The NFL or EPL- Which Football League Reigns Supreme?

Image via Complex Original

One of the best parts of the Premier League is that there is practically no limit to how much you can watch. Thanks to their deal with NBC, every single game is available to watch live either on your TV or to stream over the internet. Really, you’re only limited by the number of devices you have capable of delivering streaming content. And as long as you have a cable account (or know a friend/parent’s password), it’s absolutely free.

You get access to pre- and postgame content, highlight shows, and every minute of the action from even the most irrelevant game. It’s a soccer junkie’s dream.

If you like the NFL, there’s only one way to have access to every game: subscribe to DirecTV, then fork over an extra $225 per season. That is, if you can even get DirecTV where you live; many apartment buildings, especially, won’t allow or won’t accommodate the service, so you will likely find yourself out of luck there too.

I'm not going to defend the fact that the NFL gouges every last cent out of a football hungry fan base through DirecTV, RedZone, and whatever other scam(s) they got brewing. But I will point out that the Premier League's American fans get screwed by living on the other side of the Atlantic (no doubt as karma for the American Revolution).

If you want to watch Premier League action live, you're forced to get up anywhere from 6 a.m. (on the West Coast) to a more reasonable (but still unfriendly to the hungover) 9 a.m. on the East Coast. Other than that, you're going the replay (or DVR) route and as anybody who's tried that knows, nothing is worse than sports on DVR. It's like highlights without editing, and nobody could prefer a highlight of their favorite team over watching them in real-time.

There's nothing more boring to watch than sports replays, even for the most exciting of contests. Game Seven of the NBA Finals on DVR? Not interested. The Super Bowl? Not interested. Week Four of the Premier League regular season? Holy shit...definitely not interested.

You got baseball, hockey, soccer, football, basketball, tennis, even professional lacrosse, and yet in the U.S., with such a diversity of sports, football reigns supreme. We don't always think the majority is right. Nor do we think that high ratings always equal quality programming (American Idol has lasted 13 years despite blowing). But if we're simply pointing to who's reigning supreme, it's tough to overlook the sport that's held America's attention for this entire century (in addition to many years before that).

The NFL is the most popular sport in America. That cannot be disputed. Other than NASCAR, it puts more butts in the seats than any other league. The money flowing in from TV deals, merchandising, and advertising is simply mind-blowing. Hell, the commissioner’s salary is $40 million per year and nobody blinks.

But how long is this reign going to last?

Football has some serious sustainability issues. It is becoming increasingly clear that the head injuries epidemic is costing players their lives. Parents are going to stop letting their kids play, and will instead push them towards other sports (like soccer) that pose less of an imminent threat to their health. And that’s not even mentioning the PR nightmare of the Ray Rice case, which we’ll get to soon enough.

How often can you say that a late season NFL game between two last place teams actually meant something? Thanks to the beauty of the relegation/promotion system in the Premier League, an end-of-season contest pitting the 17th and 18th place teams against one another is loaded with drama. The teams’ desperation to stay in the top flight of English soccer means that every single game is played with a huge level of intensity from both fans and players.

It helps that there’s a lot of money on the line too. In addition to the roughly £60 million (about $97 million) injection of cash teams receive from joining the Premier League thanks to revenue sharing, there’s also the added benefit of growing your local economy and turning your city into a destination for fans all across the nation.

Watching the lower division teams compete for a slice of the Premier League pie is equally compelling. Players who help their teams get promoted become club legends. Don’t believe me? Ask American Jay Demerit, whose goal for Watford FC secured them promotion and turned him into a folk hero in the process.

I do wish that there was more on the line for NFL teams than a shot at the No. 1 overall Draft pick (where you actually benefit by losing). In that one way, the EPL has found a quality that makes American sports leagues less compelling when it comes to end of season contests for teams that are out of the championship running.

But, many teams that get relegated down to the Football League are recently promoted squads who can't get a foothold and end up one-and-done (or two-and-done), and yearning for another chance. If you're a diehard American sports fan who doesn't get the premise, it's basically like watching a team scrap and claw to get that (almost unanimously pointless) eighth seed in the playoffs, only to watch a much better one-seed dispose of them. Except, it's a lot more drawn out.

Because America has embraced football as the king of time-sinks, fall weekends have become events that have caused many a sofa to mold into the shape of their owners asses. If you're still into high school football, you get that in droves on Friday. Saturday? College football's appetizer for the pros. Sunday? A full slate of action that begins with (admittedly) too early pregame shows, noon games, three o'clock games, and the Sunday night main course.

If you're truly bonkers about it, you follow RedZone, scan fantasy numbers, and participate in a pick-'em league where you're constantly holding your breath at every field goal and late game rally. I don't dispute that there are better things to do, if you have plans. But let's not pretend our lives are more than they are. If we can be honest with ourselves, most of our days are meaningless. That's why your Twitter timeline is constantly filled with people patting themselves on the back for watching The Wire or Breaking Bad, or some other TV show that has sucked away yet another hour of their lives in front of the television.

It's obvious that there are far better ways to spend a Sunday, but there are also far, far worse. And we're reminded of that fact every time the Super Bowl ends and we have seven months to fill.

Watching football is fun, no doubt about it. It’s more than just the game that makes it an experience; it’s the part where you hang out with friends, eat an ungodly amount of fried food, and (if so inclined) have a few adult beverages. The concept of the tailgate is so American that a dude standing over a grill might as well be on our flag.

But do you really need—or want—to do that for 10 hours a day, every Sunday? Who has the time? The first game kicks off at 1 p.m. on the East Coast, and by the time the Sunday Night Football game ends, you’re looking at 11 p.m. easily. Isn’t there a more productive way to use your time? By all means, watch your favorite team, or track your fantasy guys. But to spend 10 hours of one day sitting around doing nothing completely removes you from society as a whole.

Soccer games are tailgating events, too. The difference is that the game takes half the time, and you don’t lose an entire day watching three games back-to-back-to-back.

The fans may not be quite as cartoonishly crazy as they appear in movies and popular culture, but it’s not terribly far from the truth. Fans of Premier League teams travel in flocks to away matches, often have to be separated from opposing fans by police, and are among the most belligerent in all of sports.

Whereas at an American sporting event you basically get thrown out for any sort of verbal abuse hurled at the players on the field or court, in the Premier League it’s actively encouraged. Stadiums swell all game long with songs both celebrating their own teams (I defy you to listen to Liverpool fans sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and not get goosebumps) and insulting their opponents. These insult songs range from the innocuous to the downright vulgar, and when cameras pan to the crowd you’ll often see small children swearing their heads off.

What’s not to love?

Uh, all of it.

The last thing I need is some little kid telling me to go fuck myself because I opted to wear an Arsenal jersey over...whatever other teams are in the Premier League.

I'll be honest, some of your points have me doubting the NFL (it'd be hard to pick a worse week to defend it) but seeing that lunatic above screaming in what is (no doubt) a 0-0 tie has reaffirmed and made me more confident in my position that the NFL is superior. Even if we too have to endure our fair share of over-the-top d-bags.

Just because this point is truth, doesn't mean I necessarily agree with people's actions. It's just a fact that the NFL routinely acts in an arrogant and obnoxious manner and still (somehow) continues to rake in billions from a fan base who hasn't quite reached the limits of what they'll accept. Personal seating licenses? People pay them. Extra money for NFL Network (followed by RedZone)? People pay them. Reduced quality of play as a result from fears over future concussion litigation? The league still gets record ratings. Non-stop year round coverage that is perfectly summed up by months of Draft hype and a televised Scouting Combine? That still doesn't turn people off.

The NFL is that hot chick way out of your league who you know you'll never do better than, so you put up with her shit. Meanwhile, she just takes your debit card, talks about herself all the time, and is starting to noticeably get bigger from thinking she can still eat whatever she wants and get away with it. (Two of those three work anyway). And yet you still put up with it because the other alternative is a date with the Premier League.

Even though I kind of wish that the NFL's arrogance would catch up to them, it hasn't. And there's no reason to think it'll just kick in tomorrow, regardless of any news about Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, etc. Sports only serve as a distraction, which is why people are willing to put up with a lot of bullshit in order to be entertained on weekends. If your favorite actor's a scumbag, but he makes great movies, then you watch those movies and ignore who he is off-screen. That same principle applies to the NFL. America simply loves football. And if the NFL can survive all the PR disasters they've had in recent years, there's no reason to think that eventually a massive chunk of their audience is going to say "Fuck it," all at once and start paying attention to their families and loved ones (over their Fantasy Leagues) on Sundays.

Especially with Roger Goodell in charge, it gets harder and harder to love the NFL as each day goes by. The football itself is great, but how long can the league simply ignore the public outcry that surrounds its policies?

The Ray Rice situation has been nothing short of a fiasco. First, there was the ridiculous two game suspension. Then there was the did-they-or-didn’t-they-see-the-elevator-video drama, which is still working itself out. Now they have hired the former FBI Director to handle an “independent” investigation which just happens to be overseen by two owners notorious for being ardent Goodell supporters.

Meanwhile, Josh Gordon is out for the season because he smoked weed twice.

How stupid do they think their fans are? Do they really not care? The American people may sometimes be a little slow, but we’re not stupid. This type of arrogance and corruption will not stand forever, and the NFL needs to sort itself out in a hurry if they want to keep the public’s support

While some “purists” are upset at the huge influx of foreign talent into the Premier League, the reality is that over the last decade-plus the level of play in the league has completely transformed. Whereas the game used to be played in a distinctly inelegant, English “boot and chase” style, now we see the sort of connected passing and 1 v. 1 battles that make the game legitimately entertaining to watch.

It has become a destination league for some of the best talent in the world, and while the top-top players often end up playing in Spain for either Barcelona or Real Madrid, the overall quality from Teams 1 through 20 is better in England than anywhere in the world. That means, naturally, that even if you are watching Burnley play Queens Park Rangers, you’re going to see a high quality game with plenty of talent on both sides.

There's a reason that America hasn't accepted soccer en masse and it was breached above, there are simply more (and better) options available. People go ballistic every four years for the World Cup because it's fashionable. They watch a few games, realize it's boring, and then tune that shit out when the U.S. gets eliminated. Regardless of the quality of play in the Premier League, it'll still play second fiddle across the pond until there's a cultural shift that sees soccer as hipsters do, as something entertaining and "beautiful." Diehards keep preaching that there's something there that people like me don't understand. It's both a simple concept, yet goes over the majority of our heads. But that's almost certainly just a bunch of BS and regardless of the quality of talent, we're still just watching 1-1 games. I guess they're just better 1-1 games, or something.

The good news for soccer fans is that that shift/shit is coming, eventually, because the problem for Goodell's league down the line will be an influx of parents barring their kids from football, and seeking more suitable (see: safer) alternatives that won't turn their brains to mush by the time they're 40. That will result in a decreased talent pool, with some of the U.S.'s best athletes finally playing soccer past their preteen years.

Now whether or not that actually holds the attention of American audiences is all just speculation until they prove they can do it more frequently than one summer every four years.

Personally I'm not sweating, yet.

One thing I will absolutely say soccer has going for it over the NFL is the commercials. Fuck, man. The commercials are the NFL. There's no defense for how many cutaways the league gets away with. Three-and-out? Commercial. Extra point? Commercial. Replay, timeout, etc.? We end up watching ads more than in-game action. Soccer fans don't know how terrible that is because they don't have to put up with that crap.

The only reason the public stands for it is because the 35 minutes per broadcast that football is actually being played, are so entertaining that us peons make do.

The NFL appeals to the masses because you're watching a sport that's all risk for the players on the field. They play in the midst of sub-zero temperatures in December. We can watch from out heated living rooms. They run 4.4 40's directly into each other. We watch that from our couches. It's probably slightly psychopathic, but it's the only explanation as to why American football has latched onto the casual market as opposed to basketball/hockey/baseball/soccer/whatever.

While a little violence gets the blood pumping, football isn’t exactly the smoothest game to watch on TV. The action lasts for all of 10 seconds, is rigidly structured, then everyone takes a 40 second break. Thanks to DVR, you can watch an entire football game in 30-40 minutes and not miss a play.

Soccer on the other hand, is basically constant action for 45 minutes, then you take a quick 10-15 minute snack/bathroom/email break, then you’re back for another 45, then you’re done. Clean. Simple.

There are no structured plays, it’s instead a wide open game that encourages players to experiment with different things and express themselves on the field. The order and rigidity of football is pretty boring; why do you think people get so excited when there is a broken play, and the guys on the field are left to think for themselves?