Regular Season is too long?

[Ravin]

Never said football is a walk in the park, and I'd put it second to hockey in terms of toughness. Every time I watch soccer though, you see half the team walking or standing still. Where as hockey is always in motion, and it is end to end all the time. 20minutes of ice time in hockey at a high pace, plus the checking and other stuff that goes on, I'd say is tougher then soccer, even if you are out there for 90 minutes.

[wr50l]

Never said football is a walk in the park, and I'd put it second to hockey in terms of toughness. Every time I watch soccer though, you see half the team walking or standing still. Where as hockey is always in motion, and it is end to end all the time. 20minutes of ice time in hockey at a high pace, plus the checking and other stuff that goes on, I'd say is tougher then soccer, even if you are out there for 90 minutes.

I'm talking about soccer (no hold on I'm not calling it that again, from now on when I say football I'm talking about the real thing that everyone in the world exempting North America knows it as)

Anyway back to the topic at hand, which is actually totally different to the original topic of the thread. You did describe football ^ as looking like "a walk through the park" Which as evidenced by a typical days of stats from ProZone (a data analysis company that specialises in sports) is a terribly incorrect perception.

As for the bolded bit - in hockey three quarters of the team is sitting on the bench! I am totally in agreement that hockey is far "tougher" however football is far more of a cardio killer. Prime example of the difference is that Pittsburgh just played Philadelphia tonight and will play Washington tomorrow, there is absolutely no chance a player could play two football games in two days.

[Ravin]

Thing is, there are lots of footballers (soccer) who play back to back on many different levels. My cousin plays D1 soccer in America and when they go on road trips, they play 2-3 games over the course of the weekend. It is a high level of competition and they play 2 games (sometimes three) in that many days.

There is a reason hockey players sit on the bench. Because when you are skating at a high pace for 1-2minutes, you get really tired. Add in being hit and checked, it takes a lot out on your body.

[killgod]

In soccer's defence, your typical hockey shift is only 45 seconds and most forwards play around 15-18 minutes per game.

15-18 minutes of action in a 2.5 hour contest....

*shrug*


I think soccer is tougher on cardio (actually, I can't see how anyone argues against that, especially based on the stats that wr50l provided), football from a pure strength perspective. however since hockey is still tough in both those areas (probably 2nd in both IMO) I'd say overall hockey is the more demanding sport I guess.

[wr50l]

Thing is, there are lots of footballers (soccer) who play back to back on many different levels. My cousin plays D1 soccer in America and when they go on road trips, they play 2-3 games over the course of the weekend. It is a high level of competition and they play 2 games (sometimes three) in that many days.

There is a reason hockey players sit on the bench. Because when you are skating at a high pace for 1-2minutes, you get really tired. Add in being hit and checked, it takes a lot out on your body.

D1 is college right? You cannot compare amateur to professional football, that is ludicrous. There is absolutely no comparison between college football and professional football on skill level nor required intensity. Terrible.

Skaters sit on the bench because you can only have 5 on the ice at once, they skate so hard because they can sit down once they're gassed. If football was played on a tiny pitch with less on the field and with rolling substitutions they would go at breakneck speed too. Likewise if hockey was played on a massive rink with more players and no rolling substitutions they would play at a more patient tempo. It's two entirely different ways to tire yourself out, neither of which should be belittled in favour of the other.

[Ravin]

I can compare when KG said the same thing about me not playing football, and when you get to semi-pro/high school/college level.

And I think we should point out, Wr50l has never played hockey and only started skating, so you have no opinion in this! :D

[Ravin]

I think we have only been talking like the major 5 sports, hockey, baseball, basketball, soccer and football. I'd throw Rugby up high as well.

[Hasselbeck]

I think it's 30 games too long personally.. but that's just me.

Love how the NHL has their postseason set up though. Best playoffs in pro sports.

[Berowsk]

^is that the sloan from entourage?

[Ravin]

I think it's 30 games too long personally.. but that's just me.

Love how the NHL has their postseason set up though. Best playoffs in pro sports.

Actually I think the post season is one of the worst set up's. It is great for TV time, as at least here in Canada you can watch any game you want. Two networks, and they split the first round, so it is like

TSN - Game at 7pm, Game at 10pm
CBC - Game at 7pm, Game at 10pm

Basically works that way for the playoffs.

Only issue is, it takes so damn long. Playoffs may go into June, and that is just a tad bit too long. I'd perfer they get back to the old way of play two games, take a day off, play two games, take a day off, then the next three are play/day off. First round normally takes 2 weeks because someone goes to 7, same with the second round. So you're looking at least a month for just two rounds of the playoffs.

[The Messenger]

There definitely needs to be a salary cap in every sport.

I find it stupid that any baseball player or football player makes 10X more than hockey players.
Hockey in my opinion, i hope you guys think the same, is the most physically demanding sport out of all the major sports.

It's not about what's physically demanding and what's not. It's about the popularity of the sport and how much money the sport rakes in.

The NHL has the smallest fan base of all the major sports (NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL).

[Ravin]

It is also basbeall doesn't have a salary cap. When A-Rod was given that $25million contract, it basically opened up baseball to what it is today. I'm not 100% on my baseball, but I don't think there were many players cracking $10M before A-rod's $25M contract. Now all of sudden, everyone is making massive money. If you think about all the other major sports, they all have a cap AND they have more players to sign, except basketball.

NHL Cap $56.7 million - Must sign about 25 players
NFL Cap $116 million - Must sign 40 players? (I believe 40)
NBA cap $58.7 million - must sign 12-14 players (not 100% again)

So you figure a MLB team needs about 25 players as well, so their cap should be around what the NHL's cap is, but I'll give them a little more and say maybe $75M-$85M.