gridiron, just to make myself clear, not Australian Football.

Additionally, there IS an international competition, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Football_World_Cup, run by these guys, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Federation_of_American_Football. And, woah, Tsuyu! The president is a Swede! And the Japanese are, ah, kinda really damn good.

What the hell is this, Japan? Beat us at our own traditional national pastime AND at our heavily-commercialized replacement? So unfair. You gotta be cheating.

 

[Arseface]

Re: Aussies, Canucks, and Yanks. Football/Gridiron question.

EDIT: Ooops. Clearly, I didn't do enough research. There is no "Aussie version," excepting that weird almost-kinda-sorta Australian Rules football that seems to combine American/Canadian with Rugby and Soccer and is played on a round field.

It's more like Gaelic football (a variant of soccer where you can pick the ball up and to full tackles) but played on a round field with a different scoring system.

That's actually really dissapointing. I love telling foreigners about how footy works.

We do play Rugby alot though, which is very similar to Gridiron.

 

[Walker]

Re: Aussies, Canucks, and Yanks. Football/Gridiron question.

I dunno, it almost seemed like Australian rules was more like American football than rugby was? But yeah, some pretty major differences. You can definitely tell that all the varieties of football are related, though, at least when you're looking at them all together. At first glance our football and soccer are utterly unrelated, but then you start looking at the others and you can kinda see how they're all bastard cousins.

But yeah, I'll admit I didn't actually read as much as I should have. I got that its goalposts were kinda like American, I got that you got points for kicking, and I got that you could use your feet and limited your hands. But I didn't remember much else and I skimmed a bit too much.

And yeah, now I kinda want to see if I can see the American Football World Cup when it rolls around again in 2011. Wonder how/who/whether they broadcast it?

I still like baseball fine, even if my O's repeatedly get their asses beat and the Nats are... well, not much. Moving the Expos to DC didn't make them miraulously better. Neither did their shiny new stadium. There's also the problem that it's really hard to sit through a baseball game. So damn long, and they can get so damn dull.

And out of curiosity, John, where are you living now that soccer's bigger than football? I assume not the US?

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Aussies, Canucks, and Yanks. Football/Gridiron question.

What is this "soccer" you are on about, yank?

 

[Walker]

Re: Aussies, Canucks, and Yanks. Football/Gridiron question.

What is this "soccer" you are on about, yank?

Smartass.

If you find out, be sure to let us know, eh? I'm a bit interested in this myself now.It's just inside Texas across the U.S./Mexico border. The only major sport here is soccer, everything else like basketball, baseball and football are for idle recreation, nothing that warrants face paint and lucky jersey rituals.

Yeah. Still quite awhile until it actually happens, though. Apparently it's only every four years.

Huh. I guess there IS somewhere in this country where soccer is big. I had no idea.