Far and away the most popular sport in the United States, football has become part of American culture, with Sunday games turned into communal rituals and the Super Bowl emerging as pracically national holiday. Meanwhile, hockey, though extremely popular in Canada and American cities like Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, has remained more of a niche sport, failing to capture the same TV audiences and fervent support. Yet a compelling case could be made that hockey is better than football.
Speed
Wide receivers and running backs may be fast, but they're no match for the speed displayed during hockey games, when players race up and down the ice with reckless abandon. Hockey players perform every aspect of the sport at top speed, always striving to skate faster or shoot harder than their opponents. Hockey's unbridled speed can be breathtaking to watch, providing far more thrills than football's 300-lb. lineman waddling around the field.
Skill
The 11 players on a football team have their individual skills. Linemen need to be big and strong. Receivers need to be adept at catching the ball. Quarterbacks need to be able to throw. In hockey, every player has to be able to skate, pass, shoot and stick-handle. Hockey players can be so dazzling with their stick work and passing, it can be easy to forget they're performing all the movements while standing on ice and wearing steel blades strapped to their feet. The skating aspect alone makes hockey the more skilled sport. Put football players on skates and see how well they get around. But hockey players could easily slap on some shoes and play football.
Action
Football can be thrilling when a running back rips through the line or a quarterback and wide receiver connect on a long touchdown. All that excitement, though, lasts for a about five seconds, and then both teams stand around for 40 seconds while the players return to the huddle and the quarterback calls the next play. Football teams spend most of their time in huddles, with actual game play comprising only a small fraction of a 60-minute contest. Not so with hockey, in which each game is 60 minutes of action. The clock doesn't run unless the puck is in play. And there are no huddles or lengthy timeouts for substitutions. Hockey teams change players during live play, requiring no stop in the action.
Physicality
Without question, football is a brutal sport. Frightful collisions between enormous men occur on most every play. While hockey players can't match football players in sheer girth, their collisions are more frequent and performed at higher speeds. If play gets too rough, hockey players may also drop the gloves and settle their differences with punches. Boxing on ice never fails to entertain the masses.
Goaltending
Hockey goaltenders add a competitive element not found in football, where powerful teams will almost always stomp over-matched underdogs in boring, one-sided affairs. In hockey, goaltending is the great equalizer. A hot goaltender can take over games, dominating play with his athleticism and turning potential mismatches into thrilling contests.
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