Every year, Americans countdown the days to fall so they can watch the leaves change colors and the football season bloom. It has been said that baseball is America’s National Pastime but this hasn’t been true since 1972. In 2021, 114 million Americans watched football compared to the 68 million who decided to watch baseball. Football has now taken over and claims its trophy as the new favorite sport.
Football is a fast paced game with four 15 minute quarters. Typically, an American football game lasts a little over three hours after breaks and a halftime. On the other hand, baseball has no time limit. The longest game recorded in MLB history was eight hours and six minutes and it spanned over two days. The time clock in football is the reason for its suspense and excitement. Without it, fans would become bored and not want to watch, which is what caused the demise of baseball. The football game is also more predictable because of the clock. Fans can look up at the scoreboard and see how much time is left in each quarter. This allows them to plan when they will get up and get a snack or just have time to stretch and walk around the stadium. So far in 2022, the average human attention span is only eight seconds. This proves that people cannot sit and watch a sports game for long periods of time because they cannot pay attention for more than eight seconds.
Besides game time, there is no experience more exciting than walking into an NFL football game. Fans are bombarded with the smell of popcorn, the sound of cheering and the sight of their favorite team colors. This is why the average amount of tickets sold for an NFL game has reached 95.1% of its available tickets per game in 2021. NFL football teams are famous for their fun performances and entertainment throughout the game such as half time shows, music and cheerleaders. These all bring extra excitement to the stadium and create an experience for the entire family to enjoy. Fans also spend hours before the tailgating outside of the stadium. They bring food, music and footballs to hype themselves up before the big game. Football provides a much better opportunity than baseball for family and friends to bond and spend time together.
Super Bowl Sunday is the culmination of the thrilling football season. More people watch the Super Bowl than any other television program. The annual Super Bowl has something for everyone: suspenseful football, trendy concerts and viral commercials. Knowing that there is one final game at the end of the season that crowns the year’s top team makes the entire football season more enjoyable to watch. Fans are able to cheer on their favored team and are able to find out who wins the biggest game of the season in only one game unlike the long World Series which spans over seven games.
Baseball is more commonly known as America’s favorite sport because of the history behind it. Even though the MLB was created in 1876 and has a ton of old traditions attached to it, it has not caught up to the modern and fast paced times of today. From tackling to touchdowns football is more exciting and suspenseful. The football season this year and every other year is full of surprises and intense rivalries that cannot be seen during the long and boring baseball season.
