Football in America

History of  American sports can be can be traced from European practices. Sports in America forms part of the culture with several types of sports such as basketball, tennis, hockey, football, Wrestling, golf, auto racing, and volleyball. The football has to be a more important type of sport with four professional leagues across the United States where the market for this professional sports is estimated to be $68 billion. American football does not much following from other nations. Volleyball, snowboarding, skateboarding and basketball types of sports where invented in America and have now spread to all other parts of the world (Meade and Teresa 2016).  Soccer is the world most important game, but in America, it is considered a minor sport. Younger stars are taking the sport. This study will explore football in America and why it has not become popular despite being a world sport.

Soccer is the world popular sports, but in America, it is still lagging behind for several reasons. Soccer is a world dominated sports which have been played for many years now whose roots do not include America. America enjoys other sports like athletics and basketball, which it invented and that’s why it has focused on sports that it comes up with (Reck et al 2015). In the United States, it is normally hard to see foreigners dominate its national team and accept them to give more attention where its team lags behind. That’s why American enjoys homegrown sports in expenses of football. In the united states, strength and height are recognized that’s why muscle car and linemen who in five seconds can run for 40 yards. In soccer, this strength and size are not rewarded where best soccer players appear no different from other people in the streets. Speed is negated in soccer with offside rule and it becomes impossible to run in the field for 90 minutes with excess weight. Americans are much-supporting strength and size where bigger people are better, stronger people inspire while being faster is cool. Soccer requires patience and endurance which are things that Americans don’t care about and they believe sports heroes need to have physical traits.

According to Americans, world football governing body FIFA is a joke because of its one of the most corrupt bodies in worlds governments. There is so much corruption from the allocation of revenues from its sponsors and even in world cup draws and that is why Americans are worried about  how a more powerful body in the world has little transparency without checks and balance to reduce corruption.  In world cup some teams lack money to get a flight for the event yet a lot of money pass through FIFA. In FIFA, the rich will continue to be rich and poor will remain poor. World cup draws puzzles many Americans where draws are made and have rigged groups which are known  as “group of death”.  It is so ridiculous to have one group of four teams having three best football teams while other groups don’t even have one such a team and this is one of the things that keep Americans off the sport (Reck et al 2015). The issue of penalty kick has never been taken positively in America which is seen as a cheap goal and should never exist. Due to the attention being given to this penalty when an offense is committed inside the box, some offensive players will always find a way of creating a foul that will amount into a penalty.  There are other many reasons why football has never gained popularity in America such no handball, no flopping, offsides, a limited number of substitutes, stoppage time and ties at the end of the match.

American exceptionalism holds that the United States is unique among different nations when it comes to personal freedom and democracy.  American exceptionalism began from its revolution to become a first new nation. The theme of American being used to transform other nations is also seen as exceptionalism as put forward by Abraham Lincoln.  This theory of exceptionalism has developed with time.  There are several causes of this concept like lack of feudalism, like churches, hereditary nobility, and land estates (Pope 2014). American sports tend to differ from its counterparts in Europe, which is seen as American sporting exceptionalism. This has been seen by America in regards to soccer games where it has rejected the soccer and favored basketball, baseball, and American football. American sports exceptionalism somehow lies in the path dependence model. American sporting exceptionalism came about due to its view on how soccer is played with various rules and ignorance of some facts about those in sports.

Exceptionalism has seen America focus on their own invented games which in their view they meet the standards they would like in sports. American sporting exceptionalism can be linked to American exceptionalism.  There are several criticisms on exceptionalism where some people think you cannot do wrong just because you are you (Markovits et al 2014). Americans feel it is unique in the world with no other nation like America. Criticism on ongoing racial disparities, income inequality, interacting with other countries political change.when it comes to football, this ideas of exceptionalism seem to have taken control where America would feel soccer does not meet their exceptionalism. This idea and how football is run by the world governing body and corruption in the football makes American not to be involved in such things. This gives a reason why other types of sports have done well and in America, but football is still lagging behind.  However, slowly football has started making way in America where La Liga matches might be starting in America.  This is made to promote soccer in the United States of America and Canada, where spans football clubs will be playing in America.

In conclusion, sports in America can be traced back many years ago with more emphasis on the strength and size of competitors. America has invented its games such as basketball and baseball and it has focused on those games for any reason why it has not embraced soccer. Americans have not liked the way FIFA runs the soccer since it is a corrupt governing body. Corruption in drawing groups in the world cup and allocating revenue to support football teams has not been fair at all. American exceptionalism where it is seen as a unique state compared to others in the world may have spread to sports. This is the reason why America has put more emphasis on its invented games and less emphasis on football despite being a world sport. Currently, soccer is slowly getting support in America with high possibility of top league in Spain finds their way in Spain.  The younger generation is getting inspirations in football and becoming one of the most paying sports in the world. Due to this, change of beliefs in football may be changing in American and with time this sport will be embraced in America.

Works Cited

Markovits, Andrei S., and Steven L. Hellerman. Offside: soccer and American exceptionalism. Vol. 61. Princeton University Press, 2014.

Meade, Teresa A. History of modern Latin America: 1800 to the present. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.

Pope, Steven W. ”Rethinking Sport, Empire, and American Exceptionalism.“ Sport History Review 46.1 (2015): 71-99.

Reck, Gregory G., and Bruce Allen Dick. American Soccer: History, Culture, Class. McFarland, 2015.