For anyone that's wondering, the "Aggies" thing is because Agricultural Science tends to be a big thing in schools in more rural states. It's similar to how some schools are about their engineering programs
The Pats? As in, the Patriots? You didn't fail that conversation, you successfully avoided talking to a New England Patriots fan. That's a win in my book.
The best part of knowing ball is being able to sit around with the guys and just name dudes. It is endlessly entertaining to remember and reminisce about dudes that played ball 20 years ago. I don't know why.
@@tyhuggins850 ooh if we’re going Seahawks from that era and video games we GOTTA name my guy Shaun Alexander. Washington Football Team LEGEND. I remember the 3 or 4 games he played with us in ‘08 fondly.
This is pretty similar to the way video game players sit around and remember old games. "Remember Ray Lewis, Shaun Alexander, and Chris Kluwe? Remember Halo 2, No More Heroes, and Dwarf Fortress?"
This brings me so much joy! As a brit who fell in love with the game and went on to make it both his main hobby and career - Video games (specifically Madden 05) helped me learn the mechanics of football, it's an amazing learning tool. It's just Chess with Bulldozers - when you learn that, you get why it's so popular.
Honestly Pat if you like wrestling then college football is the perfect sport for you. So many rivalries, narratives, wild characters, beef, grudges, redemption arcs, deep lore... that's what I actually love most about football.
For real, most viewers aren't really tuned in to the intricate movements of a couple dozen guys on the field, they're watching for the big plays, rooting for their team, hoping their rival team loses, and paying attention to maybe 1 or 2 notable players on the field. Picking a team, sticking with them, and genuinely caring about how well they do is the core of it for most sports fans. Sure some could talk more strategy but most folks interest begins and ends with their team scoring more, and that's just fine
College football is definitely the way to go. NFL football is obviously, truly, better quality football play. But at the end of the day what really makes the sport special is the connection fans have with their teams. There is nothing like going to an SEC rivalry game and seeing people who truly HATE the other team. It’s amazing. Additionally you just don’t get underdogs at the same level, for example the NIU defeat of ND is insane, truly incredible. It’s not the nfl where there are all kinds of (for lack of a better word) catchup mechanics, in college if you have no money you have no team. I’m a UF fan and FAU alum, so watching my owls rise and fall is amazing, and watching my gators suck is just really sad
Football is my favorite sport I like the way the jurdle when the yardage's short (seriously what tf is a "jurdle" I've watched football for 30 years and have never heard this). Love me a Patrick video, especially with an SB crossover!
It's not actual jargon, it's video game jargon. It means essentially (I assume) that the game will decide for your whether a juke or a hurdle is appropriate when you press that button. That being said they could've just called it 'juke/hurdle'.
Lifetime football fan who can 100% talk shop with anyone. You don't gotta know the complex stuff like formations (especially defensive formations) or when and why such and such is a good or bad playcall to enjoy, watch, or talk about the sport - you really just need to know the nomenclature and be able to identify it, also know the teams and how they're doing this season as well as their key players. Helps to have a team you're actively rooting for. It's like any sport. Granted, football is really complex and there's a lot to learn, but if you watch two games with someone who's your average football fan, you'd pick up pretty much everything you need to know. From there, you can become as much of an armchair coach as you want. "4th quarter, 2nd & goal, 3 yards to gain, down by 4 with 8 seconds on the clock." That's not very complex, and it's easy to understand the intensity of the situation if you know just a little bit. Go Gators!
The concept of this video reminds me of myself when I first started high school. Most conversations with other dudes made me want to turn off their voice boxes so they would shut up, but then I learned more about football so I could have SOMETHING to talk about. And then I realized that I actually really like it... mostly because it's very dumb, too complex, and insanely marketable (the last point mostly has to do with the American sports industry as a whole).
The complexity is something I use a lot to open up all my non-sport-loving friends to it. Oh? You're a dork like me that likes tactical or strategy games? Well let me tell you about running a mesh concept when you know the defense is in man coverage after you've sent a guy in motion to confirm. The "boring downtime" in football is filled with strategy if you know what you're looking for. I've gotten a surprising number of my friends into the sport this way lol.
@@Sgubby I mean even something as basic as asking "what do you think they're gonna do here?" in any given situation is something so unique to football. In every other sport, the answer to that question no matter the situation is always "Pretty much the same exact thing they've been doing for the past 90 minutes, except maybe they'll get more desperate about it." Football isn't just about which team has better players, it's about which team's coaches were better prepared and made better decisions through the course of the game, it's about the way certain players match up against each other.
The complexity is what I love about it. I know an absolute shitload of useless information about football, but do I know everything? Of course not. Literally know one knows everything there is to know. More than anything I am fascinated by questions of personnel, roster management, formations, plays, coverage schemes, blocking assignments, offensive and defensive theories/coaching trees, blitz concepts, run concepts, pass concepts, etc. etc. There's no other sport with that level of complexity in terms of what you can teach the guys on the field to do and then have them execute. That's what I enjoy about it, it's an endless well. I don't even have one single team that I root for, more like I like some teams better than others.
As a Canadian, I have this same relationship with hockey - I'm not interested in it, and I don't follow it, but I know enough about the game to successfully converse with someone who *is* into hockey and not feel like a weirdo. Good and interesting idea for a video Pat! The Dark Souls boss run comparison was great!
I think the advantage that non-sports interested Canadians have is that Hockey is a sport that's a lot easier to understand just by looking at it because you're only really trying to do one thing. Football is kind of notorious for being confusing because it's not just that there's a ton of jargon to learn, but that even if you think you've got some of it figured out, now all of a sudden they're doing something called "special teams" and trying to do a completely different thing than what they were doing a minute ago.
@@krusher181I relate to American hockey fans a lot as a Canadian gridiron football fan. Hockey dominates so much of the culture and sports media, and football is kind of an afterthought. Exact opposite of what it is across the border.
Pat Gill: "I don't understand fighting games, but I'm going to learn to love them. "I don't understand football, so I'm going to use video games to understand it." What's next? "I used Trombone Champ to understand the intricacies of 20th century America. jazz?" I would watch that
Bruh this video speaks to me so hard. Just a few weeks ago I had basically the same conversation as you're open and my wife was like "You're just a disappointment to men". lol. And then the creed superbowl shirt???? Amazing.
It’s *sorta* like tackle chess. Different players (or pieces) move across the board in different ways, and-whether most fans realize it or not-it requires both short-term tactics (play by play) and long-term strategy (drive by drive) to succeed.
To me, it always reminded me of magic the gathering because you have different class types and it's all about predictions and setup. If you're able to establish a mismatch against your opponent, you attack it. You win
@@suites.74 That’s a great comparison too! And there are ways of playing off an opponent’s expectations in predicting your plan too confidently. If a standard pass were a Green spell (go/grow as far as possible as fast as possible) and a standard run were a Red spell (charge straight toward the problem and burn right through it), then a play-action pass or a draw run would be Blue spells (hiding your true plan in the form of its opposite).
I just love Pat. You're a good guy. I'm glad you make videos. I'm european and I know absolutely nothing about american football - and I can't even relate because I'm one of those obsessive soccer fans who base their happiness off their team's scores - but I just had a good time, and I'm grateful for that. ✨
Sports really is just about community and watching some people compete in a (hopefully) entertaining way. It’s also got a dopamine response when you’re playing a sport and you do something very well synchronized with your teammates. I really love sports but I def am the minority in my friend group and I get why people don’t enjoy them. Watching high level competition is interesting to some, not to others, but everyone seems to enjoy the community aspect. Id argue the majority of sports fans don’t even think much about the sport itself, just the atmosphere and if they’re winning/doing well.
The best part of knowing about football or any sport really is that there is literally zero situations i have found where sports analogies are not applicable
as a non-sporty person, playing some sport while growing up and being semi interested in watching a variety of sports with my Dad helped me build a veeery basic understanding of the rules, fundamentals and strategies. I don't keep up daily/weekly whenever a new season rolls around, but I'll passively pay attention. End result, in all the conversations I've had where sport came up as "the topic", I've had at least a 70% success rate in not seeming like a fool, but I've never met a "sports gatekeeper" (thank god)
I never cared about football outside of some level of disdain I had for it's vicegrip on American culture. So, I'm still in disbelief that I actually follow full NFL seasons now. I think a big part of what got me into it was honestly just getting older. Young me found the idea of sitting through a three hour game deeply unappealing. Now that I'm older, three hours is nothing to me. Time is flying by at an increasingly alarming rate so it doesn't bother me as much anymore. And yeah, over half of that three hour run time is ads and players standing around. If I'm not watching a game on delay and can FF through the ads, I have to be doing something else, usually playing a game or working on something. I almost always skip the 3rd quarter. Watching with friends helps because y'all can talk and half pay attention but then still get locked in during the tense moments and big plays. Following a team helps. You see that the quest to win a Super Bowl is the most brutal, most punishing rougue-like. Seasons can collapse at any moment for even the best teams. Also, following a full season and watching a little bit of every team, it's incredibly dramatic. The stories and drama that evolves through an NFL season and even through an off-season is addicting, compelling, and I now understand why so much media is dedicated to analysis and press conferences. It can feel like you're watching a season of great television instead of just watching sports.
During the intro I was thinking about how after moving to Kansas City I’ve needed to become a Chiefs fan just to survive, then you mentioned Taylor Swift less than two minutes in and shook me to my core.
Lived in KC my whole life and don’t worry a lot of us had to go through the same thing (didn’t care because we were painfully mid/ dogshit for my entire life until Reid came)
A little over a decade ago, I got very good at NCAA only because I wanted to beat my roommate who was much better at the game. From just playing the game, I picked up what each position was doing, what packages were, how to read a play and how to audible against it. I ended up with a deep knowledge of the sport. Football games are a great way to learn the sport.
I've always called boss run ups in Dark Souls playing "Football Souls" someone should really make a mod, where I can wear football pads and get no attacks and 4 tries to make it to the boss without getting hit.
I 100% picked up following sports after college for the same reason set out in the opening segment (to be able to talk smalltalk with coworkers and whatnot)... And after 15 years, I'm now a huge sports fan, going to at least 40+ games (across all sports) a year, baseball being my favorite. I legit was shocked at Ryan's response mid video saying it made things harder to talk with strangers. That is the complete opposite of my experience... It's shockingly been a huge boon for my social interactions.
Getting into football as an adult is like being vegetarian your whole life and then one day being like, "You know what, I'm just gonna get super into veal."
I really cannot get enough of Pat speaking calmly to us about goofy shit for extended periods of time. I am amused and my soul is soothed all in one go.
Playing NCAA 2014 was legitimately how I learned the rules of football. I'm certainly no expert, but it did allow me to know generally what was going on when I was in a place that football was happening. It also gave me name recognition so when you said "Demon Deacons" my mind went "Ah yes, of Wake Forest"
Following team and player storylines is a huge part of football and football conversations. There are players that never got a chance to shine crushing it on a new team, season ending injuries, wondering if the players your team drafted will be good or bad, redemption arcs, number one picks, busts, speculation on team matchups based on star players, etc.
1. Football is something you grow up with. Personally, I watched it with family, and I played it for 4 years. 2. It helps to know all of the teams. Like there are 32 NFL teams. That the Pats are the New England Patriots, and was the best pro team in the North Eastern US. 3. I don't play sports games, either. I played a few growing up, but none in my adult life.
I'm a huge football fan, although I'm a bit outside of the norm in the sense that there is not one team that I am 'committed' to. More than anything I am fascinated by questions of personnel, roster management, formations, plays, coverage schemes, blocking assignments, offensive and defensive theories/coaching trees, blitz concepts, run concepts, pass concepts, etc. etc. There's no other sport with that level of complexity in terms of what you can teach the guys on the field to do and then have them execute. It's a very unique sport, and I think for the most part it was the complexity that fascinated me when I first got into it. Also, socially it does less than nothing for me. I can count the number of football conversations I've had with friends on two fingers, the vast majority of my friend group could not care less about the sport. Or video games, for that matter.
LMAO, this is so real. Literally just had one of my students ask me about football. I just said, "Sorry I don't really watch sports" and they said, "That's ok, no worries." Glad I'm taking the right path.
Despite growing up in a household that watched UNC football every Saturday growing up, I didn't understand football at all until receiving Madden 64 for Christmas and playing it all night with my dad and brother in law. It was the perfect way to learn downs/conversions, formations, and play calling work, as well as the joys of jamming A to plow through defenses Jerome "The Bus" Bettis. I've loved the sport ever since, but it wouldn't have happened without video games. Also I'm a NCSU Wolfpack fan these days, but the Demon Deacon is my favorite mascot in NC - good choice.
Pat, I am genuinely happy for you. But I am so disappointed you left it there. You finally earned the starting position, thats where the story usually starts. I gotta know how Pat Ball did! Did he win a confrence championship? National? Did you win the coveted Hesimen? You left me hanging!
the opening scenario at the car repair shop was too real lmao. great video, as someone who comes from an NFL loving family I get the appeal of football but I'll never be a football guy and that's okay
On the contrary! I was only a “little” into football when I was introduced into my wife’s (at the time Girlfriend’s) family. They were all very into football, all having their own teams, but mostly the Packers. I was always a Giants fan, but I didn’t know enough or watch enough at the time to really talk about it. I ALSO had the same idea, where I realized if I learned more about football and appreciated it, I would be able to speak with them more and get along. In my case, it worked! I ended up REALLY getting into football, where I don’t even just watch one team, I watch a BUNCH of teams, and keep track of storylines. And not to mention, I began having lots to talk about with them and now Ive got a group of people in the family that I really enjoy watching and talking about football with. It also helps when I’m out somewhere and someone sees my hat (Giants), and will either bring them up or talk smack lol. I don’t mind the smack talk too much, it’s kind of nice to converse with people.
I think a big part of enjoying football is always following a team or player's "storyline." As a Cowboys fan, part of our storyline is that we have big expectations for a storied team that should he able to deliver, but somehow never do. Yet, the hope and excitement remains - and we feel the pain when we absolutely blow it in the playoffs.
As someone who grew up watching and playing football its funny how I'm actually baffled by people NOT liking football. Like for some reason it just seems so obvious to me that this shit is great despite all the evidence that plenty of people arent interested. Glad you're giving it a go, its a great sport.
As a person who, while not a football genius, IS a football enthusiast to an extent where I regularly watch a game each week(my teams are the Steelers and Texans), I’d like to share an opinion. Football doesn’t socially help me in the way that it fixes my conversational skills. Those are passable at best. What it DOES do is allow me to talk with people who I would otherwise be terrified of talking to. I’m a certified Weeb, I’ve got a list of favorite anime that’s 90+ shows long, and anime’s the type of thing I’ll talk about most of the time. Knowing about football gives me a base of knowledge in something culturally separate from my other interests, which allows me to relate to people I otherwise would have nothing in common with.
My first exposure to actual football came through Madden Ninetysomething on the original Game Boy. Exposure to football in Germany during the 90's came basically through pop culture. I could tell you that Al Bundy scored four TDs in a single game for Polk High, but I had no clue what it meant. But somehow, it awakened something in me that grew into a lifelong fascination. I cultivated my interest through more sophisticated versions of Madden, started watching the Super Bowl each year by accident when I stumbled over SB XL on free TV, had a plus-size cable TV package for a while in order to watch ESPN, and even played actual football for two years in my twenties. It's still exotic to be a football 🏈 guy in Europe (as opposed to a football ⚽️ guy), but it's been a fun trip so far. It's the only passion I really entirely developed on my own terms.
It’s funny. I feel like I never know enough as big football fans but if I can learn enough about players and recent history, it helps me connect with other “dudes.” If I don’t know a specific player or team well enough, they’re usually happy to explain 😂
“He doesn’t know you’re thinking about climate disaster pretty much all the time” hit way too close to home. Literally all I think about whenever I have an awkward weather conversation with someone now
It's crazy to me that Americans refer to this sport as "Football" in international online spaces. I get that you call it that when talking to other Americans but surely you know how weird it sounds to people overseas.
Awesome video. As a gamer with friends that don't watch football, the Dark Souls run analogy is perfect and fantastic. If you do have the urge to run another career, instead of sticking with offense you should give something like Linebacker or Safety a try! Understanding the cat-and-mouse nature of football tactics is one of the things that makes the game great!
My big struggle with getting into sports is that, after decades of not having that in my life in a culture that's SUPER sport-motivated, I finally got into it... with sports that aren't popular here at all. I'm in Australia, I can't talk about BASEBALL, that might be worse than talking about nothing!
I like football for the nerdiness of it. There are so many tiny, seemingly meaningless little things that happen that end up being actually play and game determinative. There's a coach named Sean McVay, who heads up the Los Angeles Rams, and he's genuinely a genius on the offensive side of the ball. Seeing the different things that he cooks up is both fascinating and infuriating (I root for a rival team). Then we get to see what defensive minds bring to that side of the field and how they counter the existing offenses. It's really fun to watch the punch and counter punch. Sometimes the results of a play come down to where someone is standing at the start of a play, and if that had changed by even a foot or two that can be the difference between getting stopped behind where you started and scoring a touchdown. That's not even getting into the absolutely insane displays of athleticism from all kinds of different body types. I genuinely believe that NFL athletes have some of the best burst athleticism in the world. Since a single play will last for 15 seconds at the *very* most, they can optimize their bodies for those short time windows and to truly crazy things with them. I've seen 250 lb men lift people 40-70 lbs heavier than them off the ground, and then outrun someone who is 30-50 lbs lighter than them, and absolutely bury them with a tackle. That's not even that uncommon, frankly. It's fascinating.
I remember watching my first football game, Super Bowl 2013 I believe, without any prior knowledge of the game. And at the time I thought this is the most braindead and simple sport I have ever seen 😄 but I got hooked after watching a couple of games in the next season and slowly realized how strategic, tactical and smart the plays actually are. Despite the stop & go playstyle I think it's one of the most entertaining sports to watch
I find that when I talk about football, it’s almost always with people who like the same team as I do. We have a common understanding of who the players are and are equally excited/saddened by how they are playing. Nobody really talks about stuff like how switch releases are so effective or why jet sweeps never seem to work. There’s also the fact that college football fans and NFL fans can have very little in common as one can know next to nothing about the other’s league.
I didn't care about football until my 30s. Ironically, the two games that cemented my fandom were both dramatic losses for my team. That team didn't get good for another decade, but the drama was hard to give up.
I will say, the section where he explains why he doesn’t understand football he outlines why people like football pretty quickly in the first few things.
If you're a nerd you should love football. Its turn based, its laid out on a grid, and its all about statistics, the perfect game for dorks, thats why i love it
Love it, dude: if you ever want to go even harder into the really nerdy details of the sport (and the formations), I am a mathematician who has spent most of my life studying games!
You see that ludicrous display last night? What was Mayo thinking leaving Brissett in that late? The thing about New England is they always try to walk it in
Back in the mid-2000s, my family had a Sega Dreamcast and my dad decided to buy a football game for it. I don't know which game it was twenty years later, but I do know that even my dad, who watches multiple games every week during the NFL season, was confused by all the choices and jargon. I think to most football viewers, it's less about the jurdles and squibs and more about the shared experience of seeing the game. In that way, it's the same as any other tv show.
On the field straight up "jurdling it" and by "it", haha well. let's justr say. My foutbal
the jurdle button will never stop being funny
if anyone cares i’m pretty sure jurdle is a portmanteau of juke and hurdle
The craziest part is I play these games and I have never once “jurdled”
So wtf is jurdling?
@@mildsoup8978 juking and hurdling
For anyone that's wondering, the "Aggies" thing is because Agricultural Science tends to be a big thing in schools in more rural states. It's similar to how some schools are about their engineering programs
Ah yes, the MIT engies are a well known team.
@@hirshja RPI Engineers 🤷♂
@hirshja I love when the MIT Engies take the field and the crowd goes "Need a dispenser here!"
It used to be a derogatory term from locals for people flocking to university cities for the then-new ag-science programs, iirc
@@ChristianCTaken "University cities"- you mean college towns😄? College Station and Auburn ain't exactly Metropolis and Gotham.
every time i see the doctorcoat on pat in the thumbnail i know i am in for a GOOD TIME and a BIG LEARN
oh my god you got the creedshirt
The Pats? As in, the Patriots? You didn't fail that conversation, you successfully avoided talking to a New England Patriots fan. That's a win in my book.
I’m convinced sports actually push people apart
There's crappy fans in every fan base, but most of us are pretty chill
So you don’t want to see my Tom Brady lower back tattoo?
HORRIFYING video to click on while sitting in the garage waiting room waiting for them to rotate my tires
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
what was on the tv and what was your battery at?
none of the shops near me have TVs anymore 😢 Half dont even have a place to charge phone
The best part of knowing ball is being able to sit around with the guys and just name dudes. It is endlessly entertaining to remember and reminisce about dudes that played ball 20 years ago. I don't know why.
Matt Hasselback Boston College alum, "we want the ball, we're going to score!!"
@@tyhuggins850 ooh if we’re going Seahawks from that era and video games we GOTTA name my guy Shaun Alexander. Washington Football Team LEGEND. I remember the 3 or 4 games he played with us in ‘08 fondly.
This is pretty similar to the way video game players sit around and remember old games. "Remember Ray Lewis, Shaun Alexander, and Chris Kluwe? Remember Halo 2, No More Heroes, and Dwarf Fortress?"
LaDainian Tomlinson was a PROBLEM
My favorite pasttime
Me starting the video, clueless: "Man this would be such a cool video to collab with Secret Base for."
are you clueless, or are you receiving psychic messages...
Is this a Pat or Jon Bois video?
The jazz at 1:20 gave me such SB vibes
The way I just KNEW Ryan Simmons would show up hahah
@@CristinaAlmarazLopez
That collab was so out of left field I was like, “I SWEAR I KNOW THIS GUY”
This brings me so much joy!
As a brit who fell in love with the game and went on to make it both his main hobby and career - Video games (specifically Madden 05) helped me learn the mechanics of football, it's an amazing learning tool.
It's just Chess with Bulldozers - when you learn that, you get why it's so popular.
One of my favorite breakdown channels, great to see you here 🙏
Ah madden 05 on the GameCube, that’s where it started for me
Chess with bulldozers killed me lol
The dialogue option of "I'm Pats" and then the caption reading "Pats:..." is such a perfect joke
Honestly Pat if you like wrestling then college football is the perfect sport for you. So many rivalries, narratives, wild characters, beef, grudges, redemption arcs, deep lore... that's what I actually love most about football.
For real, most viewers aren't really tuned in to the intricate movements of a couple dozen guys on the field, they're watching for the big plays, rooting for their team, hoping their rival team loses, and paying attention to maybe 1 or 2 notable players on the field.
Picking a team, sticking with them, and genuinely caring about how well they do is the core of it for most sports fans. Sure some could talk more strategy but most folks interest begins and ends with their team scoring more, and that's just fine
College football is definitely the way to go. NFL football is obviously, truly, better quality football play. But at the end of the day what really makes the sport special is the connection fans have with their teams. There is nothing like going to an SEC rivalry game and seeing people who truly HATE the other team. It’s amazing.
Additionally you just don’t get underdogs at the same level, for example the NIU defeat of ND is insane, truly incredible. It’s not the nfl where there are all kinds of (for lack of a better word) catchup mechanics, in college if you have no money you have no team. I’m a UF fan and FAU alum, so watching my owls rise and fall is amazing, and watching my gators suck is just really sad
this intro is EXACTLY how disco elysium works
Football is my favorite sport
I like the way the jurdle when the yardage's short
(seriously what tf is a "jurdle" I've watched football for 30 years and have never heard this). Love me a Patrick video, especially with an SB crossover!
I think it's supposed to be juke+hurdle but Idk what the hell that means... are you like...jumping over the air next to a guy?
Coaches basically speak in their own language lmao, and some of that jargon eventually bleeds into the general media/fan lingo.
@@vulixirus If somebody uses jargon that makes your blood curdle - it's called jurdle.
It's not actual jargon, it's video game jargon. It means essentially (I assume) that the game will decide for your whether a juke or a hurdle is appropriate when you press that button. That being said they could've just called it 'juke/hurdle'.
Lifetime football fan who can 100% talk shop with anyone. You don't gotta know the complex stuff like formations (especially defensive formations) or when and why such and such is a good or bad playcall to enjoy, watch, or talk about the sport - you really just need to know the nomenclature and be able to identify it, also know the teams and how they're doing this season as well as their key players. Helps to have a team you're actively rooting for. It's like any sport. Granted, football is really complex and there's a lot to learn, but if you watch two games with someone who's your average football fan, you'd pick up pretty much everything you need to know. From there, you can become as much of an armchair coach as you want. "4th quarter, 2nd & goal, 3 yards to gain, down by 4 with 8 seconds on the clock." That's not very complex, and it's easy to understand the intensity of the situation if you know just a little bit. Go Gators!
The concept of this video reminds me of myself when I first started high school. Most conversations with other dudes made me want to turn off their voice boxes so they would shut up, but then I learned more about football so I could have SOMETHING to talk about. And then I realized that I actually really like it... mostly because it's very dumb, too complex, and insanely marketable (the last point mostly has to do with the American sports industry as a whole).
The complexity is something I use a lot to open up all my non-sport-loving friends to it. Oh? You're a dork like me that likes tactical or strategy games? Well let me tell you about running a mesh concept when you know the defense is in man coverage after you've sent a guy in motion to confirm. The "boring downtime" in football is filled with strategy if you know what you're looking for. I've gotten a surprising number of my friends into the sport this way lol.
That's what I love about football compared to other sports. It's turn based strategy instead of simply seeing who can run the fastest or whatever
@@Sgubby I mean even something as basic as asking "what do you think they're gonna do here?" in any given situation is something so unique to football. In every other sport, the answer to that question no matter the situation is always "Pretty much the same exact thing they've been doing for the past 90 minutes, except maybe they'll get more desperate about it." Football isn't just about which team has better players, it's about which team's coaches were better prepared and made better decisions through the course of the game, it's about the way certain players match up against each other.
The complexity is what I love about it. I know an absolute shitload of useless information about football, but do I know everything? Of course not. Literally know one knows everything there is to know. More than anything I am fascinated by questions of personnel, roster management, formations, plays, coverage schemes, blocking assignments, offensive and defensive theories/coaching trees, blitz concepts, run concepts, pass concepts, etc. etc. There's no other sport with that level of complexity in terms of what you can teach the guys on the field to do and then have them execute. That's what I enjoy about it, it's an endless well. I don't even have one single team that I root for, more like I like some teams better than others.
As a Canadian, I have this same relationship with hockey - I'm not interested in it, and I don't follow it, but I know enough about the game to successfully converse with someone who *is* into hockey and not feel like a weirdo.
Good and interesting idea for a video Pat! The Dark Souls boss run comparison was great!
Brazilian - soccer - same
I think the advantage that non-sports interested Canadians have is that Hockey is a sport that's a lot easier to understand just by looking at it because you're only really trying to do one thing. Football is kind of notorious for being confusing because it's not just that there's a ton of jargon to learn, but that even if you think you've got some of it figured out, now all of a sudden they're doing something called "special teams" and trying to do a completely different thing than what they were doing a minute ago.
@@Guimhjoh man that’s gotta be weird. Opposite of me being a huge football/soccer fan in Canada. Barely anyone my age cares about soccer
@@CatCheshireThehard to explain offsides and stuff like that to randoms though. It’s more simple than football for sure I’ll agree on that
@@krusher181I relate to American hockey fans a lot as a Canadian gridiron football fan. Hockey dominates so much of the culture and sports media, and football is kind of an afterthought. Exact opposite of what it is across the border.
Gotta say, this is by far one of the most Pat Gill videos Pat Gill has ever made
Pat Gill: "I don't understand fighting games, but I'm going to learn to love them.
"I don't understand football, so I'm going to use video games to understand it."
What's next? "I used Trombone Champ to understand the intricacies of 20th century America. jazz?"
I would watch that
"Did you see that ludicrous display last night?"
WAKE FOREST MENTIONED
WHAT THE FUCK IS A MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL?!?!?!?
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
after that intro, i have never been more disappointed that a video wasn't 3 hours long
Props to this guy for trying something way out of his comfort zone.
Bruh this video speaks to me so hard. Just a few weeks ago I had basically the same conversation as you're open and my wife was like "You're just a disappointment to men". lol. And then the creed superbowl shirt???? Amazing.
divorce her ass
It’s *sorta* like tackle chess. Different players (or pieces) move across the board in different ways, and-whether most fans realize it or not-it requires both short-term tactics (play by play) and long-term strategy (drive by drive) to succeed.
To me, it always reminded me of magic the gathering because you have different class types and it's all about predictions and setup. If you're able to establish a mismatch against your opponent, you attack it. You win
@@suites.74 That’s a great comparison too! And there are ways of playing off an opponent’s expectations in predicting your plan too confidently. If a standard pass were a Green spell (go/grow as far as possible as fast as possible) and a standard run were a Red spell (charge straight toward the problem and burn right through it), then a play-action pass or a draw run would be Blue spells (hiding your true plan in the form of its opposite).
Chess but the pieces don’t always do what you tell them to do.
I just love Pat. You're a good guy. I'm glad you make videos.
I'm european and I know absolutely nothing about american football - and I can't even relate because I'm one of those obsessive soccer fans who base their happiness off their team's scores - but I just had a good time, and I'm grateful for that. ✨
We love a good Pat video on a topic I scarcely understand until after the video
Edit: i still don’t know football. good video though
As a Clemson grad feeling a bit lonely out in California, I was delighted to see so many clips of my home team in this video.
Video games and football have a lot in common; one has QTEs and the other has CTEs.
Most absurdist point here is the Pats having a good season prior to Drake Maye taking over
The speed at which the algorithm shot this to the very top of my suggestions is currently rewriting physics.
I absolutely love videos like these that try to get people that have 0 interest in something to have at least 1% interest in a thing
Too relatable dial it back back a little 😂
Sports really is just about community and watching some people compete in a (hopefully) entertaining way. It’s also got a dopamine response when you’re playing a sport and you do something very well synchronized with your teammates.
I really love sports but I def am the minority in my friend group and I get why people don’t enjoy them.
Watching high level competition is interesting to some, not to others, but everyone seems to enjoy the community aspect. Id argue the majority of sports fans don’t even think much about the sport itself, just the atmosphere and if they’re winning/doing well.
What's not to understand? We, as Americans, absolutely go bananas for preventable traumatic brain injuries!
The best part of knowing about football or any sport really is that there is literally zero situations i have found where sports analogies are not applicable
I really feel this premise. When I was little I learned about sports to better relate to my relatives and it's genuinely such a helpful icebreaker.
hey who jurdled in here?
The little intro video. Immaculate
as a non-sporty person, playing some sport while growing up and being semi interested in watching a variety of sports with my Dad helped me build a veeery basic understanding of the rules, fundamentals and strategies.
I don't keep up daily/weekly whenever a new season rolls around, but I'll passively pay attention.
End result, in all the conversations I've had where sport came up as "the topic", I've had at least a 70% success rate in not seeming like a fool, but I've never met a "sports gatekeeper" (thank god)
Three words: Barry. Sanders. Highlights.
Word.
I never cared about football outside of some level of disdain I had for it's vicegrip on American culture. So, I'm still in disbelief that I actually follow full NFL seasons now. I think a big part of what got me into it was honestly just getting older. Young me found the idea of sitting through a three hour game deeply unappealing. Now that I'm older, three hours is nothing to me. Time is flying by at an increasingly alarming rate so it doesn't bother me as much anymore. And yeah, over half of that three hour run time is ads and players standing around. If I'm not watching a game on delay and can FF through the ads, I have to be doing something else, usually playing a game or working on something. I almost always skip the 3rd quarter. Watching with friends helps because y'all can talk and half pay attention but then still get locked in during the tense moments and big plays.
Following a team helps. You see that the quest to win a Super Bowl is the most brutal, most punishing rougue-like. Seasons can collapse at any moment for even the best teams. Also, following a full season and watching a little bit of every team, it's incredibly dramatic. The stories and drama that evolves through an NFL season and even through an off-season is addicting, compelling, and I now understand why so much media is dedicated to analysis and press conferences. It can feel like you're watching a season of great television instead of just watching sports.
To me football is turn based strategy with class types like Magic the Gathering. it's all about matchups and predictions
During the intro I was thinking about how after moving to Kansas City I’ve needed to become a Chiefs fan just to survive, then you mentioned Taylor Swift less than two minutes in and shook me to my core.
Lived in KC my whole life and don’t worry a lot of us had to go through the same thing (didn’t care because we were painfully mid/ dogshit for my entire life until Reid came)
A little over a decade ago, I got very good at NCAA only because I wanted to beat my roommate who was much better at the game. From just playing the game, I picked up what each position was doing, what packages were, how to read a play and how to audible against it. I ended up with a deep knowledge of the sport. Football games are a great way to learn the sport.
I've always called boss run ups in Dark Souls playing "Football Souls" someone should really make a mod, where I can wear football pads and get no attacks and 4 tries to make it to the boss without getting hit.
I feel like this gameplay alone could be interesting enough to be the core hook of a (short) game
I 100% picked up following sports after college for the same reason set out in the opening segment (to be able to talk smalltalk with coworkers and whatnot)... And after 15 years, I'm now a huge sports fan, going to at least 40+ games (across all sports) a year, baseball being my favorite. I legit was shocked at Ryan's response mid video saying it made things harder to talk with strangers. That is the complete opposite of my experience... It's shockingly been a huge boon for my social interactions.
I need more Polygon / Secret Base collabs more than I need air to breathe
as an autistic kid 00's gamer nerd that grew up on N64 Madden, this was pure ecstasy
Getting into football as an adult is like being vegetarian your whole life and then one day being like, "You know what, I'm just gonna get super into veal."
I really cannot get enough of Pat speaking calmly to us about goofy shit for extended periods of time. I am amused and my soul is soothed all in one go.
Playing NCAA 2014 was legitimately how I learned the rules of football. I'm certainly no expert, but it did allow me to know generally what was going on when I was in a place that football was happening.
It also gave me name recognition so when you said "Demon Deacons" my mind went "Ah yes, of Wake Forest"
This is such a good concept and execution for a video!!!
Following team and player storylines is a huge part of football and football conversations. There are players that never got a chance to shine crushing it on a new team, season ending injuries, wondering if the players your team drafted will be good or bad, redemption arcs, number one picks, busts, speculation on team matchups based on star players, etc.
1. Football is something you grow up with. Personally, I watched it with family, and I played it for 4 years.
2. It helps to know all of the teams. Like there are 32 NFL teams. That the Pats are the New England Patriots, and was the best pro team in the North Eastern US.
3. I don't play sports games, either. I played a few growing up, but none in my adult life.
Just watch a Jon Bois video and youll suddenly love football even if youve never heard of it before
Randall Cunningham Siezes the Means of Production
I'm not a baseball fan at all, but the Dave Steib series had me in tears.
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
The thing about Arsenal is they always try and walk it in.
I'm a huge football fan, although I'm a bit outside of the norm in the sense that there is not one team that I am 'committed' to. More than anything I am fascinated by questions of personnel, roster management, formations, plays, coverage schemes, blocking assignments, offensive and defensive theories/coaching trees, blitz concepts, run concepts, pass concepts, etc. etc. There's no other sport with that level of complexity in terms of what you can teach the guys on the field to do and then have them execute. It's a very unique sport, and I think for the most part it was the complexity that fascinated me when I first got into it.
Also, socially it does less than nothing for me. I can count the number of football conversations I've had with friends on two fingers, the vast majority of my friend group could not care less about the sport. Or video games, for that matter.
PATRICK TIME
LMAO, this is so real. Literally just had one of my students ask me about football. I just said, "Sorry I don't really watch sports" and they said, "That's ok, no worries." Glad I'm taking the right path.
Despite growing up in a household that watched UNC football every Saturday growing up, I didn't understand football at all until receiving Madden 64 for Christmas and playing it all night with my dad and brother in law. It was the perfect way to learn downs/conversions, formations, and play calling work, as well as the joys of jamming A to plow through defenses Jerome "The Bus" Bettis. I've loved the sport ever since, but it wouldn't have happened without video games.
Also I'm a NCSU Wolfpack fan these days, but the Demon Deacon is my favorite mascot in NC - good choice.
Pat, I am genuinely happy for you. But I am so disappointed you left it there. You finally earned the starting position, thats where the story usually starts. I gotta know how Pat Ball did! Did he win a confrence championship? National? Did you win the coveted Hesimen?
You left me hanging!
Pat Gill 🤝Griffin McElroy choosing the Demon Deacons for that weird old man
the opening scenario at the car repair shop was too real lmao. great video, as someone who comes from an NFL loving family I get the appeal of football but I'll never be a football guy and that's okay
I would absolutely want to have a conversation with the guy that told me he was "watching TH-cam videos about rare pigs"
On the contrary! I was only a “little” into football when I was introduced into my wife’s (at the time Girlfriend’s) family. They were all very into football, all having their own teams, but mostly the Packers. I was always a Giants fan, but I didn’t know enough or watch enough at the time to really talk about it.
I ALSO had the same idea, where I realized if I learned more about football and appreciated it, I would be able to speak with them more and get along.
In my case, it worked! I ended up REALLY getting into football, where I don’t even just watch one team, I watch a BUNCH of teams, and keep track of storylines. And not to mention, I began having lots to talk about with them and now Ive got a group of people in the family that I really enjoy watching and talking about football with.
It also helps when I’m out somewhere and someone sees my hat (Giants), and will either bring them up or talk smack lol. I don’t mind the smack talk too much, it’s kind of nice to converse with people.
I think a big part of enjoying football is always following a team or player's "storyline." As a Cowboys fan, part of our storyline is that we have big expectations for a storied team that should he able to deliver, but somehow never do. Yet, the hope and excitement remains - and we feel the pain when we absolutely blow it in the playoffs.
As someone who grew up watching and playing football its funny how I'm actually baffled by people NOT liking football. Like for some reason it just seems so obvious to me that this shit is great despite all the evidence that plenty of people arent interested. Glad you're giving it a go, its a great sport.
I see you with the Jon Bois-alike intro music. Well played sir
as a fútbol-watching foreigner living in the states, I really appreciate this video
As a person who, while not a football genius, IS a football enthusiast to an extent where I regularly watch a game each week(my teams are the Steelers and Texans), I’d like to share an opinion.
Football doesn’t socially help me in the way that it fixes my conversational skills. Those are passable at best. What it DOES do is allow me to talk with people who I would otherwise be terrified of talking to. I’m a certified Weeb, I’ve got a list of favorite anime that’s 90+ shows long, and anime’s the type of thing I’ll talk about most of the time.
Knowing about football gives me a base of knowledge in something culturally separate from my other interests, which allows me to relate to people I otherwise would have nothing in common with.
My first exposure to actual football came through Madden Ninetysomething on the original Game Boy. Exposure to football in Germany during the 90's came basically through pop culture. I could tell you that Al Bundy scored four TDs in a single game for Polk High, but I had no clue what it meant. But somehow, it awakened something in me that grew into a lifelong fascination.
I cultivated my interest through more sophisticated versions of Madden, started watching the Super Bowl each year by accident when I stumbled over SB XL on free TV, had a plus-size cable TV package for a while in order to watch ESPN, and even played actual football for two years in my twenties.
It's still exotic to be a football 🏈 guy in Europe (as opposed to a football ⚽️ guy), but it's been a fun trip so far. It's the only passion I really entirely developed on my own terms.
It’s funny. I feel like I never know enough as big football fans but if I can learn enough about players and recent history, it helps me connect with other “dudes.” If I don’t know a specific player or team well enough, they’re usually happy to explain 😂
“He doesn’t know you’re thinking about climate disaster pretty much all the time” hit way too close to home. Literally all I think about whenever I have an awkward weather conversation with someone now
The transition at 9:20 is so matpat-core I love it
It's crazy to me that Americans refer to this sport as "Football" in international online spaces. I get that you call it that when talking to other Americans but surely you know how weird it sounds to people overseas.
man only pat could get me to watch a twenty minute video about football and still have me be engaged
Why would I ever care about football when I can watch hockey, the greatest sport on earth
Awesome video. As a gamer with friends that don't watch football, the Dark Souls run analogy is perfect and fantastic. If you do have the urge to run another career, instead of sticking with offense you should give something like Linebacker or Safety a try! Understanding the cat-and-mouse nature of football tactics is one of the things that makes the game great!
I don't know how you convinced me to watch this video but you did and I enjoyed it. I'm not even American-
My big struggle with getting into sports is that, after decades of not having that in my life in a culture that's SUPER sport-motivated, I finally got into it... with sports that aren't popular here at all.
I'm in Australia, I can't talk about BASEBALL, that might be worse than talking about nothing!
Just got into F1 this year! My little brother talked us through the netflix show and we've been watching this season together!! It rules!!!!
babe wake up polygon picked your county's football team
I like football for the nerdiness of it. There are so many tiny, seemingly meaningless little things that happen that end up being actually play and game determinative. There's a coach named Sean McVay, who heads up the Los Angeles Rams, and he's genuinely a genius on the offensive side of the ball. Seeing the different things that he cooks up is both fascinating and infuriating (I root for a rival team). Then we get to see what defensive minds bring to that side of the field and how they counter the existing offenses. It's really fun to watch the punch and counter punch. Sometimes the results of a play come down to where someone is standing at the start of a play, and if that had changed by even a foot or two that can be the difference between getting stopped behind where you started and scoring a touchdown.
That's not even getting into the absolutely insane displays of athleticism from all kinds of different body types. I genuinely believe that NFL athletes have some of the best burst athleticism in the world. Since a single play will last for 15 seconds at the *very* most, they can optimize their bodies for those short time windows and to truly crazy things with them. I've seen 250 lb men lift people 40-70 lbs heavier than them off the ground, and then outrun someone who is 30-50 lbs lighter than them, and absolutely bury them with a tackle. That's not even that uncommon, frankly. It's fascinating.
I remember watching my first football game, Super Bowl 2013 I believe, without any prior knowledge of the game. And at the time I thought this is the most braindead and simple sport I have ever seen 😄 but I got hooked after watching a couple of games in the next season and slowly realized how strategic, tactical and smart the plays actually are. Despite the stop & go playstyle I think it's one of the most entertaining sports to watch
me, clicking on the video chanting JON BOIS JON BOIS JON BOIS JON BOIS
This is an excellent video about not just football, but also talking and liking things. I really like this video
I find that when I talk about football, it’s almost always with people who like the same team as I do. We have a common understanding of who the players are and are equally excited/saddened by how they are playing. Nobody really talks about stuff like how switch releases are so effective or why jet sweeps never seem to work.
There’s also the fact that college football fans and NFL fans can have very little in common as one can know next to nothing about the other’s league.
"Normal people are rarely normal. They're weird" is maybe the most deeply resonant idea I've ever come across.
I didn't care about football until my 30s. Ironically, the two games that cemented my fandom were both dramatic losses for my team. That team didn't get good for another decade, but the drama was hard to give up.
I only have one friend that fully understands the gameplay in NCAA 25 and he is literally a college football coach.
I've never felt so betrayed and disappointed as when the message "normal video begins now" appeared less than 2 minutes in.
I think game grumps: football is just DnD for jocks
I will say, the section where he explains why he doesn’t understand football he outlines why people like football pretty quickly in the first few things.
that jerome helmet in the back is sweet asf
If you're a nerd you should love football. Its turn based, its laid out on a grid, and its all about statistics, the perfect game for dorks, thats why i love it
Please make this into a series. I will watch them all
Love it, dude: if you ever want to go even harder into the really nerdy details of the sport (and the formations), I am a mathematician who has spent most of my life studying games!
You see that ludicrous display last night?
What was Mayo thinking leaving Brissett in that late?
The thing about New England is they always try to walk it in
Back in the mid-2000s, my family had a Sega Dreamcast and my dad decided to buy a football game for it. I don't know which game it was twenty years later, but I do know that even my dad, who watches multiple games every week during the NFL season, was confused by all the choices and jargon. I think to most football viewers, it's less about the jurdles and squibs and more about the shared experience of seeing the game. In that way, it's the same as any other tv show.
Nothing has ever embodied the mortifying ordeal of being known as much as the first 80 seconds of this video my word
Pat, your videos are always incredible.
Finally a complimentary pairing with the Kotaku football video by Tim Rogers