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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 2400304, member: 405"] The NFL lost me probably 10 years ago. Too many games that go on for too long. The move to Sunday night games, and then Thursday night games - and the massive amount of roster turnover - left me unable to follow teams as closely as you would like in order to really be a knowledgeable fan. Nobody has that much time to devote to just one thing, at least not if you have a family or any other interests. College basketball's declining quality of play, conference expansion watering down how frequently teams play each other, and the proliferation of so many kids who clearly are not yet NBA worthy leaving early has also made it harder to follow college hoops. Then mix in the amount of grabbing, pushing, etc. allowed on defense, which was terrible before some recent tweaks to how they call fouls the last couple years, has likewise left me only watching Cuse games, and not much else. Now, my sports sink-hole of time goes into the Premier League, who still has every team play home-and-home over the course of the season, and the Champions Leauge, which gives you the biggest stars on the planet, playing the beautiful game. No time-outs. No commercial breaks. Playing in nasty weather, with players wearing down from 45 minutes of non-stop action, so that the goals flow at the end of each half. Soccer is like a prize fight, where you feel and see momentum swings and teams wear each other down with pressure. People complain about the lack of scoring, but the average last year was 3 goals per game in the Premier League, and probably a dozen chances created per game. People who find the sport boring don't recognize that the defenses are a lot like a mix between basketball and lacrosse, with the use of both zones and man-to-man coverage, depending on the situation and location on the field. The precision of the passing [I]without using your hands[/I] is pretty amazing, when you think about it, with many players completing 80-90% of their passes, including 70 yard diagonal balls across the field, in a game when you are under near-constant pressure. It's a physical game, with lots of borderline dirty play that really takes a toll on the players, a lot like playing against the old Detroit "Bad Boy" Pistons when they had Bill Laimbeer. And they don't wear body armor, like they do in the NFL. I find it to be a hell of a lot more enjoyable than most US sports that revolve around television commercials constantly interrupting the action. Forty-five minutes per half, running time. The game is over in less than 2 hours. And then you can get back to your life. I love it. [/QUOTE]

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