Tunescribe

Following up on World Series-related discussion from another thread, I made the following observations:

Many women embrace baseball because they understand it and shy away from football for the opposite reason. I hear this time and time again from women, "I'd like to get into football but I don't understand what's going on. It just looks like a bunch of players running into each other, falling down, getting up and doing it again."

If more women understood football -- which is a more inherently exciting, colorful, emotional and action-packed sport -- I'd bet they'd choose football over baseball. The NFL, the Patriots organization and fans like us can and should do a better job of educating women about football. The best female football fans are those who grew up watching the game with fathers and brothers took the time to explain what's going on.

I personally would LOVE to see more women getting into football and have it be less segregated, and we guys only have ourselves to blame for that not happening. One aspect of that is men using football Sunday as a reason to get away from the family/wife/girlfriend for "guy time" for a day. That's understandable to a degree, but I think we have more to lose than to gain by not encouraging them to share the passion of this sport along with us.

What are your feelings on this subject?

Na_polian

My feeling on this? The love of my life is a Packer Fan, AND Owner... I'd rather watch football with her than anyone else...

BradyManny

As I said in another thread, I disagree.

More women AND men watch football b/c it's a more exciting game, they don't play as often so it's more accessible and does not involve daily participation for 7 months.

On top of which, I don't know why women would be "confused" by football.

xmarkd400x

This poll/post is just plain silly; you just happen to be posting on a male-dominated board. To insinuate that anyone who is not a straight male does not understand (and therefore does not like) football is asinine.

Get a grip. I know plenty of girls who like both football and baseball. It just happens that more females have experience with a baseball like substance (softball) and therefore have a more fundamental understanding.

Women would learn about football if they chose to. They don't need "encouragment" to help their (seemingly implicit) feeble minds.

Tunescribe

You don't talk to many women, do you. Seriously, I've found that many women just need to be "coached up" on the basics and once they understand it, they become fans.

CTPatsFan

While my feelings when I first got my tix were along the lines of an escape from the Mrs., now I wish she were able to make it to more games. Now that we've got 4 kids it's a bit harder, but in a few years when my oldest can watch the other ones I hope to get her up to some more games so she doesn't dislike football season so much. Just as a side note, I don't keep her from going anywhere with anyone. In fact I encourage it. She just chooses not to most of the time. Yet I still get grief for going to 6-8+ games a year.

I plan on bringing my daughter to some games in a few years when she'll appreciate it a bit more. That way I can get it ingrained into her. My wife came from a baseball (NYY) family so football was always secondary. She'll watch games with me and enjoy it, in fact I brought her to the Snow Bowl Miami game and she had a blast.

I can sort of understand since I wouldn't want to be cooped up with all my kids for the day!

I see He Ban Me voted already.

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18 year STH, although games are fewer and farther between.
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PatsRI

Actually before I got married that was one of the best ways to find out if I was going to like a woman, take her to a game. Not coincidently my wife lived in CA and I was out here when we hooked up, she bought me tickets to a Monday Night SF-DET Monday Night Game and saw Montana's last game he ever played in for SF for a gift. I figured she was to be the one (though she's a Bills fan) and she sat through the Snow Bowl without complaint. Plus have you seen the Pats panties et al that they are coming out with nowadays. Very nice .

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AirForcePatFan

I grew up playing football with the guys, it's a Texas thing, and I'm a gal... I embarrass guys with football knowledge about what's going on with every team... I have guys at work that come to me for their daily football updates and of course, they can't stand me right now because my team is undefeated... lol.. You just aren't hanging out with the "right football" women, I know some other women who are knowledgable about football...

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PAPatsjunkie

Yeah, I'm a woman, and I followed football before I ever watched baseball. I'm not sure what youre getting at, that somehow women have a harder time understanding football than men? It's not that difficult to understand, my small female brain caught on pretty fast.

P.S. I am reminded of a boyfriend I had in high school, one day I had to sit him down and draw out for him how the downs work. The guy was 19 and had no idea.

patchick

Personally, I learned to like the game by watching with my dad. Of course, I didn't have any brothers. I wonder if I would have gotten the same football attention from my dad if I had? If you want football-watching women, the best way to start is raising football watching girls.

That's another whole kettle of fish, though. I've complained about this before, but the commercials that run during a 1:00pm game are nasty! You get terrifying, bloody ads for horror movies; men discussing their erectile dysfunction and women daring them to "do better"; even language you don't want your kids to pick up. On the upside, the computer-generated first-down line has been a huge boon to explaining the game to young kids. Now you can get them into the idea by just saying "they have 4 turns to try to get to the yellow line, otherwise it's the other team's turn."

BTW, I also suspect that a lot of men don't really understand football either! Perhaps they're just more likely to appreciate the violent spectacle regardless. All those videos of "the NFL's most bonecrushing hits!" do nothing for me. But the draft, ahh! The perfect combination of football and shopping.