NBA vs NFL

     I have been a basketball nut since around 3rd or 4th grade.  I remember a friend of mine drawing pictures of Shaq dunking a basketball.  He told me stories of this hulk of a man dominating the NBA.  At the time the only basketball player I knew of was Michael Jordan.  When I went home I asked my father who is the better basketball player, Shaq or Michael Jordan?  He actually managed to give it legitimate thought before finally choosing Jordan, something that seems crazy to me now.  I fell in love with the Orlando Magic, Shaq and Penny Hardaway.  I was a basketball fan.

     I'm writing this asLiv Tyler in Empire Records. Why don't they match?! a confession and then an explanation.  I have loved basketball for so long it seems odd for me to say or type the next sentence.  I think football is a better game to watch than basketball.  For some, that may have seemed obvious, but for me this is a new revelation.  Something akin to learning about Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny or that women don't always wear matching bras and panties (I would like to thank the movies for putting that in my head and Empire Records for shattering it).  Since I've come to that conclusion I've struggled with the reason why.  Basketball has that nostalgia feel for me, like Twisted Metal 2, where I have so many great memories about it I couldn't imagine a world where it isn't my favorite.  After a little history, I'll go into the reasons why I think football is a better game to watch.  You could skip right down to that if you don't care for the following.

    The good old days. I never lived in one place for very long.  I grew up knowing that any friend I make will be lost in a couple of years.  I never identified with a particular place, "America," is what I would say if someone asked me where I was from.  But if they asked me to be more specific, well I dreaded that question.  I was born in Hawaii, but then moved all around the US, Sweden, Malaysia, back to Hawaii and finally in California.  Because of this rapid change in location I never got to have a professional sports team.  Once I was old enough to really care about sports I was in Oklahoma, not really known for it's sports teams (at least not back then, GO THUNDER!).  Then it was Sweden and Malaysia, again not really known for NBA teams.  I had taken in the Orlando Magic as my surrogate team.  It was a good time, but once Shaq left I didn't have much to care about.  I liked Penny Hardaway and Nick Anderson, but I loved the team for Shaq.  Since I didn't have any affiliations with Orlando I decided to follow Shaq to the Lakers.  I had as much loyalty to him as I did to the team, since I couldn't really watch the games and the only time I heard about them was when I would return to the United States during the summer. 

The dynamic duo.The Shaq/Lakers days were ones filled with a lot of wins.  Once I was in high school Kobe had come on and they were a force to be feared.  Their rivalry with the Sacramento Kings was passed into me and I learned to hate them with a passion (and to be living spitting distance from my most hated team is pretty weird).  It got to the point where I wanted them to lose more than I wanted the Lakers to win.  After graduating high school I moved to Hawaii where I got Fox Sports West on cable and was able to watch every single game.  It was a long way from my high school days where I would leave the box score on a website during class so I could watch the score reload as my teachers tried to lecture about chemistry, math or english.

     It was after I had moved to California that things started to change.  It was gradual at first, but now I barely even watch games.  The Lakers are still a great team, but I miss them sort of being an underdog.  The one thing I hate the most in any sport is dynasties.  It was around this time that I started to play fantasy football.  Football to me was always a sport that was cool, but I never watched.  In high school the only game that would be televised would be the Super Bowl, but because of the time difference ended up being shown on a Monday morning.  Starting up fantasy football got me into the game because I never had a team to root for, but now I had players.  I had a purpose for spending a Sunday watching football.  As much as I love watching the NBA and watching the Lakers there is a sense of anxiety that comes with it.  Because I want them to win, I hate when they lose.  But in football I could care less who wins the game, only if the players do well.  A guy gets a touchdown and 40 yards, it's a success for me.  

     After about 6 years of playing fantasy football it finally dawned on me why it's such a great sport to watch.  And I mean watch, not play.  Because I would much rather play basketball.  

     Here they are, the reasons why football is a better sport to watch than basketball.  In order of how obvious the are, descending.

1. Sundays
NFL gets the majority of their games done on one day.  While they might have a Thursday, Saturday or Monday game, the majority fall on a Sunday.  A day off.  A day of rest.  A day that you can spend, uninterrupted watching games.  Most Sundays have three games to watch.  THREE.  During the season you KNOW when you can see a game and that is extremely important.  For basketball there is usually games happening every day.  How can I keep up with that?

2. Fantasy Football
This ties in with the first one, but because of this little meta game I care about football.  I not only care during the season, I care in the OFF SEASON.  I pay attention to drafts, mock drafts, expert analysis of players and schedules and anything else that might be important.  Now just playing fantasy football would do all this, but since I play with family there is even more.  Trash talking your Aunt or Uncle or young cousin is awesome.  Debating if trades between teams owned by a mother and her daughter should be allowed is awesome.  Discussing how a retired uncle might have an advantage toward Monday morning waiver wire picks is awesome.  A friendly and cheap fantasy football league can do wonders for interest in a sport, but that one was probably pretty obvious.  But what makes it better than fantasy basketball or baseball is that since all the games usually happen on the same day, you know when your lineup needs to be ready.  You can spend Tuesday and Wednesday (and usually Thursday, Friday and Saturday) because there aren't games on those days.  It doesn't need your constant attention.

3. 11 Minutes
Image from the Wall Street JournalThere was a Wall Street Journal article that dissected NFL games and found that on average the amount of actual football being played in a telecast was 11 minutes.  Everything else is split between, replays, players standing around, cheerleaders and more.  So how does that help?  When watching a game of basketball you can't take your eyes off the screen.  At any second something awesome might happen, a steal, a shot, an assist or a dunk.  And because of the frantic nature of the game there isn't always time for replays.  But in football there are pauses.  There is a break after every single play.  After every pass, there is a huddle.  That huddle gives you time to see the play again, dissect whats going on, discuss what should happen next and then prepare.  There is a freaking countdown clock telling you how soon the next play has to start.  You can read a book, talk to friends, or work on a podcast while watching an NFL game.  It is almost the perfect spectator sport because it doesn't demand that much of the viewer.