Overtime

Last Sunday afternoon, like so many others, I spent most of my time watching the NFL. As a diehard sports fan, it almost seems like a requirement to watch as much football as possible on fall weekends.

 Though I cannot pretend that I do not have some level of interest in the sport, I was still left wondering, not for the first time, why this one sport can get so much more attention than the others. For me, sports as a whole are great to watch for the overall competitiveness and dedication required from the athletes, and I have never been able to figure out what elevates football in this country (and soccer in the rest of the world) to such a higher status than other sports.

My history as a high school tennis player likely contributes to this attitude. Though we always had a pretty good team, winning our region of competition twice during my time there, the most recognition we could ever hope to get was the occasional mention of our results on the morning announcements. In Maryland, where I'm from, football, basketball and lacrosse dominate people's attention during their respective seasons, with any other sport relegated to the sidelines.

The athletic situation at Fordham is relatively similar, with football and basketball easily leading the way in interest. This is certainly reasonable; these sports likely generate the most money for the University, and there have been some memorable moments from both sports in the last two years, including quarterback John Skelton, GSB '10, and safety Isa Abdul-Quddus, GSB '11, making the NFL and men's basketball defeating St. John's in 2010.

Despite this, the University's best teams during my time here have probably been softball (making the NCAA tournament for back-to-back seasons) and women's swimming and diving (winning Fordham's first ever Atlantic 10 Championship in women's sports). Through The Ram, which unlike other college newspapers does cover every varsity sport, these teams do at least get some recognition. But the fact remains that our section's back cover in the fall and winter seasons will never be anything other than the stories covering our football and basketball teams; they are the only sports that can ever hope to sell-out games at Fordham.

Going back to the country's NFL obsession, I spent a large amount of my time two Sundays ago covering Fordham's women's soccer team at the same time that Week 1 of the NFL's season began. Attendance was announced at 179 for the Fordham game, slightly smaller than the 65,000-plus at most NFL stadiums that weekend; however, as Fordham completed a comeback from 3-1 to win in overtime, the excitement from both the team and the few fans who showed up to support them was certainly comparable to anything felt by the players at an NFL game. I wish that these sports would be able to get at least some of the attention which is centered so often solely on football, basketball or baseball in this country.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, when other sports do manage to be temporarily lifted to a higher level. For two weeks next summer in London at the Summer Olympics, people across the world will care about swimming, gymnastics, track and field and several other sports that normally get little to no attention. Just as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt suddenly became household names in Beijing three years ago, new athletes from less-recognized sports will surely be elevated to star-status in London. The same scenario unfolds during the winter Olympics, when people suddenly have an interest in speed skating and snowboarding, and Apolo Anton Ohno is recognized for something other than "Dancing with the Stars." Hockey gets significantly more attention in the Olympics than the sport could ever dream of getting during the NHL season.

Other smaller sports in America, including soccer, golf and tennis, will also occasionally receive the national spotlight during major events, but almost never at the expense of any breaking news in football, regardless of their level of importance. The only times that other American sports can hope to compete with the NFL is during the NBA or MLB playoffs, when interest level is at least comparable to regular season NFL games.

I realize that it is naïve to expect the sports landscape in America to change anytime soon, but that does not mean that I will ever understand how such a large number of people can be so invested in football, whether it be college football on Saturdays or the NFL on Sundays throughout the fall, while other sports struggle to be relevant enough to become the second topic on SportsCenter. Maybe one day I will see what most other American sports fans already have. Until then, though, I will continue to shake my head each week as every possible aspect of college football and the NFL is over-analyzed by the American media.