A few days ago, I once again found myself putting off doing homework, this time in the form of watching soccer on my laptop. The match featured Liverpool hosting Chelsea in the Capital One Cup, one of several professional soccer competitions in the UK. As I watched the match, I could literally hear the faithful fans singing and chanting throughout the game. I flashed back in my head to when I had been lucky enough to attend a match in London. The atmosphere was unreal. It was by far more impressive than any professional match I had attended in the United States. Back in my room watching the game on my laptop, my mind decided to think of even more ways to procrastinate on homework. I started to think of the various sports played here in the USA, and realized while a lot of aspects between American sports and European sports are similar, there are a lot of differences as well.
In America, baseball, football, and basketball are the most popular sports, but many other sports are watched by millions of fans as well, such as hockey, soccer, and golf. In addition to a variety of sports that are available for fans to watch, the separate high school, college, and professional levels make sports an incredibly huge part of American entertainment. We watch sports on TV, go to the games hours beforehand to tailgate, eat at sports bars to watch games, cheer on our friends and family at their games, and bet on everything from the Super Bowl to boxing matches.
In Europe, everybody knows soccer is king. While sports such as cricket and hockey are regionally popular, soccer is played in every country, with thousands of professional clubs taking part in countless leagues and tournaments every year. For example, a British team, such as Chelsea or Liverpool, play in the Premier League, in addition to tournaments such as the Champions League (Europe's top clubs), the FA Cup (clubs from all levels of British soccer), the Capital One Cup (top 92 English and Welsh clubs), and the FIFA Club World Cup. There is also the Europa League, the Community Shield, and derby (rivalry matches). The same level of variety in competition within one sport exists in every European country. A unique aspect of European sports is the possibility of relegation to a lower tier league. At the same time, winning teams in lower divisions can make their way up to the top flight. For some teams, every season is a battle to stay high enough in the league table to avoid relegation. It's another form of competition for the teams that have no hopes of winning the league.
American sports and European ones are obviously very different, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The aspect I personally find most appealing about American sports is the evenness of competition. Due to features such as salary caps and drafts, any team can become a title competitor within a matter of years. It's true that some teams are almost always good and some are consistently bad, but as the saying goes in American football, "on any given Sunday" any team can beat another. The past 14 years of football have proven that. Since 2000, ten different teams have won the Super Bowl. In that time, only four teams have won the English Premier League. In fact, since the Premier League began in 1992, just FIVE teams have been champions. The huge differences in financial funds among European soccer clubs is the main reason for the gaps between the top clubs and the bottom ones. The teams with funds equaling only a fraction of their wealthy counterparts can never hope to compete for the top trophies, so they, along with their fans, look at smaller competitions, rivalry games, and relegation battles to as measuring success. In American sports, if you're team has no chance of making the playoffs, there is very little to look forward to. One exception to that is college football, where many teams end up at a bowl game where they can win a trophy. However, the national championship, be it the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, or NBA Finals, is really the only goal a team can set for themselves. It's simply a different dynamic.
Neither American nor European sports are better than the other. They're simply structured in different ways, with each having positive and negative aspects. The good news is, you don't have to pick one.
