RabidPatsFan
Practice Squad Player
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2004
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Your statement of fact is not a counterpoint. I believe both are correct.Quote:
Originally Posted by xmarkd400x
... you just happen to be posting on a male-dominated board.
Nah ... Ya think? Actually, there are some very cool female fans here at Patsfans.
Your poll has the option I'm gay/lesbian/bisexual/hermaphrodite and find this poll irrelevant . Maybe this was meant as a joke and I read too much into. I got the impression that (according to you) people who fall into those categories do not like football. I agree that a fundamental understanding is essential to enjoying the game, and for some women this is a barrier.Quote:
Originally Posted by xmarkd400x
To insinuate that anyone who is not a straight male does not understand (and therefore does not like) football is asinine.
No insinuations at all here, just the factual statement that many women shy away from the sport because they don't understand it.
Irrelevant personal attack in response to my irrelevant attack.Quote:
Originally Posted by xmarkd400x
Get a grip.
On what? Your insulting attitude? That's self-evident.
I am saying that people who play the sport as a child/teen tend to like that sport as they get older. Softball is very similar to baseball. In no way does this affect a woman's ability to understand football. Not knowing and not being able to learn are different. One of your poll options is I'm a woman and I'd like football if I could understand it . Women, as a whole can understand football. Whether they do or don't is not relevant to the discussion of could.Quote:
Originally Posted by xmarkd400x
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.
A "baseball-like substance" ... Won't go there for now, but you're contradicting yourself and reinforcing my point by suggesting that women more readily embrace baseball because it's more familiar to them.
I was saying YOU implied they had feeble minds (See previous response). I made no such implication. And no, I don't think football is any more or less complex than basketball, baseball, soccer or hockey. The barrier is that most women did not play football as a child/teen, and therefore do not develop a fundamental understanding of the sport the same way a woman might learn basketball, softball, or other sports.Quote:
Originally Posted by xmarkd400x
Women would learn about football if they chose to. They don't need "encouragment" to help their (seemingly implicit) feeble minds.
I don't understand the sports of curling or jai ali, does that mean I have a feeble mind? I'm not at all suggesting that women have feeble minds. Many of them simply feel put off by football's inherent complexity compared to other sports, and willingly become fans given an understanding of the basics and encouragement by someone who cares to share it with them.
BTW, Tom Brady has singlehandedly turned many women into football fans. My teenage niece came over with my brother in law to watch SB XXXIX. She was completely disinterested, until they did a profile on Tom Brady and she declared him a "real cutie," after which she didn't take her eyes off the TV when the Pats were on the field. She is now a Patriots fan.
I should also mention that I don't like baseball, I find it immensely boring to watch so if the Sox lose, you will have no sympathy from me... It's football and horse racing for me...
As usual, you are right on.
I believe that many women, AND many men as well, don't understand football for a number of reasons.
1: Other interests
2: Football is just plain violent.
3: You sometimes need some kind of mentor/father figure/older brother to foster that interest. Especially in Boston, which is the ONLY city in the country that follows baseball more than football.
There are certainly millions of women who watch and understand football, or at least enjoy it. Same goes for men.
Women are clearly catching up to men in football knowledge, and closing the gap BECAUSE WOMEN ARE SMART AND THEY DO WHAT THEY WANT.
I think more men can relate to a sport which involves hitting people, but there are plenty of men out there these days who are push overs and there are a lot of women who seem to be getting aggressive. But you can be a fan without participating in the underlying angry psychology of the game.
My wife and my sisters all watch football. I mentored them by taking the time to explain the game, just like I would have if they were boys.
Women are playing catch up when it comes to watching football, and the NFL will do everything to insure that most women don't ignore football like they may have twenty or thirty years ago. No problems there.
Patchick: As far as the ads that go along with football, it is a truly pathetic and disgraceful sign of the times that we live in. What burns my ass is when they show dead women on those atrocious CSI commercials at noon time on Sunday. WE GET IT ALREADY. This vile crap has no place on TV, and ads have no right to show disturbing images at noon on Sunday.
This issue goes way beyond what your politics are (I don't support either political party, BTW).
There are definitely more women following and understanding football than ever before...and this is a very good thing. There is nothing more exciting than football.
When Schaeffer Stadium first opened, when I would go to the ladies room, there would be literally no one in there. That doesn't mean there were no women at the stadium...they were just few and far between.
Edited to add that there are many rabid and knowledgeable female football fans on this forum.
I'm a woman and I fell in love with football when I was 7 years old and I learned the game at the knee of my Mom.
All I could see was the spitting. Spitting on the floor, spitting on their hands, spitting on the field...there's just a constant stream of goo coming from those men's mouths. The only guys not spitting were the ones chewing giant wads of gum with their mouths open. What the heck???
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?