Help me settle a debate - What is more of a sport

[Neil4Speed]

Well last night I went out for wings with a few buddies, we usually get into some pretty heated discussions. One of the guys is a die hard football fan. Me and my buddy are pretty good F1 fans, which he discounts greatly.

I think personally that F1 requires the most athletic ability next to boxing. Driving requires absolutely honed and masterful reflexes in exceptionally enduring circumstances (4 layers of fire protection, a seat squeezing your every fiber, its hard to breathe with all the air being sucked into the intake), for... 2 hours!

Anyways, discuss, I would be interested to hear what other people think

[icecreamvan]

You guys obviously haven't seen the handbike or the travelator.

[wardpr68]

are you serious....?

You think F1 driving is a harder/more of a sport than football???????

fuck....wow.

[962 kid]

F1 in my opinion. I've had the discussion with many people countless times, and it's pointless. They think it's just driving a car faster than normal through corners. The best comparison I could think of was likening F1 to golf, where each corner requires the technique of a golf swing - except the whole thing is in fast forward, and you have other goflers messing with your ball trying to get to the hole first. Not a very good comparison :p but it's the best way I could think of it.

This clip helps a little bit:

Originally posted by wardpr68
are you serious....?

You think F1 driving is a harder/more of a sport than football???????

fuck....wow.

Oh yeah. Easy. How many pro footballers are there in the world at any given time? I bet it's a lot more than 22.

[Dooms_Bane]

hmm thats a hard one
i think F-1 might be harder.
in the cockpit i hear it gets PRETTY damn ass hot. its alot to how much you can stand..

while i'm not a football person so i'm sure i'm bias but still it's more or less like stop and go stop and go wait for 5 minutes make a plan and go some more.
there is a huge risk of injury in football tho due to the full contact nature but there is alot of resting? i don't know

my vote is F-1 but i don't like football overly to much lol

[rage2]

Just imagine a hockey player having to play a 100 minute shift, getting checked 500 times, and no stoppages. That's F1 right there.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Next up, apples vs. oranges.

[calgarys_finest]

i dont think you can compare talent and physical ability in once sport to talent and physical ability in another. You and all your friends lose.

[sexualbanana]

Originally posted by icecreamvan
You guys obviously haven't seen the handbike or the travelator.

[mo_money2supe]

Although I'm not a fan of either sport, I would say both are equal sports but in each their own way. F1 has to do more with endurance, while Football focuses more on instantaneous intense physical ability.

[buh_buh]

Originally posted by mo_money2supe
F1 has to do more with endurance, while Football focuses more on instantaneous intense physical ability.

did you watch the video? Driving a F1 car definitely takes more intense physical ability, coupled with mongoose like reflexes.

How can one be more of a sport than another? They're both sports. Its like saying which is more of a fruit, a pineapple or a banana.

[Ajay]

I think F1 drivers are conditioned much better than football players. In fact F1 drivers are probably the most conditioned athletes in the world. F1 drivers are exposed to quite a bit of stress thus requiring the conditioning needed. An argument that can be made for football being more of a sport, which I don't agree with necessarily, is that F1 drivers don't really participate in an actual physical exertion like football players do. To an ignorant 'F1 is not a sport' person the only exertion a F1 driver participates in is moving a wheel and gear lever (I also don't agree with this either).

I've gotten into similar debates about golf being a sport so I know where you're coming from.

Nascar on the other hand....oh boy, I don't know about that one.

[TegLover]

people don't think F1 isn't a sport because it does not require you to run your ass off so it seems like you aren't exactly doing any work at all but driving a "car". In that sense they are right but wrong at the same time.

I don't even see why you continue to argue time after time, i will argue with people who can come up with quality supporting evidence, not those who are just ignorant.

I learned that the hard way when i brought up the plane-on-conveyor-belt myth to a few people. I was pretty surprised with some of the shit people come up with.

No matter how smart you are and how good your supporting evidence is you can't change someones opinion about something if they are too ignorant or just plain too stupid. You can usually gather how smart, or ignorant, a person is thorough these arguments.

and the plane will take off!

[dr_jared88]

i just find it kind of funny you ask this on a car forum. pretty biased opinions. if you asked this on a football forum, you'd get biased opinions the other way.

[retro-steve]

Easiest way to teach your friends a little about F1: tell them to hold their head and body upright while you take a 40km/h exit at about 80km/h, at the end ask them how hard that was, then tell them to imagine wearing full protective gear, heat above 40degC, a 5lb helmet, 4x the g-forces and doing that for over an hour straight.

F1 is about as physically and mentally demanding as a sport gets, find another sport where they have to do a hardcore excercise regiment on the other side of their neck just because the next race goes around the track in a different direction than normal.

[Dooms_Bane]

Originally posted by 962 kid
F1 in my opinion. I've had the discussion with many people countless times, and it's pointless. They think it's just driving a car faster than normal through corners. The best comparison I could think of was likening F1 to golf, where each corner requires the technique of a golf swing - except the whole thing is in fast forward, and you have other goflers messing with your ball trying to get to the hole first. Not a very good comparison :p but it's the best way I could think of it.

This clip helps a little bit:





Oh yeah. Easy. How many pro footballers are there in the world at any given time? I bet it's a lot more than 22.

wow that video is just wow...
i did not know it was that hard. they make it look easy i knew it was hard... but shiiittt it really helps you understand better

[mo_money2supe]

Originally posted by buh_buh
How can one be more of a sport than another? They're both sports. Its like saying which is more of a fruit, a pineapple or a banana.

When did I say one was more of a sport than the other? In fact, I actually said they're both equal in being called a "sport."

[buh_buh]

I was referring to the OP

[5hift]

I realize saying this on a car based forum I'll be in the minority, but

IMO, its more of a sport when more physical athletic skill is required. I know F1 requires skill, endurance etc, but it cannot be compared to the NFL. The NFL requires such a combination of strength, speed and strategy that is not found at such a level anywhere else. Stand Terrell Ownes besides Michael Shumaker and tell more who looks more like a well conditioned athlethe. Michael would probably be embarassed to even take off his shirt. Larry Allen of the Niners regularly pushes a 4 man sled by himself in practice. An entire F1 racing team would probably barely be able to to this. He can bench 600 lbs+ yet is still fast enough to be the lead blocker on counter plays. I'd like to see these drivers with "great endurance" get out of their cars and keep up with a NFL team doing suicides in practice. There is no comparsion of speed, strength or conditioning of the actual athlete between these sports.

F1 is tough, I get that, but its a engine based sport. It cannot be considered a sport in the same sense that the NFL is in where the athlete is doing all the moving themselves.

To anyone who says there is too much resting and stopping in football, obviously hasnt played football. It takes everything a player has to get through such a physical 3 hour battle. They play a sport where the purpose is direct contact. If you think the cockpit of a F1 car gets hot, imagine what it feels like wearing full gear and playing a physical full contact sport for hours in the Texas sun.

Just look at what sport is harder on the player. In F1, competitors only die when there is a really bad crash. In football, at least one person dies a year in the states from playing too hard and overheating/dehydrating.

If for any reason everyone still thinks F1 is more of a sport than the NFL, then MotoGP has got to be more of a sport than F1. Taking turns at those speeds with your knee dragging, your not sitting in a cockpit, your straddling and hanging on for dear life.

[Euro_Trash]

Originally posted by 5hift

IMO, its more of a sport when more physical athletic skill is required. I know F1 requires skill, endurance etc, but it cannot be compared to the NFL. The NFL requires such a combination of strength, speed and strategy that is not found at such a level anywhere else. Stand Terrell Ownes besides Michael Shumaker and tell more who looks more like a well conditioned athlethe. Michael would probably be embarassed to even take off his shirt. Larry Allen of the Niners regularly pushes a 4 man sled by himself in practice. An entire F1 racing team would probably barely be able to to this. He can bench 600 lbs+ yet is still fast enough to be the lead blocker on counter plays. I'd like to see these drivers with "great endurance" get out of their cars and keep up with a NFL team doing suicides in practice. There is no comparsion of speed, strength or conditioning of the actual athlete between these sports.

Exactly, you cant compare the 2 sports at all.

But if your friend does want to see what its like in an F1 car, find him the Top Gear clip of Hammond in one