How can I not join this game.

its a pussies version of rugby :p

http://phpdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=8394

GO STEELERS!!!!! Pittsburghs going to the superbowl...(check it out its a song) Sorry I would join but im saving up points to play another game

trim, I played rugby at school (I'm English) and I only got interested in American Football this year (and seem to have got very lucky when picking my team - I support Tottenham so I guess I'm entitled to have some success somewhere, even if it is in American sport!), so on the whole I'd agree with you. It amazes me that some of those guys can just be ridiculously overweight and yet be top sporting professionals. Reminds me of prop forwards from a while back - they seem to be a lot fitter whilst being bulky now.
However, the sport does have some merits, and (when they're actually playing) is quite exciting to watch!

And thanks Stevelers, I forgot to post that link, despite having copied it. D'oh!

hey a fellow spurs fan i feel your pain mate

*Bump*

trim, any idea what 'Arry's doing bringing back Chimbonda?

god knows, i would love to see keane back with us though

Yeah, but that would piss Defoe off royally! Those two can't play in the same team (too short) and the whole reason JD left in the first place was because Keane was better than him!

o yeah i know but its good backup, i have always loved keano he is a grifter

Don't bring on American Football or Cricket on this Forum - Those are strictly localized mono-ethnic sports, without any global appeal whatsoever.

you think cricket is mono-ethnic?

england,australia,india,pakistan,new zealand,west indies, sri lanka,south africa,bangladesh and in many more countries cricket is huge so thats not global?

O.K., mono-ethnic was perhaps not completely correct - but definitely mono-cultural, i.e. Anglo (Cricket) - American (Football). The Web is global, so let's not be parochial but instead make Forums about sports that are truly global, such as (real!) Football, tennis, basketball, etc., etc. That was my only (modest) point....

cricket is far more global than basketball, cricket is not mono-cultural at all you think english/aussie culture is the same as india etc

How about hockey guys, acceptable to be called a global sport? I know it's not played all that much in the warmer countries, but certainly in the colder ones in Europe and North America. Just wondering what your opinion on that is? I like a lot of North American mainstream sports, but it would be nice to get a feel of who's interested in them as well (by that I mean baseball, American rules football, basketball and hockey).

Also, just to point out, basketball is much more global than you might think. It's taken a strong footing in Asia and Europe, and there's countries in South America and Africa that produce a lot of good players as well (Argentina, for example).

hockey = field hockey
ice hockey = ice hockey
Both hockey and ice hockey are fairly widely played, depending on the climate (judging by who does well at the Olympics, anyway).
Baseball only really appears to be popular in N America and Japan... and that really is a poor man's version of cricket!
On that note, Pantalone, you're talking out of your backside re cricket. Mono-ethnic, mono-cultural... I can't think of three rather different cultures than those of the Caribbean, England (and to a lesser extent Wales and Scotland) and India! Oh, and cricket is increasing in popularity in Holland - not exactly an Anglo-centric nation.
And I only mentioned the American Football because it inspired the game name!!

Hello Captain Dave and trim101 - who is talking gobbledygook here re cricket:
Name me one (half decent, i.e. more than 100 practitioners in a country) country where cricket is played that wasn't, or isn't, part of the great British Empire (Raj), Commonwealth ,m or whatever you call it - i.e. a former British colony, not to put too fine a point to it....?
Capice...?

Captain Dave - In Holland, my native country, the Cricket Association has about 200 playing members, yes perhaps it is an increase from 150 five years ago...! - but let's put it in perspective: over a million people play soccer/football here and millions skate, so cricket is "microscopic" at best - and yes I think the Netherlands (in spite of 5 naval wars with England in our history) is pretty anglophile, generally although admittedly not "Anglo-centric" yet, although Brits still keep flocking here (and then start bitching about the our weather, which 90% of the time comes from.......- you guessed it!)

hahaha so your saying cricket isnt global becuase it was spread by the british empire?and your further more saying that india and england have the same culture?

On your first question: Yes! Quite evidently.....
Re your second question: Not the same, of course, but the "Colonial Experience" did undeniably leave a few traces, didn't it? Need I name them: Language, left-hand driving, queueing for buses, a shared love for Hot Vindaloo, and on and on and on.....

well of course but doesnt mean they are culturally the same, cricket is a global sport played in countries with very different cultures pretty much end of

Volleyball anyone?

Pantalone: you have Napoleon (Bonaparte, presumably) to thank for you driving on the right-hand-side of the road - everyone used to drive (presumably carts) on the left prior to him.
And the British Empire once covered 25% of the Earth... I presume that's a population stat but I'm never sure whether it means out of total land area, so if that doesn't count as 'global' I don't know what would in your opinion... perhaps only football?
And sorry, saying that India and Britain have a shared culture shows ignorance beyond belief!

Oh, and come on people, join the game!!

This cricket argument is stupid.
Cricket is a colonial sport pushed through by the British Empire.
Does India have exactly the same culture as England? No, thats stupid, but nobody said that.

Field hockey does not a have a wide following. Hockey is Ice Hockey is all places where there is barely any field hockey (ie most places),

My understanding is tha Basketball has acheived some serious world wide popularity in recent years.

Football is truly only an American thing. The second biggest nationality in the NFL is Canadian, yet there are no big names from Canada and we have our own little (3 down) version of football up here.

Does it matter that is only appeals to Americans (or even North Americans)? People can post about what they want, jesus, make your own thread rather than complain on this one.

I thought everyone agreed that cricket (and hockey, for that matter) is only played worldwide because of the spread of their popularity within the former British Empire. That doesn't mean India and Britain have the same culture (doh), but it does give India and Britain a common background which explains why an otherwise European sport is popular there.

As for the hockey vs. ice hockey... I can only smile at mutual chauvinism. Let's face it... in countries where ice is more popular than field, hockey means ice hockey, and vice versa, and everyone thinks the term used in their own country is right. Although I'll side with these guys: http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/index_uk.asp

"hockey = field hockey
ice hockey = ice hockey"
That was only for the purpose of clarity... the English-speaking world would be a clearer place if field hockey were always called field hockey, and ice hockey always called ice hockey.
And I did not ever say that field hockey has a wide following, it is simply played in many countries... I was simply looking for a sport that had wide appeal in terms of which countries it's played in.
I did, of course, forget both athletics and swimming, the blue riband sports of the Olympic Games, both of which tend to have competitors from across the globe...

what the hell is field hokey? and don't the skates get stuck in the grass? and get all muddy?

They run around with sticks, kinda like omg... whats that game where they have the nets and its kinda like upperbody futbol?

with big white hard balls and the big long sticks

la cross?

or golf?

croquet?

pool?

hurling

La cross, their balls are bigger.

@trim - hurling is what I do after trying too many ciders that you reccomend!