This encapsulates a large part of my argument. Your heart is with the Cubs, but your television is tuned to the Red Zone.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

This is slightly interesting but totally irrelevant. The NFL dominates TV ratings because people want to watch football. Baseball has tried to make itself as ubiquitous as the NFL but it cannot do so because it is not as popular. With the notable exception of the Superbowl, people are not watching the NFL to see commercials. The extent to which NFL owners profit off football is reflective of their business savvy and the sport's largely unchallenged stature in American culture.

Further, your assertion that "the whole argument for the 'popularity' of football is based upon TV eyes" is false, as my initial post in this thread demonstrates. Harris has polled Americans every year since 1985 about their favorite sports. The NFL has won every year.

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People "want" to watch football because it's easy. The same way they "want" to eat McDonald's.



You think those things are unrelated? America's pastime isn't any sport. It's watching television. Football has simply been packaged for TV better than just about anything else.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I don't know what your point is about football being easy to consume. It's just as easy to consume baseball. But people choose not to do so because they don't like it as much.

And yeah, people watch TV. So what? They also attend high school, college and pro football games by the millions. Even before there was television or a fully formed NFL, it was likely football was America's favorite sport. Academic history is full of references to "football riots" in the 1920s, 30s and 40s across university campuses. Colleges were frequently shut down after games because students were "too intense" in their passions for football. This cultural context allowed the NFL to ascend to the position of cultural hegemony that it now enjoys. People obviously consume football differently than they did 80 years ago, but these changes have only enhanced its popularity.

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Put me down for Baseball

Just remember JORR, less can be more.

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First off, it isn't as easy to consume. Baseball happens at a time of year when people are doing all kinds of other things and the games are everyday. There isn't the same imperative to view a single game as there is with football.

It's not a matter of "not liking it as much". People relate to the two sports and the teams they root for within those sports in completely different ways. Like jimmypasta said, his favorite team is the Cubs but his favorite sport is football. Huh? That sounds like a contradiction, but it really isn't. If he's getting polled, he's answering football. But what does that mean? I've seen him rant and rave in Cub threads like a possessed lunatic, yet nothing he has ever said about football stands out in any way. He may claim to be a bigger football fan, but his words and actions suggest he is far more passionate about baseball. Football is something he likes to watch on Sundays in the fall and maybe on Thursdays if his wife hasn't made a reservation at Cooper's Hawk. (Maybe they'll have the game on in the bar.)

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

i don't think Coopers Hawk has a bar...

Like September and October when baseball is having their most important part of the season?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

There are fewer and fewer of those fans. Baseball isn't drawing the interest of young kids.

I really don't understand why JORR categorizes people as not being emotionally invested in football. Every Sunday, I talk to 3 or 4 different family members and a few friends from back in Chicago on the phone solely about the Bears. These are people I wouldn't normally talk to all that often, but our love for the Bears causes us to be in touch every week during football. I don't think people "love" baseball anymore than they "love" football. The evidence you present is anecdotal, and it's not accurate.

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If we take the entire south, what percentage of people live and die with a college or pro football team compared to a MLB team?

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Which is why we need steroids now more than ever

Why do people keep writing about this? If you fed naked girls to wild animals every Sunday afternoon, the ratings would be through the roof. Who gives a fuck? Most of the population is comprised of ignorant savages just biding time between masturbation sessions.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

i think the fact that JORR has kept this up for so long is extremely impressive

(checks watch)

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-- source

There's nothing wrong with the anecdotal. People love the Bears so much most of them can't be bothered to drive ten minutes to watch them in person once every three seasons.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

_________________

False.

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It is rather impressive. I don't think he believes it anymore (if he ever did), but he's not going to quit.

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it is my firm belief that JORR's work in the airline dress code/football=tv show threads is unparalleled in the history of message boarding.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Well, just claiming something doesn't make it true. Actions are important. We have guys on this board who probably call themselves bigger football fans for purposes of a poll. Some of them never attend a single football game, yet they manage to see the Cubs a few times each year and even drive up to Milwaukee to see them. There's a disconnect somewhere there. If you really like football so much, how can it be that you don't ever care about seeing it live? And the answer is, you're a fan of a TV show. That's fine. I like Boardwalk Empire. I'm not embarrassed about it. And I'm not telling you that I'm a fan of Atlantic City circa 1930. I'm a fan of a TV show.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I heard that his cousin Jeremiah Orr Road Rod did similar work on a Southern Sports message board regarding whether you have to wear a bib while eating ribs and the always controversial croc vs alligator hunting popularity contest.

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It's factual. Most people who claim to be NFL fans never attend an NFL game. Many of them live within close driving distance of a stadium. Then we get the "it costs too much" or "it's too much of a hassle" argument. And to that I say, of course, because you really aren't as big a fan as you claim to be. It's a hassle for Bagels to come from Homer Glen to Humboldt Park to see a band he loves and then make it over to Empty Bottle to see another and then go back home and do it again the next day. It's expensive too. But he's a fan. I guess he could watch Youtube videos and claim to be the same fan, but that wouldn't make it true.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

But the problem with that statement (even if we agreed that it was true - I don't) is that it is meaningless. Football is still consumed by watching it on TV. Maybe I could argue that a better fan would rather watch on TV because you can see the action better and understand the game better. I could argue that people go to games just to party (which is true to an extent... insert Cubs fan joke here).

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I give you credit for at least admitting that your statements of 'no emotional attachment to football' and '10 minutes to drive to the Bears game' are bullshit. That is progress, my friends.

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I feel like part of the reason my dad and I started a tradition of attending a Washington R******s game every year (this will be the fourth year) is just to spite JORR.

_________________
-- source

I'm glad there are a few football fans left!

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Ha, it's a great tradition. My dad had a health scare a few years back, so that put things in perspective. Taking advantage of every minute we can spend together. Indianapolis is on this year's docket!

_________________
-- source

The Bears have a sellout streak that goes back to 1984. I don't think fan attendance is a good measure for you either.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!