Present fans of American football will not believe this, but pro football was so underdeveloped and so much a small player in terms of followers (outside the franchise cities) that the only radio network that would carry it was the dying Mutual Broadcasting System. (No TV network did so.)

Around 1960 the major TV networks were looking for a way to attract male audiences to sell them to potential advertisers. Men are notorious for watching little TV except for the news. CBS hit upon pro football as the way to do it, and the rest is history. By the way, an early CBS-TV documentary series, “CBS Reports” (we are talking almost a half-century ago)put a then-miniature camera on the back of a pro player of reputation at the time and did one of its hour-long documentaries on pro football– “The Violent World of Sam Huff.”

Tell most men today the history of how pro football came to be THE American sport, bigger even than baseball, the national pasttime, and they will refuse to believe it.

It seemed to start in high schools and Ivy League colleges in the early-1800’s … with rules taken from rugby and soccer, along with many unique rules added by Americans.

I don’t think soccer players being weak or strong has much to do with its popularity in America. Golf, baseball, basketball, figure skating and most other popular sports in American don’t involve violent activities.

Alot of the popularity of American football may just be a function of the intense TV marketing in the 1950’s and 1960’s. If the TV networks had put hours and hours of soccer matches on national TV every weekend, would football ever have become so popular?

But did the American public push the TV networks towards football, or did the TV networks create the interest in football?

I wanted to know if there’s a reason Americans think Soccer is ‘weak’,
while Europeans are totally lovelove about Soccer, and usually think American Football is too wild.
Are Europeans more gentle than Americans?
Or does it really only have to with money?

And do you think there’s a reason why it’s both called football
(even though American Football doesn’t even require feet)?

Popularity ultimately equals money here. I, for one, would like to move to the table system like almost every other league (EPL, La Liga, Seria A etc). The championship excitement extends throughout the year, plus the fear of relegation keep it interesting for bottom feeders. The reason why this won’t work here isn’t because “Americans need a big game like a superbowl.” Rather, TV needs to get paid. The table system can generate as much or more money than a championship game, but only if there are consequences. Example: Europe has UEFA and Champions league and a whole host of other perks for a team coming in - say - #5 on the EPL table. Berths like that = serious money for the team and draw viewers to mid- and low-table teams like nothing else. Equals money for media. In the US, we don’t have a table and we don’t have perks or berths to bring that $$ and excitement. Maybe someday Superliga or Conca Champs or others will get us there.

Until there’s money for TV, there’s no big popularity jump. Until we figure out what the rest of the world knows re: tables and relegation, there’s no big money.

wouldn’t that mean it is no longer soccer?

Besides, when the American youth relaise that there is no TV Money in american sports they hop over to europe and start making the real millions (the millions counted in British Pounds and European Euro’s) instead of the flucuating mess known as the US Dollar which os putting American Sports People way behgind their European counterparts.

In as little as two years, Mr Peyton’s salary cheque has halfed in value, while looking through the other side of the window, Mr Ronaldinho’s pay cheque has doubled making him rival Mr Tiger Woods who, if this currency situation continues as is, will be surpassed by no less than 20 Soccer Players in terms of spending power within the next year.

Money makes the world go round and while the American bank prints lots of notes, they ain’t worth much….

Soccer will continue to grow, and even accelerate it’s growth because fundamentally it is powered by both the British Pound and European Euro, both getting stronger by the day and together both are too powerful for the old and tired US Dollar.

Remember that £50M is over $100M right now (yes, many european based soccer players make that much money and far more so than american sports people because we have the strength in sheer numbers of top flight soccer clubs, and the economy industry doesn’t see american currency getting back on track for at least a couple of decades….

Secondly, it seems that soccer is growing in popularity in the United States. The youth of America have grown up with it in a way that no previous generation has. American soccer is growing up with this generation. Proffesional teams are improving and beginning to be more attractive to international players. The popularity may not pervade the television standings, but that is because the media haven’t caught on to the shift yet.