OT - Football. Olympic Sport?
Seems like a somewhat slow news day, so just to create a little discussion...
"A vote on American football becoming a full-fledged Olympic sport could take place as early as 2017, according to the USA Football youth development program."
Two questions immediately come to my mind...
1. How many Olympics would (you expect) the United States to dominate?
2. Which country would give the US the best game?
Discuss.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:39 PM ^
December 11th, 2013 at 12:08 PM ^
It's not big enough anywhere else in the world (to my knowledge) to the point where any country could even remotely challenge the US.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:10 PM ^
Is the US allowed to field 16 teams? If so, I could see this as entertaining. Otherwise, not so much. The obvious problem is the turnaround time between games and the time period of the Olympics overall. How many games could be played realistically? 3?
December 11th, 2013 at 12:10 PM ^
Japan could have a hell of a running game behind an OL of Sumo wrestlers.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
The good news is that Northwestern has already desinged the uniforms.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^
RB: Adrian Peterson
RB:?
WR: Calvin Jhonson
WR:?
T.E: Gronk or Jimmy Graham?
December 11th, 2013 at 12:19 PM ^
QB: Tom Brady
RB: Adrian Peterson
RB: Jamal Charles
RB: Marshawn Lynch
WR: Calvin Johnson
WR: A.J. Green
WR: Wes Welker
TE: Jimmy Graham
TE: Vernon Davis
TE: Julius Thomas
Holy moley. Great googly moogly. Try stopping that.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:26 PM ^
I think you could take ANY NFL quarterback and they'd be just fine...
December 11th, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^
Even Brandon Weeden? (Yes, I'm a Browns fan)
What about Tim Couch or Ryan Leaf coming out of retirement. This would be purely for handicap purposes. We don't want to crush everyone the first Olympics now do we?
December 11th, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^
If it somehow did become a sport, no one is going to go risk injury against a bunch of teams that most American Arena Football teams could beat handily.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^
December 11th, 2013 at 12:39 PM ^
This isn't war.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:31 PM ^
December 11th, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^
Would add an easy gold medal for the United States, so why not?
December 11th, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^
Based on IFAF results I would say Japan.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:19 PM ^
Canada would probably be the only country to even remotely compete with the US, and even then it would be a blood bath (possibly literally). Even in 7on7 it would be completely unfair, considering really no other countries even play this style of football or intentionally develop this kind of talent. I know that there are leagues in Europe and Asia, but it's really a niche sport in those areas. It seems absurd to create an international competition for a sport that only two countries play, and only one really dominates. Even in the CFL most of the players are American (I think I read that somewhere, maybe wrong), and I would imagine the same in any competitive international league.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^
CFL teams have a 42 player roster limit of which half (21 to do the math) must be "non-import" players. Most CFL teams have US QBs and US position players while linemen and defensive players are filled in by Canadians. So it would be a lie to say that "most" of the the CFL players are american. Other than that Canadian football is a much different game than American football. With only 3 downs to get 10 yards, 12 men per side, and a longer wider field most teams pass the ball almost every play. There is not much MANBALL in the CFL and they let multiple people go in forward motion before the snap.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
Thank you for the correction. I remember reading an article relatively recently that the sport is still being "dominated" by American players, but that might have meant at traditionally defined "skill" positions.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:01 PM ^
But, at the same time, there are a lot of "Hey, I remember that guy" Americans who forge long careers there. Worth noting: Starting QB in the CFL is one of the most exclusive clubs in sports. If a guy establishes himself, he's set for years on one team or another. Marcus Allen's brother Damon played effectively for over 20 years and only recently retired, and "younger" players like Darian Durant (Hey, I remember that guy) are basically inextricable from the league now.
December 11th, 2013 at 5:38 PM ^
I think right now there are 0 non-import QBs in the CFL.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^
1. America would dominate for the first 5-8 games until one country starts to train players just to spite us.
2. I would probably guess one of the initail coutnries to give us a fit would be England, seeing as they at least have some football fans out there. Afterwards, who knows.
I can't imagine that football would really become an olympic sport just yet. It is predominately seen as an American sport, where Europeans still laugh about how we call it football. I'm not even sure that 95% of the rest of the world even knows that we have our own thing that we call football.
Then again, I can totally see how the Olympics would look at America's viewership ratings and the sport's net revenue and say, "We've got to get us some of that!"
December 11th, 2013 at 12:24 PM ^
As others have said, Baseball doesn't even pass muster anymore, and there are actual power countries that care about it.
Competitive Starcraft has a better chance of making the Olympics than this.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:29 PM ^
Well, that's because it's baseball. That sport is never entertaining.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:32 PM ^
"That sport is never entertaining, in my opinion."
FIFY
December 11th, 2013 at 12:58 PM ^
How juvenile.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:14 PM ^
Best troll account since Terrelle Pryor.
December 11th, 2013 at 3:50 PM ^
Oh yes, I missed the part where every time you see a post you disagree with, then the person who posted that is a troll. My bad.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^
I would bet any FBS team would wipe the floor with any other nations teams. It'll never happen. How many non-US players do you even know that are playing FBS football right now? Less than five? Eastern Michigan could probably win the gold medal. Seriously.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:28 PM ^
Well, there are at least two on Michigan's team alone in Chesson and Darboh.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:34 PM ^
As posters have noted and the article notes, there are different types of American football. I can imagine enough countries fielding 7 on 7 teams to make it happen. You don't need very many people to particpate in a sport for it to become an Olypmic event. How many people luge, do individual dressage, or train for biathlons?
December 11th, 2013 at 12:41 PM ^
All of the sports you name are internationally competitve - they aren't dominated by one country all the time. Football would be. It's not just that the sport isn't played that much outside the U.S., but that it isn't played at a high level anywhere else, aside from Canada and American Samoa.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:50 PM ^
People are apparently playing one version of football or another around the world more and more. And I don't think the US necessarily would dominate in 7 on 7 for very long - if at all, because I'm not sure elite guys would want to play in the Olypmics. The international competition linked above has been won twice by Japan.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:56 PM ^
I think it's very doubtful. Rugby has seized the international terrain already, and people around the world who are interested in a more physical game than soccer mostly play that.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:56 PM ^
It was won twice by Japan because the US didn't play, and the US won it the two years they did play with heavy restrictions on who could participate. Just looking at 2011, the US didn't lose a match, and won their three matches by a point differential +112 and won their Gold Medal match by 43 points against Canada in their first year of playing. The US won this so dominantly with more than half of their players coming from below D-IA college athletes.
Maybe in the long run, with heavy restrictions, your point about elite players not participating from the US, and the international spotlight to attract skilled athletes from other countries, this could be a competitive international sport. However, it seems as though the US would make this pretty ugly for the near future.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:09 PM ^
I would be inclined to agree about the US dominating for the foreseeable future if we hadn't seen the world catch up to our professional basketball players so quickly. I remain amazed that it took so few games for a non-US team to win in men's basketball...None of this is to say that the world would catch up to the US, but it's believable to me that it could, especially given that (as I said) I wouldn't expect the best US players to particpate.
This isn't directly in response to anything you said: Soccer is undoubtedly the world's sport, but more and more people are seeing US sports on TV. I've watched a Cubs game in a small barbershop in West Africa. I think the world can catch up to us pretty quickly (at least enough to make things competitive) in any sport if they become connected to the sport via television and only need a field and a ball to play.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:17 PM ^
Actually, it took a long time for the world to catch up with us in basketball, and it hasn't really done so even now. From 1936 to 1968, the U.S. not only won every gold medal but went undefeated that whole time. It was a total shock when the USSR won in '72, and it took some horrible officiating to pull it off. We didn't lose another Olympic game until 1988.
Even today, we're still a huge favorite whenever we play. 2004 is the only time we've lost in the Olympics with pro players, and that was with our "B" squad because none of the A-list guys wanted to risk what seemed at the time a dicey security situation in Athens.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:32 PM ^
The last two final games we've won 107-100 and 118-107 (both over Spain). And that is with guys like Kobe, Lebron, Carmelo, and Chris Paul participating both times.
We now really have to bring our A game and it still isn't a walk in the park. Certainly not as competitive as hockey yet, but the basketball tournament has gotten really good in a fairly short period of time (roughly 20 years since the Dream Team destroyed everyone).
December 11th, 2013 at 1:33 PM ^
...basketball is still an Olympic sport, and it's not a given that the US will win any paritcular games.
December 11th, 2013 at 3:53 PM ^
True, but in any event, do not expect football to be like this anytime soon. It took decades before other countries could even challenge us in basketball.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^
You also forget that the rest of the world "caught up" to us in basketball because they have had professional leagues for a long time. It isn't like Argentina and Spain just started playing basketball in 2004; there are professional basketball players all over the world. How many professional American football leagues are there in other countries? How many foreign football players get drafted by the NFL each year?
December 11th, 2013 at 1:45 PM ^
"B" team or no in Athens, Argentina and other countries made great leaps from 1992-2004 as far as catching up to the US...And again, I'm thinking anyone who is a pro prospect in the States wouldn't participate out of fear of being injured, though of course that might prove to be an incorrect prediction...In any event, putting a sport in the Olympics might make it more popular. You might even see some small 7 on 7 leagues crop up around the world. Give some poor kids who aren't quite good enough to play elite soccer another way out, and they just might become pretty good football players. We're basically talking about throwing a ball, catching a ball, and running. Many people can learn to do that...A cool story bro story: I lived across the road from a dirt field in Ghana for three months. Every day, an intensely competitive soccer game would be held on the field with teenagers and guys in their early twenties playing like mad while wearing one shoe, no shoes, shoes held together by tape, etc. They weren't going to be noticed by anyone by playing in that game, and most of them would presumably never make a dime off of soccer, but they certainly seemed to play with everything they had. And they were great athletes to my eye. I could see a US coach turning them into a pretty good 7 on 7 team if the players were motivated by the possibility of improving their lives through football. That coach wouldn't have to train them to be athletes or instill in them the love of sport or willingness to work hard.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:08 PM ^
December 11th, 2013 at 12:45 PM ^
You make a good point, that it doesn't take a whole country of people growing up playing that sport to field a team, especially 7-on-7, but still that said team would get annihilated by the country (USA, USA...) that plays that sport predominantly. I know other countries have plenty of big, fast, skilled athletes, but not ones that spent their lives mastering a position in the sport (thinking skilled 7-on-7 positions like QB, RB, WR, LB, DB) and have played it at or near its most competitive levels. You can train, say for instance, people in Germany at those positions, the way you train for biathlons, but those people won't have the experience American players do of even playing at the Texas D-I High School level, which matters. Maybe that come off as American arrogance or exceptionalism, but it remains difficult to imagine otherwise.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
According to this related story in Syracuse.com, the 7-on-7 version is more or less what they would seek to implement. Supposedly, this is not the first time an attempt has been made to do this either - according to that same article, it was a demonstration sport in 1932.
For the board's education, here is the IFAF announcement. Needless to say, they are most grateful for the provisional recognition that they are getting here. They reperesent teams (not all tackle, but also flag and beach football) in 64 nations, so there is some interest, it would seem.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:22 PM ^
I hadn't read any of the information that you linked to, but I was going to mention that flag football would be the way to go. Then you don't need any equipment aside from a ball and some flags. Hooray, everyone can play!
The problem with that is I could see ultimate becoming a better international fit than even 7-on-7 flag football.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:38 PM ^
Has there ever been any talk about football being played in the winter games? The bar for importance seems a bit lower.
December 11th, 2013 at 1:04 PM ^
December 11th, 2013 at 1:31 PM ^
Just replicate those game conditions and we're good to go for a Winter Olympic sport. This can easily be done with snow-making equipment. Let's do this.
December 11th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ^
I can't imagine any major college or pro team would allow its players to risk injury on the eve of camp in order to participate in the olympics. So even if there were other countries that could compete with the US I'm not sure who we would get to play.