Americans have a deep-rooted love for football, and it's easy to see why. According to a Gallup poll, 37% of Americans cite soccer as their favorite sport for spectators, with 57 percent considering themselves “fans”. This is in stark contrast to the 11% who say that basketball is their favorite, the 9% who prefer baseball and the 7% who prefer soccer. The physical team sport of football combines aspects of European football and rugby to create an electrifying visual experience.
As each team makes its way across the field with every possession to try to score, while the opposing teams do exactly the opposite to prevent that from happening, it's no wonder why ratings have skyrocketed for people's favorite teams and the entire league. On an individual level, football gives people a rhythm for their week, a loyalty to claim and a channel for emotional engagement. Soccer is a sport that involves cheating, drugs and an immense amount of violence, yet it is the highest-grossing sport in the United States. The father of American football, Walter Camp, changed the rules of football in 1882, resulting in the brand of soccer that Americans know and love today.
Camp played soccer at Yale and, later, applied his vision of the sport to the rules of the game, which included requiring the offense to gain five yards in three attempts or lose the ball, revising the scoring system and adding measurement lines to the field. Soccer is a sport that is perfectly suited to its audience and Americans were the perfect audience for this sport, making it the number one sport in the United States. Overall, American football is by far the most popular sport in the United States. With its rigorous gameplay creating an electrifying visual experience and its ability to give people a rhythm for their week, a loyalty to claim and a channel for emotional engagement, it's no surprise that Americans have such a deep-rooted love for football.
One can only hope that, in addition to learning English, these new Americans will abandon their fetishist for soccer over time.
