December 2, 2012

Football is by far Americas favorite spectator sport.

Rasmussen Reports that 53% say football.

Only 16% for baseball, 11% for basketball, and 6% for hockey. Nothing else gets as much as 5%.

And, despite all the liberal hand-wringing over the violence of football — with all that brain-damage and post-Super-Bowl wife-beating — the preference for football is greater in women than in men. (57% and 50%.)

50 comments:

ndspinelli said...

Easy, women like those big muscular men who play football, not the everyman w/ a pot belly who can throw strikes lefthanded. Of course, there's a long history of those football players killing their women, but maybe that's part of the attraction also..danger. Baseball players make much more $ and have longer careers. So, I guess I just came to the conclusion women are superficial and stupid in this regard.

Ann Althouse said...

The football costumes -- as I like to call them -- highlight and exaggerate the male physique. They're tight and the torso is a big V.

Baseball players are wearing jammies, and basketball players in their huge, huge shorts seem childish. Hockey players are lost inside their clothes.

Football has the best costumes.

rhhardin said...

I wasn't even interested in sports that I participated in.

Tim said...

"And, despite all the liberal hand-wringing over the violence of football — with all that brain-damage and post-Super-Bowl wife-beating — the preference for football is greater in women than in men. (57% and 50%.)"

Well, there's an easy explanation for that.

While (generally) harder to play, football is easier to understand, and more dramatic, too.

Baseball is (generally) easier to play, but harder to understand, and requires patience.

However, baseball uniforms are much closer to tight than to pajamas these days, so I'm not getting the uniform point...unless women like their men faceless, in masked, hard orbs.

David Yosifon said...

Only someone not following the football concussion problem could characterize it as a "liberal" concern.

Tim said...

"So, I guess I just came to the conclusion women are superficial and stupid in this regard."

Lol.

But one not need look any further than the disparity of women registered Democrat for confirmation of that.

SteveR said...

Football is a better TV sport than baseball and much better suited to short or limited attention spans.

An overtime playoff hockey match, in person, is the best.

glenn said...

And Obama is a second term president, I rest my case whatever it was.

Anonymous said...

The typical NFL game: three hours long, 12 minutes of actual play, and an endless array of commercials for cars, beer, life insurance and limp-d*ck drugs.

Peter

Robert Cook said...

I dislike and am bored beyond enduring equally by all of them.

edutcher said...

I thought America's favorite spectator sport was porn.

Ann Althouse said...

The football costumes -- as I like to call them -- highlight and exaggerate the male physique. They're tight and the torso is a big V.

Actually, the idea of the bright colors (something baseball has tried to emulate) was to entice women.

Baseball players are wearing jammies, and basketball players in their huge, huge shorts seem childish. Hockey players are lost inside their clothes.

No, baseball players wear the typical collarless shirt and plus-fours of a century ago used for a lot of outdoor activities.

Roundball players wear underwear and hockey players need a lot of freedom to move.

Football has the best costumes.

I imagine some women would like to see them wearing a lot less.

leslyn said...

Steve R said,

"An overtime playoff hockey match, in person, is the best."

Oh, you got that right! And second best is the game that led up to the overtime.

BUT is it wrong of me to prefer college hockey WAY over the NHL?

I also really like curling....

chickelit said...

Ann Althouse said...
The football costumes -- as I like to call them -- highlight and exaggerate the male physique. They're tight and the torso is a big V.

I used to wok at an office across the street from both a fertility clinic and a plastic surgeon. All of the costume stores were at the Mall.

leslyn said...

Oh yes. Rasmussen. We all know how reliable that is.

(Cue edutcher in three...two...one...)

ndspinelli said...

StevenR, You're correct about football being by far the best tv sport. Here's an interesting take. When I was a juvenile probation officer I would get sports teams to donate tix for the probation people in our unit. We would take kids who were doing well on probation and in school. Thr Chiefs, although they NEVER sold out, would never donate. The Royals were very generous as were the Kings[basketball]. However, the team that would give us tix to any game as often as we wanted were the shortlived KC Scouts[now the Devils]. There was no history of hockey in KC and they were trying to build up a fan base. Most of the kids on our caseloads were black. Well..you would not believe how much they loved hockey. More than ANY other sport, hockey is one that must be seen in person. These kids loved seeing the skating, speed and of course..the fights. They loved it when the Flyers came to town!

BaltoHvar said...

Ann Althouse said...

"...Football has the best costumes."

Only if you are going to the office Halloween Party dressed in one. Otherwise it IS a UNIFORM since it is required and is regulated by the employer and the collective bargaining agreement.

I have heard many times the same statement of attraction by wymyn to the football uni as it were. Personalty I like the bone crunching violence and majesty of the long bomb. Figuratively, of course.

Further, I do not like Football more then Baseball, just like my love of playing Chutes and Ladders as much as Candyland.

test said...

The Super Bowl domestic violence hook has been debunked so many times I'm surprised to see you link to it un-ironically. It's based on a study that doesn't even purport to measure what activists claim.

My wife likes football best because (a) it's a social event unlike any other sport outside division 1 college sports, and (b) it's only once a week. She still has vastly less interest in any sport than I. Although obviously this is not true of all women a the conclusions of a study that doesn't measure the intensity of interest should be carefully limited.

leslyn said...

Felonious Bumblebees

Sharc said...

America's

kjbe said...

Well, this gal doesn't fit the norm - I prefer baseball over football. More relateable, maybe.

My theory on the popularity of football over baseball is, in large part, when they're played - fall and winter weekends verses all summer. The time commitment is compartmentalized - easier to schedule the couch time.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Of the 4 major sports, football is the one that is easiest to think you understand. Hence even immigrants, who have only been here six months or so, convince themselves they are football experts. And the bookies love these new experts.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I don't watch sports. It seems to be quite a waste of time and has no relevance to improving my life.

However...if I am exposed to the television when sports are on....I do admire a nice gluteus maximus, as highlighted in football uniforms.

:-)

Joe said...

Baseball is boring as hell. It's a sport for statistical nerds. And no, it isn't cerebral, just prone to collecting, collating and comparing lots of numbers.

chickelit said...

Football is like dog as baseball is like cat.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

All I know is that there's not much else I'd rather do on a fall Friday night than go watch our high school football team play. And when they won again last night in a regional playoff game, extending their record to 13-0, by scoring a touchdown with 5 seconds on the clock and winning by two points, I was too excited to sleep.

Christy said...

As a young girl I loved hockey, fights included. As a teenager I loved basketball because you could actually see the faces of the players in a fast moving game. As a young woman I loved baseball, for the trivial reasons of a winning home team with Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer, Cal Ripkin, Jr. etc and because the slowness of the game gave plenty of time for long talks with friends.

Football I have always hated, but I seem to watch a lot.

A much loved nephew got a nasty concussion in a middle school game this year. Yesterday we were sitting together watching another nephew play in the state championship (won decisively) and I asked if he had decided whether to play football or do band in high school. He leaned toward band when I asked, but after watching the winning game he told me he'd decided to play football. Broke my heart. The kid has a first rate brain in a 6' (at 13)linebackers body.

ndspinelli said...

chickelit, BINGO! And I like dogs and cats.

Christy, When Palmer was in KC he did a promo signing full lengths photos in his jockeys only when he was their sponsor. It is a prized possession!

McTriumph said...

ndspinelli

"The Chiefs, although they NEVER sold out, would never donate."

I believe the Chiefs failure to donate tickets has to do with the TV blackout rules. But, the Chiefs should have hooked you up with the corporate sponsors that buy out the unsold tickets.

You are right about Hockey, it has to be watched in person to be appreciated, especially in regions it's not part of the culture.

Sam L. said...

Those women must be taught a LESSON!

That they like football is UNFORGIVABLE.

They must be PUNISHED!

Unless it's just they like looking at men in really tight pants.

bbkingfish said...

I must take issue with our hostess.

I am a liberal, and neither I nor any of my confreres would dream of interfering in the traditional conservative sport of wife-beating.

edutcher said...

leslyn said...

Oh yes. Rasmussen. We all know how reliable that is.

(Cue edutcher in three...two...one...)


Far more than a Democrat shill like Ned Silver.

Derve Swanson said...

"Football is like dog as baseball is like cat. "

Cue up the George Carlin:

In football, you smash through opponents territory to score...

In baseball, you run home.

Etc etc.

leslyn said...

Listening to the end of the Chicago game in OT (they lost), so this is a little late: "And there's your dagger!" (Need I say GB?)

edutcher, you're so reliable. :)

Unknown said...

despite all the liberal hand-wringing over the violence of football — with all that brain-damage and post-Super-Bowl wife-beating

So according to Althouse, conservatives are pro-brain-damage and pro-wife-beating. Good to know.

AllenS said...

People like football because it's the sport that resembles warfare the most. It's really that simple.

Unknown said...

I thought America's favorite spectator sport was porn.

So edutcher does have a hobby besides posting loony conspiracy theories at Althouse.

caplight45 said...

Tight butts and tight pants. That's what women want.

caplight45 said...

Tight butts and tight pants. That's what women want.

leslyn said...

@caplight: well, they're ok, but I'd rather have a bunch of really long, juking, twisting runs like the Badgers had last night.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
leslyn said...

The cheerleaders. That's what men want.

Well, except in Green Bay, where they're from the local college squads and have to get into sweatshirt pretty early in the season. We're real football fans up there.

The next time you see a GB game on TV, try to spot the GB cheerleaders. It's like playing "Where's Waldo."

Ann Althouse said...

"Only if you are going to the office Halloween Party dressed in one. Otherwise it IS a UNIFORM since it is required and is regulated by the employer and the collective bargaining agreement."

Apparently, part of your costume is a chain, because I'm yanking it.

Revenant said...

The fact that soccer isn't on the list at all makes me suspect that a chunk of the "football" answers were referring to soccer.

Given how many immigrants (legal and otherwise) we have in this country -- plus those Americans who love watching it -- how could it NOT rise to at least 5%?

Jane the Actuary said...

I think the issue of football concussions is worrying, and am happy my kids aren't interested in playing football, but (though I don't watch sports with any great interest anyway) football is definitely preferable to the others. There's a narrative to it, the movement to the end zone and the process of the 10 yards in 4 downs, with the questions of "will they run the ball or pass it? try for the 4th down or punt?" etc. The other sports just seem like the same action (dribblng & shooting the ball, kicking the ball, moving the puck, hitting the ball) repeated for 60 minutes, with a lot of patience required to see that one deftly executed goal.

Titus said...

I love footies costumes. love seeing their guns.

Lyle said...

Women love physically strong men. A professor I had in college just loved the idea of being picked up and pushed against a wall. What football player can't do that?



bridgecross said...

I'm just ashamed that 6% of Americans enjoy hockey.

BaltoHvar said...

"Apparently, part of your costume is a chain, because I'm yanking it."

And I you, Madame... ;)

Baron Zemo said...

Football is a great game.

To bad it is not played on a professional level in Wisconsin.

Ann Althouse said...

Hey, it was funny when the Redskins beat the Giants.