TR Forums

Armchair quarterback.
Doesn't get any better than that.

Curling.

For some reason, every time it appears on CBC I become glued to the chair and will watch to the end.

I'm Canadian, so HOCKEY!
I also enjoy MMA.

Basketball is by far my favorite. I love football, and baseball though.

My wild card pick though is Rugby. Joined it in college and played for three years (way to many injuries). I think that sport more than anything defines the pinnacle of teamwork.

Hockey by far, then football.

Football, Formula 1, Rugby and cricket (can't live here without being a cricket fan). And maybe a side dish of tennis.

NHL Hockey and NFL Football

Wrestling (no I don't mean WWF err whatever), college basketball and major league baseball are tied at number two.

It's funny to see all the hockey. I wonder if most the Canadians/NE US ppl here are hockey fans and most midwest folks are baseball fans.

Playing or watching?

Football by far for watching..

As for playing, I'll play anything...

Football is easily my favorite to watch and play. I really like the NBA Playoffs and Grand Slam Tennis tournaments though and I've recently got into Formula 1. My "wildcard" would have to be Australian Rules Football; it's pretty damn entertaining even if I have no idea what's going on half the time.

Watching:

American Football
Baseball

Doing:
SCCA Auto-X
Drag Racing
Rock Climbing


All in that order.

Discus and shotput. The only competition is your own limits; I couldn't care less about beating someone else. Both sports require a linebacker to be as agile as a ballerina. In discus, especially, the harder you try the shorter the throw. But when you get in the groove, you don't even feel like you're doing anything and it just happens (almost effortlessly). I imagine this is how a surfer feels when they catch that perfect wave.

bdwilcox wrote:

Discus and shotput.

Threw both back in high school, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. No matter how many hours I spent trying to get it down the proper discus spin delivery always escaped me.

With discus, good coaching is critical. It also doesn't hurt to video tape yourself from multiple angles. Once you get the technical part of the technique down and the muscle memory in place, the hard part is letting go. 'The harder you try, the less it'll fly' was the lame motto they used to use, but it's true. In high-school, I remember going up against a town where their guys had full beards, weighed about 300 pounds and their children cheered from them from the bleachers. To compensate, I tried to crank it. Result: one throw almost killed people and the rest ended up as tombstones sticking out of the dirt. When I just relaxed the next day, I could throw like a champ. I think that feeling of effortless flow when you get 'in the groove' is what makes discus so addictive for me.

Damn-near flawless technique.

If I were to say anything other than hockey, I'd likely have my Canadian citizenship revoked

Watching: hockey (NHL on the tv, I go to quite a few junior games) and CFL (Canadian Football league)

playing: golf, skiing, speedball (paintball - although I haven't done this for years)

DancinJack wrote:

It's funny to see all the hockey. I wonder if most the Canadians/NE US ppl here are hockey fans and most midwest folks are baseball fans.

I can't speak for the Northern US, but for the gold medal game in Vancouver, 1/2 of Canada watched the whole thing, and 80% watched a part of it. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=312025 We're around a population of 34 million, or roughly 10% of the US

Difficult to find numbers for NHL, but I found this article http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/could+cash+return+roots/3060451/story.html#ixzz0og0gzB5T Keep in mind this is a biased article so he's going to write the numbers in a way to support his position. But it's the best I could find so far.

With the average Canadian franchise valued at $268.5 million US (according to valuation lists compiled by Forbes Magazine), now is the time to strengthen the NHL and its brand footprint. The average Canadian team is valued $45.92 million US more than the NHL average, $57.4 million more than the average U.S. club and -- here's the kicker -- at least $100 million more than the soap operas in the Sun Belt....Relocating the three weakest links to Canada could deliver an aggregate of up to 1 million more viewers per game than the average number of 57,900 viewers who watch the Coyotes, Panthers and Thrashers combined....It's time to make a move when the Panthers need to play 49 games on FSN Florida to reach the average regional television audience of one Toronto Maple Leafs game on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario

So yes. I think Canadians watch a lot of hockey.

edit: found a link that's a bit more helpful (at least something that's less "spun"): attendance figures http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance
13 out of 15 teams are in the North (I'm not counting St. Louis as "north", although I am counting Washington which is on roughly the same latitude as St. Louis)

Sargent Duck wrote:

.....

Thanks for those links.

Does no one else like amateur wrestling? I know it's a bit of an odd one. Wrestled from the age of 4 until 18 though. It's big in the midwest.

Sargent Duck wrote:

I can't speak for the Northern US

The Northern US hockey crowd is still here but the loss of ESPN as an outlet has made it harder and more expensive to get our fill of hockey. Here in NW VT I can get CBC and NESN on basic cable, so I get Hockey Night in Canada and Bruins games. Versus (US hockey TV rights holder) is pretty far up the pay tier here at home and the all-hockey plans from Dish/DirectTV/Comcast are even more expensive.

If you live in the US hockey belt and don't root for the local team, you're SOL unless you go long green on cable/satellite TV.

Playing: Table tennis.

Watching: Table tennis, Soccer, Tennis, Cricket, Hockey.

Playing:
Tennis
Squash
Hockey (on grass with wooden sticks... none of this ice rubbish!)
Soccer/Football

Watching:
Formula 1
AFL

Doesn't really count but is still awesome:
Pool
Snooker
Table Tennis

Watching
Cricket
MotoGP
F1

Playing
Drag Race
Circuit (motor bike 165CC class)
Video games... * PC only *

Playing Ultimate.

BASEBALL



Go Cards!

Currently Playing:
Ultimate (Frisbee) (2-3 nights / week + 6 or 7 tournaments in the May - September span)
Curling (1 night / week)

Watching:
Pretty much any pro sport that is on, but the general favourites are hockey, football, and curling

Playing ultimate these last 5 years has really made me regret not getting more involved with them as a kid.

What? :scratches-head:

Avid basketball fan.
Relatively new Formula 1 fan.

Currently playing Golf in winter, cricket and basketball in summer

As far as watching, in winter its got to be Aussie Rules, in Summer Cricket.

Pity that my side suffered one of the worst injury lists of all time this season so missed the finals. Been great going and watching all the home games live at the ground.

I live in FL so I'm not the biggest NFL fan (our teams are pathetic -.-) but since I got Predator tickets for my birthday this year I have been greatly anticipating the AFL season. Those tickets came with season passes for next year.

Rakhmaninov3 wrote:

BASEBALL



Go Cards!

My sentiments exactly. During the offseason I'll watch the occasional football game.

Track & Field, then NFL.

Now my son has me watching Formula 1, Superbike racing, powerboat racing and pretty much anything with alot of speed involved.