Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
A lot of immigrant men I know these days (ages 30-50) actually seem overtly hostile to gridiron football (focusing their scorn on the NFL more than the CFL) and consider it the stupidest sport ever. So obviously this makes their kids less likely to become fans of it.
When I was a teen I don't recall the immigrant dads of my friends being hostile in that way to gridiron football. They were mostly indifferent, maybe in some cases mystified by the allure of a sport with so many stoppages in play. But definitely not hostile.
It was clear for all of my friends' dads that soccer was their preference and most of them also adopted at least a passing interest in hockey - as part of their Canadian integration I suppose. Which, although it hasn't been mentioned on here, is not that difficult a cognitive move to make for a soccer fan given that hockey in some ways is kind of like a faster, higher-scoring soccer with skates on ice. A lot of the aspects of the game are reasonably similar: goalkeepers, nets, offsides, players sent off, player positions, etc.
Anyway I have no idea why such a hostility towards gridiron football has developed like this.
(My sample size in both cases is probably a half-dozen men for each.)
|
My dad is like this. Bring up football or baseball and he'll go on a rant about how stupid they are each time. I think it's a matter of closed-mindedness on the part of these kinds of immigrants, who just refuse to give unfamiliar things a chance. As you said, soccer (and in my family's case, hockey) are familiar, but American football and baseball are still largely limited to North America only. So it's unfamiliar, but also I think there's a feeling that because it's only popular here, it can't be good. I've met countless non-North Americans both here and across the world who almost think it's a problem that soccer isn't popular here; it is in the rest of the world, it should be here too.
Also, many immigrants I know, including my own parents, don't fully buy in into the new country's culture. What I mean is that while they're happy to be here and acknowledge all the overwhelming positives of democracy, freedom, safety and so on, there's still a feeling that the home country's culture is not just different, but better. The food is better, the music is better, and yes, the sports are better. Which is understandable - we become attached to what we grow up with, and especially so once nostalgia is added to the mix when we have to leave it behind. But I think this phenomenon might play into what you're saying as well.
I have no idea if the football hostility thing is common in the US too, but to go back to the previous conversation, what I'll finish on is that hockey is one of the strongest aspects of Canadian culture and should be more resistant to these issues. But if it's not, I wonder if it's just that it's relative popularity is dropping, or if people are just less interested in sports these days and that's what creates that impression.