I think the biggest difference between "normal" football fans and the football enthusiasts like me and the ones I met in my engineering classes boils down to what reasons you enjoy watching the game and, perhaps with overlap between the groups, what level you're paying attention to the actual plays being called and run.
Most people love football because they identify with a team, and almost exclusively watch games involving their team, and aren't really paying too much attention to the strategy. They know the rules and the different types of plays, but they are really there for the tribal passion that a rough contact sport like football tends to evoke.
On the flip side, I don't actively seek to watch football games for a single team; if I happen to go somewhere that's playing a football game on TV, I love watching it, and don't care who wins, because I just enjoy the strategic and tactical decisions being made on and off the field. Watching a play unfold and seeing the snap decisions being made and the reactions from both teams to the changing field is truly fascinating.
I do still follow the results of my old hometown team, the Cincinnati Bengals, but more out of humorous pity at how terrible they are year after year than out of any identification with them or desire to see them win.
But hey, maybe I'm just ascribing what I want to see from the data, and maybe my opinion of "normal" people is skewed from growing up in Ohio compared to somewhere else in the country.
I have enjoyed Football for a while -- good sport, fun to watch.
I REALLY got into Football a few years back when I hopped on the fantasy football bandwagon -- a lot of strategy (projections, history, weekly match up, e.g., do I start Tom Brady against Baltimore or RG3 against StL?), statistics, a random element (injuries, x-factor players breaking out, coaches benching people), etc. There is quite a bit of crossover between that and many other strategy games.
You should try Fantasy Baseball. The stats go so much deeper and there is so much more data to process than with football. The strategy involved for informed players can be quite incredible.
I'm always tempted to try it but Fantasy Baseball always seems like too much of a full time job to me. Do you set your lineups on a weekly basis or is it something that requires daily attention?
Well there are leagues that do both. I prefer daily for the precise reason that it requires my daily attention. I tend to forget about things that only need be dealt with once a week (Ie fantasy football) and often end up with abandoned teams. As such the daily format of baseball works better for me as I am paying attention to it every day.
I understand your concern about the full time job thing, but honestly the point of it all is to have fun. Also don't we always say on here that when you're doing something you love, it doesn't feel like work?
Daily attention. My friend has done it for several years, and often his dedication is a good enough for why he wins.
But I think it's worse than daily attention. The MLB isn't like the NFL in that its schedule is spread out all over the place. It has to be constantly on your mind to make sure you have the right relief pitchers started, etc.
Most people love football because they identify with a team, and almost exclusively watch games involving their team, and aren't really paying too much attention to the strategy. They know the rules and the different types of plays, but they are really there for the tribal passion that a rough contact sport like football tends to evoke.
On the flip side, I don't actively seek to watch football games for a single team; if I happen to go somewhere that's playing a football game on TV, I love watching it, and don't care who wins, because I just enjoy the strategic and tactical decisions being made on and off the field. Watching a play unfold and seeing the snap decisions being made and the reactions from both teams to the changing field is truly fascinating.
I do still follow the results of my old hometown team, the Cincinnati Bengals, but more out of humorous pity at how terrible they are year after year than out of any identification with them or desire to see them win.
But hey, maybe I'm just ascribing what I want to see from the data, and maybe my opinion of "normal" people is skewed from growing up in Ohio compared to somewhere else in the country.