Hi Iahawk,

Once again I feel compelled to respond to a post in this thread to hopefully add some balance to the commentary. Here is some food for thought. Consider for a moment where you were born and raised. Until the advent of the NFL Europe league a few years ago, American-style football was played exclusively in America. Soccer - "Football" to the rest of the world - was played just about globally, and still is. So people around the world were playing football long before the American-style game was invented. You like American football and I love it. But I can see why people all over the world prefer soccer. It is the only football game they have known for centuries. And you can't argue with success, fame, or ubiquity because all three qualities apply to soccer. Some of the richest football clubs in the world are soccer clubs. The most famous football players around the world are soccer players - not American football players. And as far as ubiquity is concerned, American football is played in the U.S., Scotland, Holland, Germany, and Spain - five countries. Soccer is played in more the one hundred fifty countries. The only true World Football Championship is the World Cup, not the Super Bowl, and the game is soccer, not American football.

I agree with you that American football has a lot more scoring usually, but that is primarily because we award 6 points for a touchdown, 3 points for a field goal, 2 points for a safety, and 1 point for the kick conversion after a touchdown. If a team succeeds in achieving a touchdown, field goal, safety, and point after, it is winning 12 - 0. In reality the team only scored four ways (four times) so the score could be 4 - 0 ( without the multiplicative effect of multiple points awarded for a score), which is a very respectable soccer result.

At the end of the day, Americans prefer American-style football because they grew up with it, and the rest of the people in our world prefer soccer because that is what they grew up with. Simple!

Gotta run and play my KN.

Take care Iahawk. I know where you are coming from and I respect your viewpoint.

Best Regards, Chuck

[This message has been edited by Chuck Piper (edited 12-13-2002).]