Horse Racing Is Better Than Football

9/13/2011 5:38 PM
My Favorite
nfl vs horse racing
It's September, and along with back-to-school sales and the cooler temperatures comes the hulking behemoth of American sports: NFL season.

I do not understand the allure of football - it's slow, the players all look alike in their bulky pads and helmets, and televised games seem little more than a platform for sexist beer and snack food commercials.

Running parallel to the NFL's juggernaut is the fall championship season for horse racing. Our sport's lead up to the Breeders' Cup goes unnoticed except by the niche of passionate fans that frequent HRN. But that is ok, because we all know we are experiencing the superior events.

Horse racing is better than NFL football.

Each race is a 2-minute (or fewer) drama that unfolds before our eyes, with heroes and villains determined from the moment the gate springs open. Will a hot-footed lone speed steal the race with an easy pace? Or will a brave closer swoop down on tiring speedballs in deep stretch to prevail by a nose? The PPs give you the Cliff's notes, but not until they go into the gate is the story written.

One must invest an afternoon (usually a gorgeously sunny fall one with an invigorating chill) in front of the TV to catch the important moments in a football game. And they come few and far between. Just when the action starts to heat up, everything comes to a grinding halt for re-adjustments, time-outs or commercial breaks.

Horse racing is a better game for the players in the seats, too. With each race featuring 6, 8, 10 or even 20 different "teams", there are plenty of rooting interests...and wagering ones. Horse racing offers 365 days of betting opportunities, versus 15 or 16 weeks for the NFL. The game can be more lucrative as well - the split between backers of 2 teams is paltry compared to the returns from a well-considered bet on a horse. When people talk strategy with football games, they totally overlook the strategy involved in picking a horse. Mounds of stats that would make the Moneyball guys sweat are routinely crunched by even the most novice of horseplayers. 

In a time when there is so much fakery, insincerity and phoniness in the world, sports are the last bastion of reality. The games (as far as we know) are unscripted, each play a surprise, each score a piece of history. At heart, sports are relatable because we identify with the highs and lows of the players on the field. But the NFL is unapologetically greedy. How can you relate to a professional athlete who threatens not to play the game because he wants more millions? 

Horse racing is the most real of all professional sports, with athletes who are no slaves to the almighty dollar. The horses run because they like to, they are genuinely competitive and want to win. Trainers work hard to get horses to peak racing condition, and jockeys urge every ounce of heart out of their mounts. If the Cowboys have a bad season, oh well, they can try again next year. For most horses, their first chance at glory is their only one. There are no "defending champs" in the Triple Crown. To witness a great race, like Zenyatta's 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic, or Uncle Mo's nail-biter comeback in the King's Bishop, one can't help but feel content. A pure, fleeting moment of brilliance has unfolded - and only the passionate few have experienced it.


-- By Candice Curtis 

 

What the Nation is saying about Horse Racing Is Better Than Football...

No comparison. The only time football even comes close is when some guy is running/jumping in the air to catch a ball, then staying ahead of the other guys for a touchdown. Otherwise, brutish grunting type do sport, they smell dreadful, Thank God we're not too close, and then this tackling business, lying piled up on the ground, what's that all about. Horse racing its 10xxx better.
I still love my NFL but, horse racing has given me a year round alternative & definately when football season is over like now. Watching & counting down to the KYderby. :)
This piece always puts me in a good mood. Thanks Candice!
no. but horse racing is a close second
So true! I couldn't care less about football, but at the same time I am absoulutly in LOVE with horse racing!
so...... horse's stop runnin for our president.... ya..rigth.....
I don't feel it's unusual for a person to lose respect and interest for a sport thats being played on the same day we buried our president!
Icyhotboo.... here you go being ridiculous no common sense at all......
Like most people who read these blogs I am a Horse racing fan, but I wish racing was more like the other sports including football. Racing needs a league like structure with a commissioner or league office to set uniform rules for medication and a set schedule for major races. Today two or three tracks will schedule a big race for filiies and mares on the same weekend, this only dilutes the fields and prevents the best horses from facing each other on the track. There should be a series of races leading to the Breeders Cup, maybe one a month spread around the country. This would lead to better competition and maybe horses racing more times.
I stopped watching football on Kennedy Sunday, do they still play?
Horse racing over Football any day of the week.
Candice, great comparison between NFL football on Horse Racing. I'll add that most tracks and OTB's have NFL games on multiple screens so that the die hard fans of both sports can keep an eye on the games while engaging directly in the far more engaging sport of horse racing.
Football is better than horseracing on Sunday's but I'll take horseracing any other day.
Love horse racing-the history, the committment from trainer and team, the investment from the owner, and of course, the heart and love of racing from the horse!
it seems that racing is less subjected to the rampant commercialism that is prevalent in nfl, mlb, nba, nhl.
Football is still #1, horse racing quickly has become my #2 fav sport....and I am a raging sports fan
Uh, wow. Um... well.... I love both...
Absolutely!!
Absolutely! Horses are way way more beautiful than football players. And there is something so marvellous about the image of a horse and jockey, as one creature, giving their all to get to the wire first.
I have always hated football, but this is just proving my point. I love this so much!

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