is it just me or does football require the least skill of all the major sports?

[JS80]

Originally posted by: bobross419
Football blows... Stupid football season coming back... everyone in the office will talk about nothing but big sweaty guys grabbing each other, bunch of homos. Not to mention the bullshit "Wear your team jersey" days. What about something for those of us that hate football... how about a "Wear your favorite video game shirt" or something? Stupid bullshit sport. And the only people that require skill are the QB and the coaches. The fat tubs of lard that just plant their fat selves in the middle of the field like a sumo wrestler playing king of the hill only need the skill most detested by Blahblah - uber leet eating skills.

Get the pitchforks!!

 

[PimpJuice]

Why is everyone taking this thread seriously?

Its opening week of the NLF, this is obviously a troll thread from a nonathletic nerd who's never played sports in his life.

 

[bobross419]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: bobross419

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: bobross419
Football blows... Stupid football season coming back... everyone in the office will talk about nothing but big sweaty guys grabbing each other, bunch of homos. Not to mention the bullshit "Wear your team jersey" days. What about something for those of us that hate football... how about a "Wear your favorite video game shirt" or something? Stupid bullshit sport. And the only people that require skill are the QB and the coaches. The fat tubs of lard that just plant their fat selves in the middle of the field like a sumo wrestler playing king of the hill only need the skill most detested by Blahblah - uber leet eating skills.

obvious troll is obvious

Not trying to troll... just hate football and all the omg i love football crap that people have to put up with. Felt like bitching here because I'd get fired for bitching the way I want to bitch at work.

that was definitely a troll....baseless criticisms of pro athletes in the same breath mentioning wanting to wear your favorite video game shirt. :thumbsdown:

Call it whatever you want then... I wear my "This is why I'm hot"-Mario-Flower T-shirt wihle I'm porking your mom. Oh and football players all have jock itch...

Theres a troll post for you

 

[BlackTigers]

Go run a route.

Run full speed, sprint, and head fake right and twist on your left foot 90 degrees with minimal slow down, while instantly scanning for a ball to lay out for.

Or try being a safety and reading the QBs eyes from 15 yards out, while simultaneously reading the defense to find the coverage you need to take.

Yupp, no skill....

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
Ok fine, when players are ON the field it takes quite a bit of skill. So your point is that people are sitting down doing nothing half the time in baseball...

Nope, my point is that 99% of the entire game 95% of the players are engaging in doing nothing except planning on how they're going to blow their next paycheck. The other 5% of the players the remaining 1% of the time are going to hope they get lucky and either connect bat-to-ball, avoid connecting said bat-to-ball, or otherwise be in the right place at the right time when said ball has been luckily connected to by said bat.

Sure, there's a few little nuances of "Hmm... do I run now?", or "Which base am I supposed to throw this to again?" But those brief moments in an otherwise unremarkable "sport" pale in comparison to the amount of physical and mental effort, intelligence, skill, athleticism, strategic planning on an individual and team part, logistical effort, fortitude and endurance required in American football.

America's Pastime requires about as much skill as a 3rd grader would need to muster in order to play. I would say patience, attention and luck are the only real skill requirements necessary for baseball. Anyone can hit a ball with a stick sometimes.

 

[bobross419]

Originally posted by: BlackTigers
Go run a route.

Run full speed, sprint, and head fake right and twist on your left foot 90 degrees with minimal slow down, while instantly scanning for a ball to lay out for.

Or try being a safety and reading the QBs eyes from 15 yards out, while simultaneously reading the defense to find the coverage you need to take.

Yupp, no skill....

No sweat.

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: evident

Originally posted by: HopJokey
Four major sports in the U.S.A:

Baseball
Basketball
Football
Hockey

Which of the four requires the least skill? All of them require a tremendous level of skill at the top pro level, but the question is which requires the least to be successful (which can you rely on your physical attributes the most in)?

I dont know ingeneral, but if you look at shaq, he basically just uses his height to just dunk balls in. i dont think he has that much skill as an athlete. look at him trying to do a jumpshot, foul shot , or anything besides muscle his way in and dunk.

You don't think that takes skill?? There have been many very tall and large players similar in size to Shaq but yet most of them don't even come close to his ability. All sports require skill, even more so at the professional level.

Next we'll hear about how tennis and golf are'nt real sports

 

[PepePeru]

it's just you

 

[lyssword]

Originally posted by: sao123

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo

Originally posted by: Crono

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo

Originally posted by: Feldenak

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo

Originally posted by: SunnyD
Guess you haven't watched baseball or golf, have you?

guess you don't read thread titles, do you?

and baseball requires much more skill than most give it credit for. i'd say it's probably the hardest of all major sports.

Again, different skill sets for different sports. There's much more to football than pure athletic ability. I'd say baseball is a much less mentally taxing than football though because it's the least team oriented. As a fielder you don't really have to worry abuot what the guy beside you or across from you is going to do (pitchers excepted). With football, you have to understand what your teammate is going to do and when he's going to do it (ie. do I have contain on this play? do I have help over the top?).

I have a hard time believing you're quite this dense and am leaning towards this being a troll post.

why are you bringing up any mental aspects of anything? this is purely about physical skill.

Are you an idiot? Physical skill is tied to mental skill. Otherwise you could just bring in gorillas to play all our sports.

ok, then everything can be considered mental then, since every action requires our brain to control it.

you're bringing up the intelligence part of the game.
i'm speaking merely of the physical aspect.

well then if you put it that way, if you remove the intelligence from the game, baseball is a zero skill game.

Given significant strength, any man can throw a ball 90+ mph, and any man can swing a bat and hit that ball.
the intelligence factor is what allows a pitcher to throw different pitches to confuse the batter, and the intelligence factor is what gives the batter the reaction time to know to either swing/not to swing, and where to swing and how hard.

Either way, football requires more skill, intelligence, and physique than baseball for any part of the game.

Wrong, I've seen a rugby player that could easily throw 200lb men throw a cricket ball only 45 mph. It actually takes a lot of training/flexibility/muscle memory etc..

 

[Arkitech]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: HopJokey
Four major sports in the U.S.A:

Baseball
Basketball
Football
Hockey

Which of the four requires the least skill? All of them require a tremendous level of skill at the top pro level, but the question is which requires the least to be successful (which can you rely on your physical attributes the most in)?

I'd say add soccer to the list and soccer and basketball are pretty much the only sports anyone can just get on the field and play. Basketball a little more difficult.

Please come visit my gym sometime so that I might smite thee..

seriously though anybody can shoot a ball with noone guarding them, but put a group of semi-talented players on a court and chances are if you don't have any skill you won't be able to even dribble or get off a shot.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: MotF Bane
OP fails.

This whole thread fails. The original premise - the thread title - "is it just me or does football require the least skill of all the major sports?" was fine. But then the OP decides to imply that most of the positions in football don't require skill. - FAIL

*HOWEVER* - besides the argument that each sport has its own set of skills (obvious, and irrelevant), one of the 4 major sports requires the most skill and one of the 4 major sports (played in the USA, otherwise hockey would be irrelevant & replaced by soccer) requires the least amount of skill.

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Football (#3) is arguably THE hardest sport along with ice hockey(#2), basketball (#4), and boxing (#1)according to ESPN Analysts and I agree with them. To say football takes no skill shows you are either a) a troll b) ignorant c) mental midget. Or you could be an ignorant, trolling mental midget who knows?

Text

Yep, the hardest sport. Great link, because when you go there and compare *only the categories which could be regarded as skill rather than physical ability*, then football does indeed come in last compared to the other three sports.

OP is right in that football requires the least of the 4 sports, however it still requires an incredible amount of skill to play at the professional level.

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Football (#3) is arguably THE hardest sport along with ice hockey(#2), basketball (#4), and boxing (#1)according to ESPN Analysts and I agree with them. To say football takes no skill shows you are either a) a troll b) ignorant c) mental midget. Or you could be an ignorant, trolling mental midget who knows?

Text

You seem to be missing the difference between athleticism and skill.
The ESPN article you linked to breaks athleticism into 10 categories: endurance (not a skill), strength (not a skill), power (not a skill), speed (not a skill), agility (not a skill), flexibility (not a skill), nerve (nonsense category for the sake of boosting boxing and rodeo), durability (not a skill), hand eye coordination - a skill, analytic ability - a skill

Since you're posting ESPN's article, and assuming that ESPN rated these categories objectively, then the OP is partially correct. Of these 4 sports, football DOES require the least amount of skill. The OP is incredibly wrong by claiming that football doesn't require skill though.

Straight from the ESPN site:
Sport/eye-hand/analytic aptitude:
Football / 5.50 / 7.13
Baseball / 9.25 / 6.25
Basketball / 7.50 / 7.30
Hockey / 7.50 / 7.50

Football loses this round.

QED

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: MotF Bane
OP fails.

This whole thread fails. The original premise - the thread title - "is it just me or does football require the least skill of all the major sports?" was fine. But then the OP decides to imply that most of the positions in football don't require skill. - FAIL

*HOWEVER* - besides the argument that each sport has its own set of skills (obvious, and irrelevant), one of the 4 major sports requires the most skill and one of the 4 major sports (played in the USA, otherwise hockey would be irrelevant & replaced by soccer) requires the least amount of skill.

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Football (#3) is arguably THE hardest sport along with ice hockey(#2), basketball (#4), and boxing (#1)according to ESPN Analysts and I agree with them. To say football takes no skill shows you are either a) a troll b) ignorant c) mental midget. Or you could be an ignorant, trolling mental midget who knows?

Text

Yep, the hardest sport. Great link, because when you go there and compare *only the categories which could be regarded as skill rather than physical ability*, then football does indeed come in last compared to the other three sports.

OP is right in that football requires the least of the 4 sports, however it still requires an incredible amount of skill to play at the professional level.

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Football (#3) is arguably THE hardest sport along with ice hockey(#2), basketball (#4), and boxing (#1)according to ESPN Analysts and I agree with them. To say football takes no skill shows you are either a) a troll b) ignorant c) mental midget. Or you could be an ignorant, trolling mental midget who knows?

Text

You seem to be missing the difference between athleticism and skill.
The ESPN article you linked to breaks athleticism into 10 categories: endurance (not a skill), strength (not a skill), power (not a skill), speed (not a skill), agility (not a skill), flexibility (not a skill), nerve (nonsense category for the sake of boosting boxing and rodeo), durability (not a skill), hand eye coordination - a skill, analytic ability - a skill

Since you're posting ESPN's article, and assuming that ESPN rated these categories objectively, then the OP is partially correct. Of these 4 sports, football DOES require the least amount of skill. The OP is incredibly wrong by claiming that football doesn't require skill though.

Straight from the ESPN site:
Sport/eye-hand/analytic aptitude:
Football / 5.50 / 7.13
Baseball / 9.25 / 6.25
Basketball / 7.50 / 7.30
Hockey / 7.50 / 7.50

Football loses this round.

QED

To argue that football is easier is to argue that it would take a professional basketball player less time to be *Good* at football as it would a professional football player to be *good* at basketball.

It is non-sense. It takes just as much practice in each sport to be good at it.

Passing the ball is a skill, yes, but it is a very easy to pick up skill. Even shooting free-throws isn't a terribly hard skill to pick up.

However, running a route, staying in position, planning on what to do next as fast as possible. Those are the real challenges in basketball and football, and those are the things that professional players would struggle the hardest at learning.

I would admit that basketball probably requires more skills/per player. However, if we weighted the skills on difficulty to learn, I would put the two sports on equal ground. Running a play as a team is much harder then having a one man show. In football, it is impossible to be good without having a good team. One man can't carry the team. In basketball, it happens all the time.

Baseball is a sport I would rank low on the skillset level. Players have to know how to throw a ball and catch it. Thats it. Even the "Run, don't run" Thing of being on base really isn't too hard to learn. Perhaps the most difficult skill in baseball is how to hit a ball going 90mph

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: sao123

well then if you put it that way, if you remove the intelligence from the game, baseball is a zero skill game.

Given significant strength, any man can throw a ball 90+ mph, and any man can swing a bat and hit that ball.
the intelligence factor is what allows a pitcher to throw different pitches to confuse the batter, and the intelligence factor is what gives the batter the reaction time to know to either swing/not to swing, and where to swing and how hard.

Either way, football requires more skill, intelligence, and physique than baseball for any part of the game.

Yes, that's why every person who decides to play baseball becomes a superstar... oh wait, that doesn't happen at all.

Sure, lots of people can throw 85 - 95 mph, but few people can locate those throws 60 ft 6 inches away accurately enough to not get lit up by good hitters. Fewer people can throw things like curveballs, cutters, sliders, or changeups. Even fewer people can throw that fast and that accurately for 100+ pitchers. Of those few people, only a few have the mental toughness to trust their stuff after getting a rocked or giving up a big hit.

As for hitting, I don't see how you can say that it's luck. Identifying pitch type, figuring out where it is headed, and getting your body in position to hit it is really really freaking difficult. There's a reason that guys like Pujols only come around once every few generations... the guy is talented and busts his ass every day to be a better hitter.

Basically, your argument is so full of fail that it hurts.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Arkitech

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: HopJokey
Four major sports in the U.S.A:

Baseball
Basketball
Football
Hockey

Which of the four requires the least skill? All of them require a tremendous level of skill at the top pro level, but the question is which requires the least to be successful (which can you rely on your physical attributes the most in)?

I'd say add soccer to the list and soccer and basketball are pretty much the only sports anyone can just get on the field and play. Basketball a little more difficult.

Please come visit my gym sometime so that I might smite thee..

seriously though anybody can shoot a ball with noone guarding them, but put a group of semi-talented players on a court and chances are if you don't have any skill you won't be able to even dribble or get off a shot.

Hey man I played HS basketball, I know. But half the game is defense and you don't necessarily need Reggie Miller on your team to win. I love pick up games where you have the scrappy guy on your team that has Rodman defense and rebounding but can't dribble or shoot the ball better than a 6 year old girl.

 

[lxskllr]

Football sucks. You have 10 seconds of intense action, and then nothing. Everybody lines up to try again :^S

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Football sucks. You have 10 seconds of intense action, and then nothing. Everybody lines up to try again :^S

Soccer sucks, you have 10 minutes of a guy rolling around the field trying to get a yellow card, and another ten minutes of everyone waiting for the ball to get to the other side of the field.

Baseball sucks, you have 20 seconds, IF the baseball player hits the ball, of some guy running in a circle, then nothing. You wait for the next guy to come up an try and hit the ball.

Cricket sucks, you have 3 days of people just standing there while one guy tries to hit a block off some pegs and another guy tries to stop that from happening. Tones of down time.

Basketball sucks, you have 2 minutes of intense play, then a time out is called, a tv timeout is call, someone fouls, or the ref needs a breather. then people run back and forth on the court.

Tennis sucks, you have two people hitting a ball back and forth to each other for about 20 seconds, then nothing until the next person decides to serve.

Golf sucks, do I really have to explain why?

Bowling sucks, see golf.

Every sport has down time and low moments. You as a player, you become just a tired playing football as you do playing basketball (and yes, I've played both).

 

[bobross419]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Football sucks. You have 10 seconds of intense action, and then nothing. Everybody lines up to try again :^S

Soccer sucks, you have 10 minutes of a guy rolling around the field trying to get a yellow card, and another ten minutes of everyone waiting for the ball to get to the other side of the field.

Baseball sucks, you have 20 seconds, IF the baseball player hits the ball, of some guy running in a circle, then nothing. You wait for the next guy to come up an try and hit the ball.

Cricket sucks, you have 3 days of people just standing there while one guy tries to hit a block off some pegs and another guy tries to stop that from happening. Tones of down time.

Basketball sucks, you have 2 minutes of intense play, then a time out is called, a tv timeout is call, someone fouls, or the ref needs a breather. then people run back and forth on the court.

Tennis sucks, you have two people hitting a ball back and forth to each other for about 20 seconds, then nothing until the next person decides to serve.

Golf sucks, do I really have to explain why?

Bowling sucks, see golf.

Every sport has down time and low moments. You as a player, you become just a tired playing football as you do playing basketball (and yes, I've played both).

Sounds about right

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: sao123

well then if you put it that way, if you remove the intelligence from the game, baseball is a zero skill game.

Given significant strength, any man can throw a ball 90+ mph, and any man can swing a bat and hit that ball.
the intelligence factor is what allows a pitcher to throw different pitches to confuse the batter, and the intelligence factor is what gives the batter the reaction time to know to either swing/not to swing, and where to swing and how hard.

Either way, football requires more skill, intelligence, and physique than baseball for any part of the game.

Yes, that's why every person who decides to play baseball becomes a superstar... oh wait, that doesn't happen at all.

Sure, lots of people can throw 85 - 95 mph, but few people can locate those throws 60 ft 6 inches away accurately enough to not get lit up by good hitters. Fewer people can throw things like curveballs, cutters, sliders, or changeups. Even fewer people can throw that fast and that accurately for 100+ pitchers. Of those few people, only a few have the mental toughness to trust their stuff after getting a rocked or giving up a big hit.

As for hitting, I don't see how you can say that it's luck. Identifying pitch type, figuring out where it is headed, and getting your body in position to hit it is really really freaking difficult. There's a reason that guys like Pujols only come around once every few generations... the guy is talented and busts his ass every day to be a better hitter.

Basically, your argument is so full of fail that it hurts.

It takes less than half a second for the ball to go from the pitchers hand to the plate, there is no time to identify the pitch type or location. Most hitters hit .200-.250 which is 1 per 4 or 5. Every hit is pure reaction and luck.
if you take the time to think about should i swing...the ball is already past you.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: lyssword

Originally posted by: sao123
Given significant strength, any man can throw a ball 90+ mph, and any man can swing a bat and hit that ball.
the intelligence factor is what allows a pitcher to throw different pitches to confuse the batter, and the intelligence factor is what gives the batter the reaction time to know to either swing/not to swing, and where to swing and how hard.

Either way, football requires more skill, intelligence, and physique than baseball for any part of the game.

Wrong, I've seen a rugby player that could easily throw 200lb men throw a cricket ball only 45 mph. It actually takes a lot of training/flexibility/muscle memory etc..

yup, throwing is not about strength as it is form.

 

[IronWing]

baseball
golf

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: sao123

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: sao123

well then if you put it that way, if you remove the intelligence from the game, baseball is a zero skill game.

Given significant strength, any man can throw a ball 90+ mph, and any man can swing a bat and hit that ball.
the intelligence factor is what allows a pitcher to throw different pitches to confuse the batter, and the intelligence factor is what gives the batter the reaction time to know to either swing/not to swing, and where to swing and how hard.

Either way, football requires more skill, intelligence, and physique than baseball for any part of the game.

Yes, that's why every person who decides to play baseball becomes a superstar... oh wait, that doesn't happen at all.

Sure, lots of people can throw 85 - 95 mph, but few people can locate those throws 60 ft 6 inches away accurately enough to not get lit up by good hitters. Fewer people can throw things like curveballs, cutters, sliders, or changeups. Even fewer people can throw that fast and that accurately for 100+ pitchers. Of those few people, only a few have the mental toughness to trust their stuff after getting a rocked or giving up a big hit.

As for hitting, I don't see how you can say that it's luck. Identifying pitch type, figuring out where it is headed, and getting your body in position to hit it is really really freaking difficult. There's a reason that guys like Pujols only come around once every few generations... the guy is talented and busts his ass every day to be a better hitter.

Basically, your argument is so full of fail that it hurts.

It takes less than half a second for the ball to go from the pitchers hand to the plate, there is no time to identify the pitch type or location. Most hitters hit .200-.250 which is 1 per 4 or 5. Every hit is pure reaction and luck.
if you take the time to think about should i swing...the ball is already past you.

wow, just wow.
yeah, they're just swinging randomly and praying they'll make contact.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
is it just me or does the OP's use the least thought of all the major posters

your attempt to be funny and incorrect grammar failed miserably.

 

[TheVrolok]

Absurd thread is absurd.

 

[Miramonti]

Football takes a lot of skill at the professional level but is also a very dangerous sport with heavy impacting on every play, which makes all positions significantly more challenging to execute than sports which have extremely limited contact like baseball and even soccer.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: z1ggy
Sounds like somebody got picked on a little too much by the football players in HS...Maybe just a few too many swirlies?

or perhaps maybe a few too many bend over this won`t hurt a bit...while taking a shower in the mens locker room...