Tag: football

Super Bowl… Why all the hullabaloo…? Television news segments… Interviews… Analysis from every angle… Commercials… Puppies…

It’s ridiculous. The amount of time dedicated to the Super Bowl is insane. It’s not just game day but the preview programing and attention that is all over the place is all kinds of blown up. With that out in the open, here are some questions:

  • When did you last play football?
  • When did you last touch a football?
  • Did you even play football in high school…?
  • Or college…?
  • Have any element of the game of football altered your daily life?

Facts are that few people really play this game. A handful of kids from league play go on to play in high school. A small percentage of them play at a college level. Even fewer go on to the NFL… Beyond that, the safety advances in helmets and gear benefit only the players on the field and do nothing for the “fans” of this game. Unless you are lucky enough to be so geeky in statistics that you actually manage to make a buck on a sport bet there is little actual benefit to the game of football. The general public gets nothing but beer fueled conversation after the last second of play…

How does the innovation in this football helmet help you…?

Now… Compare to motor sports. The Daytona 500 is one week after the Super Bowl. Have you seen any major news preview discussion, interviews or any mention of significance? The Super Bowl has been discussed for weeks… With that, here are some questions:

  • Do you own a car?
  • Do you drive it?
  • When did you last drive?
  • When were you even a passenger in a car?

The Daytona 500, like all car racing, is a testing ground for automotive technology. Fuel economy, braking efficiency, hybrid technology, passenger safety, aerodynamics and suspension… It all has been advanced through motor sport. The tech that is in your car has been directly impacted by the tech that is innovated for racing.

So… The bigger question… Why is there so much attention on football while racing gets barely a side glance of a nod? The attention on motor sport should be much higher when the benefits to the general public are obvious. Cleaner and safer cars… For everybody.

What does football really do for you when your driving your kids to practice?

Ryan Newman (6) crashing with Corey LaJoie (32) – Daytona 500, Feb. 17, 2020

Ryan Newman and Corey Lajoie survived the crash pictured above. The advances of safety in design for racing play major roles on the track and on the street. Can football do that…? Get it now?

Mid-October and racing is going into the final laps. Indy was done a while ago. Grand-Am is done. American Le Mans closes this weekend. NASCAR has a hadfull of races left. Formula 1 also has a few left, including the return to America. NHRA still has a couple left…

Ryan Hunter-Reay won the IndyCar title. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas won the Daytona Prototypes with Chip Ganassi Racing in Grand-Am. The GT title was driven away with Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato for AIM Autosport. The classes of American Le Mans have been mathematically clinched heading into an all out race to win for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

NASCAR is at Kansas this weekend, then on to Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. Brad Keselowski is currently edging the points. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is still nursing a concussion and should be back by Martinsville. (more…)

Superbowl Sunday….  Really…? So what…?

It seems America shuts down for the Superbowl. Why…? The previews and predictions and the dissection of the minutia of the teams’ seasons leading up to this thing are mind-numbing. It is not just the sports programs going on and on about it, both before and after the game, but everybody on the TV seems to have some segment dedicated to the game. Regular news channels go on and on about the teams, the halftime show, the commercials…  Really?

Why…?

What do we get out of this game? As a fan, seriously…, what do you get from it? How is your day-to-day life affected by the game of football? You may get some blather around the water cooler about “the game” yesterday…  You might even win a few bucks if you play the points… But what do you really get from it? What do any of us get from it? (more…)

Football…? Really! Just as the racing series close on the championships people leave Pit Row for the 50 yard line. It begs the question as to “WHY”? Of course, here at Missed Gear, we could give a white flag about football. However, we know enough to tell that the first few games of the season are merely there to begin to determine the win-loss ratio for the playoffs. Yes… auto racing is the same, to a degree. The early races go from green to checkered with a wide open points system that really only gets tight after the season puts some mileage on the tires.
nflvsrace1

But football…? Why does the Monday morning talk shift from “Did you see the race?” to “Did you watch the game?” Even the heads from the sports news are all crazy about the football season. They spend hours on player trades, camp reports, predictions and all types of pre-season blather. Women talk about shoes less than that.

 

While all this football talk is going on, what coverage does racing get? You might get the NASCAR race winner… Maybe Indy… Formula 1…? Not likely unless something spectacular happened. Grand-Am…? NHRA…? Nada. Zip.

 

But get 6 weeks away from the first pre-season NFL game and you can’t shut them up about football! What is it?

 

The short answer is probably “money”. Odds makers and wager takers love it as so much money is tossed over the line on football bets. That means that all these “fans” who wager on the games simply must know every minute detail about every team so they can place their bets. That keeps these talking heads yammering away while thousands are hanging on every word to get some line on a bet they will make in two months.

 

Yes. There is wagering on racing. The difference is there is one race on any given race day. There are 15 games on NFL Sundays. Betting on a football game essentially gives you two choices. Betting on a race could give you 40+ choices. Football variables are more predictable. Point spreads give the wager a cushion. Fifteen games gives the option to pick a few “sure bets” and go for the bomb on a possible payout.

 

The wagering offers a possible explaination on the popularity of football. However, not everyone gambles on the game. The majority do not. So… Why? Why abandon racing for football just when the points are tight and the championship is on the line?

 

NASCAR is racing at full spead with some points drama still left in the chase. There some Sunday night races so if you simply must watch the day games to maintain some kind of conversation on Monday, have at it.

 

Don’t get suckered in to College Football Saturdays, either! Flip channels until you find something fast and watch it! SCCA, F1, Motocross… We don’t care. As long as it is fast and the only balls involved are the ones it takes to make a 3-wide pass on the outside in lap traffic.

 

We believe you will enjoy the race much better. Wanna bet on it?