15 November 2008
Why Do Americans Love College Sports?
Although Yanks and Habs have lots in common, interest in sports couldn’t be more different. Here’s a quick summary of obvious differences between both countries.
Health Care. Canadians pay nothing. Americans pay through the nose. Better buy insurance
Crime. Canadians are law abiding. Americans love gangs, high school shootings and serial killers
War. Canadians prefers peacekeeping initiatives. Americans love to go in “guns-a-blazing” accompanied with ton of military celebrations, salutes and warplane flybys at sporting events. Why Americans demand five F-16s zoom by during a football game is a mystery
Patriotism. Canadians love Canada, but keep it modest. Americans love the US, but suffocate you with flags, military badges and military recruit media everywhere you look
Respect. The world respects Canada due to its wealth, global assistance and peaceful nature. Canada consistently ranks in global surveys ahead of the US in almost all positive issues. The world respects the US due to its wealth, military aggression and constant showcasing of new weapons and bombs
Sports. Canadians prefer professional sports. Mostly hockey with a dabbling in basketball, baseball and both CFL and NFL football. Americans love any sport….. pro sports, Little League World Series, monster truck rallies, eating contests and especially college sports.
It’s sickening how much Americans love college sports. But with so much money gambled on these games, it’s no wonder. Yanks love to bet and what better place than college sports with their million teams, divisions and no-name players? It’s actually pretty funny. When I chat with US colleagues at work in social settings, they always bring up college sports. They bring up how much they love the Hawkeyes and so on, but when you dig down, they actually know little about the team itself. They know almost none of the players (except usually the QB and the main WR or RB) and know even less about rival teams. I’m not expecting them to remember all teams, rosters and coaches, but stop being a phoney. As a sports fan, I know much more about the league and teams.
So why do Yanks love college sports? I’m thinking three things.
Gambling. No different than the occasional NCAA pool here in Canada. Everyone in the office joins in by throwing in $10, but only 1% of the poolies know anything. It’s no different than the US, believe me. Except the money accumulated is about 100x as much
Nothing better to cheer for. A good portion of teams play in college towns. Strip away the college or university, and the town is likely a barren wasteland of deathbed manufacturing, cheap wooden housing and hints of Deliverance
Love of war. Why does it seem every war in the past 200 years involves the US? They love anything where two sides butt heads. Bowling, competitive fly-fishing, lawnmowing contests, you name it
We love college sports because
1. They play for the love of the game… Most do. Very few go pro.
2. We pull for our states team. You grow up, and you pull for one of your states teams. It is pretty simple, and fun.
3. Our sports Basketball, Baseball, and Football are played at the highest level. Why would you not want to watch these athletes at every level.
I will put it in hockey terms for you. Imagine there were fifty Canadian states, and everyone of your states had college hockey teams ( Note that in this analogy there is a rule that no player can be drafted into the NHL until they are 20, so they will all play at least 2 years of college hockey before they go pro ). Now imagine that Gretzky at age 19 just joined a college in your state. How pumped would you be, and how often would you watch it. You would go insane, and that is why we love college sports.
Michael Jordan played college ball @ North Carolina. Bo Jackson played college ball @ Auburn. Almost all of our sports heroes played college ball.
As for the phonies, you find them in every sports.