Can football do this?

[BmoreMatt]

Would this thread have been made if the Orioles were the same team as they were the previous 15 years?

Nope.

Football is the most perfectly set up sport. When they play their games, how they play it, where they play it... it's the ideal sport for marketing.

Teams fluctuate in football so much. You see new competitive teams every year. You're more likely to make a run.

This run by the O's is awesome, but it's also their first in 15 years.

I'm a Detroit Lions fan. I like them just as much as the O's.

But watching that Lions playoff game was so much more incredible than watching the Orioles game last night. And that water cooler talk is nonsense. There is more water cooler talk with the NFL every given day, Hell, even in the offseason there is more than with baseball.

Baseball is great, but NFL is just in a whole different stratosphere. And I'm not talking about my personal opinion of which sport I like more, because I like them equally. Hell, the NBA has caught up with baseball at this point, when it comes to popularity, excitement and stars.

I have just had a totally different experience. In my previous post I mentioned my experience last night and how it was .. I'll just admit it better than the 2000 Ravens experience and it was only one game! This coming from a Ravens season ticket holder since 1996 who has the Ravens shield tattooed on his right shoulder.

I'm not going to make sweeping generalizations because, like I said I just don't know anymore. I used to agree that football was the best game ever invented. Now I just have no idea.

Just to show how different opinions are, in mine basketball is hot garbage.

[BmoreMatt]

Football doesnt have the bases loaded 3-2 pitch that has foul balls to build the tension. Nothing like that in sports. No clock. I love it more than anything else in sports.

I agree with that. The other thing besides tailgating and physicality that I like more about football is the ability to score on defense. I guess being a Ravens fan will do that to ya. For years, we would root for other teams to not score while we are on offense, just punt and get the D back on the field so we have a better chance of scoring.

[Munson]

Football doesnt have the bases loaded 3-2 pitch that has foul balls to build the tension. Nothing like that in sports. No clock. I love it more than anything else in sports.

That is true, Roy. But, baseball doesn't have have game winning drives with less than two minutes remaining like the Ravens had against the Steelers last year. IMO, it doesn't get anymore tense than that. Each sport has something the other doesn't. They are both great.

[MichiganOriole]

Would this thread have been made if the Orioles were the same team as they were the previous 15 years?

Nope.

Football is the most perfectly set up sport. When they play their games, how they play it, where they play it... it's the ideal sport for marketing.

Teams fluctuate in football so much. You see new competitive teams every year. You're more likely to make a run.

This run by the O's is awesome, but it's also their first in 15 years.

I'm a Detroit Lions fan. I like them just as much as the O's.

But watching that Lions playoff game was so much more incredible than watching the Orioles game last night. And that water cooler talk is nonsense. There is more water cooler talk with the NFL every given day, Hell, even in the offseason there is more than with baseball.

Baseball is great, but NFL is just in a whole different stratosphere. And I'm not talking about my personal opinion of which sport I like more, because I like them equally. Hell, the NBA has caught up with baseball at this point, when it comes to popularity, excitement and stars.

First of all, I was convinced I was the only Lions fan on this board. Interesting. I love football, college and pro. But baseball (and college basketball, to a lesser extent) is just better because you play every day. Each baseball game is an individual thing. When I watch the Astros play the Giants, I can't say "I know the Astros are going to win". When I watch MSU play Eastern Michigan or someone, it's a different tale.

[TGO]

Football doesnt have the bases loaded 3-2 pitch that has foul balls to build the tension. Nothing like that in sports. No clock. I love it more than anything else in sports.

Earl said it best. "You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."

[Munson]

Earl said it best. "You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."

Seriously? That isn't a very good argument on why baseball is better than football.

[DrungoHazewood]

Would this thread have been made if the Orioles were the same team as they were the previous 15 years?

Nope.

Football is the most perfectly set up sport. When they play their games, how they play it, where they play it... it's the ideal sport for marketing.

Teams fluctuate in football so much. You see new competitive teams every year. You're more likely to make a run.

This run by the O's is awesome, but it's also their first in 15 years.

I'm a Detroit Lions fan. I like them just as much as the O's.

But watching that Lions playoff game was so much more incredible than watching the Orioles game last night. And that water cooler talk is nonsense. There is more water cooler talk with the NFL every given day, Hell, even in the offseason there is more than with baseball.

Baseball is great, but NFL is just in a whole different stratosphere. And I'm not talking about my personal opinion of which sport I like more, because I like them equally. Hell, the NBA has caught up with baseball at this point, when it comes to popularity, excitement and stars.

See, I just couldn't disagree more. When I was a kid I was almost as much a Redskins fan as a Orioles fan. But you know what happened when both teams got real bad for a real long time? I stopped watching the NFL, but my interest in baseball never really waned. It fell off a bit the last few years of the 14-year skid, but nothing like the NFL. The Redskins awfulness just highlighted the flaws in the NFL. The ridiculous, constant hyperhype machine. The exploding transformers on every cut to commercial. The Up With People Dancers and WWF/Monster Truck-levels of halftime absurdity. The willful ignorance of the announcers: a pretty complicated game is relentlessly marketed as a bunch of southern farm boys drawing plays in the dirt and gettin' 'er done. PED abuse on levels that would make Bonds blush (either that or a whole new branch of human evolution, since linemen have grown by about 30% over the past 20 years). Former players dying in their 40s and 50s of old-age diseases and nobody really cares.

I look at the NFL as a kind of bubblegum pop music, or high-budget Hollywood action film. Constant big-budget marketing of something hollow and fake.

And actually, I've long been a huge college football fan, but even that's fading away. Tech lost pretty badly today, as they did last week, and it didn't even phase me. It's gotten to the point where I can watch football, and enjoy it, but I don't think I really even like the idea of football. If that makes any sense.

[simplysupreme]

Both sports have things that make them special as fan and I appreciate both for those things. I bet if you asked outside of a baseball forum though, it wouldn't even be close.

[waroriole]

Both sports have things that make them special as fan and I appreciate both for those things. I bet if you asked outside of a baseball forum though, it wouldn't even be close.

People are stupid. If you ask people, the majority will say they like Leno over Letterman. They'd rather watch Big Bang Theory over Community. American Idol was one of the most popular shows.

[SrMeowMeow]

People are stupid. If you ask people, the majority will say they like Leno over Letterman. They'd rather watch Big Bang Theory over Community. American Idol was one of the most popular shows.

This is your argument for the stupidity of the human race? The margins between Community over Big Bang over Community and Letterman over Leno define the gap between intelligence and stupidity?

??

Community!?

[Art Wing]

NO, football can not do this.

[mojmann]

People are stupid. If you ask people, the majority will say they like Leno over Letterman. They'd rather watch Big Bang Theory over Community. American Idol was one of the most popular shows.

So true. Popularity does not necessarily equal quality. Heavy metal and rap sell way more than jazz. Does that mean they are better art forms? Same with baseball and football.

Although, I think we are overlooking a real baseball renaissance that's happening right under our noses. In revenue, baseball now eclipses the NBA and NHL combined.

[mojmann]

Seriously? That isn't a very good argument on why baseball is better than football.

Seriously .... quite seriously.

[frankpembleton]

I love the Orioles and Ravens equally. Not sure why we always have to pit one team or one sport against the other. Happens a lot on here.

Here's what I think about each:

Football is an event. 16 games - all incredibly important. The atmosphere surrounding that single game every week in Baltimore is incredible - as good as anywhere in the NFL and most big college football towns. The NFL is a much easier sport to follow when your team is bad. The season is shorter, quick turnarounds for bad teams are much more prevalent, so it makes following your team even in bad years easier. Different teams are in the playoffs every year, but well-run teams like the Ravens and Patriots and Steelers can still maintain long runs of success. I do admit that the organization and atmosphere surrounding Ravens games is unique, however. I don't feel that Redskins fans or Giants fans or Bears fans or or really understand what it is like at M&T on gameday, for instance.

Baseball is a better sport to follow (though not necessarily watch a single game of) when your team is winning. There's something to watch every single night which is just awesome. It's a more fun sport to talk about with people. You can't duplicate the pennant race in football. The back and forth between teams, the day to day storylines, just cannot be duplicated in football.

Baseball is definitely more about the journey then the end result (for me at least). To me the Orioles, just by making every regular season game count this year and being into contention have been wildly successful this year. If they can keep my interest late into September, even if they miss the playoffs, that is really all I care about. Everything else is just icing on the cake. But seriously, you couldn't pay me to watch a baseball game (Orioles or otherwise) past the All Star game last year after 13 consecutive losing seasons preceding that one.

To me the excitement of playoff baseball and NFL football is a wash when your team is involved.

[Munson]

So true. Popularity does not necessarily equal quality. Heavy metal and rap sell way more than jazz. Does that mean they are better art forms? Same with baseball and football.

Although, I think we are overlooking a real baseball renaissance that's happening right under our noses. In revenue, baseball now eclipses the NBA and NHL combined.

Does it mean they are worse art forms just because they sell more?