Of the major sports is football the least skilled?

I mean its a completely subjective statement.

However, I will say, that you have to work at whatever it is you do at any position year round.

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of all of the sports. The "skills" involved vary greatly position to position, which doesn't exist in the other sports. So there is greater opportunity for someone to specialize in one aspect of football. A track star could be a kick returner, a weight lifter might turn into an interior lineman, a power forward can play tight end, etc etc.

Could have successfully played in the NBA as a high school sophomores.

because Ereck Flowers proves you can get by in the NFL on size and strength alone.

Most of the skills needed to successfully play baseball are developed during youth. Learning to develop an eye to distinguish a 90+mph fastball vs an 88 mph slider that will drop out of the zone.

Or throwing a breaking ball. Fielding a ground ball properly. Etc.

Same with hockey in terms of the need to know how to skate. Much easier to learn as a kid.

Having played adult softball after my baseball career, you can tell the people who never learned to throw or hit properly. Their mechanics are stiff. That's why softball is so popular.

As for football, besides QB (maybe kicker) or defensive back, I don't know how much "skill" is needed rather than just raw athleticism.

Most anyone can learn how to play basketball. Obviously taller or more agile people will fare better.

of basketball players, particularly centers who pick up the game in a short period of time is pretty long. There are some colleges that will recruit raw, tall players in the hopes they develop.

What does that have in common with football?

Both sports utilize people who make up a small subset of the population. There aren't many 7 footers roaming the Earth, just like there aren't many athletic 350 pound people.

Both sports also can be played by a lot of people. On the schoolyard court or grass field, you'll find plenty of people who can play well. Can shoot, can catch. Can throw. But in basketball, 5'9" guys who can do things decently aren't close to what the professional needs are, just like a 175 pound guy who can block in a flag football game isn't worth anything on the NFL field. It is less about skill and more about physical size

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It it the most diverse, positionally Lafferty, Daniel : 10:13 am : link : reply of all of the sports. The "skills" involved vary greatly position to position, which doesn't exist in the other sports.

I actually feel this way about baseball. The elements that go into:

- Pitching
- Hitting
- Playing defense

Are all so different.

where you are, but this hasn't been the case for me:

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Maybe there's a reason there are few adult baseball or hockey leagues DC Gmen Fan : 10:22 am : link : reply Most of the skills needed to successfully play baseball are developed during youth

The Charlotte area has a lot of both. I played in an adult baseball league from the time I was 23 until I was 44. There was both the National Adult Baseball Assn (NABA) league as well as an area league. Plus there are leagues in Greenville, Raleigh, Atlanta and Greensboro that I know of.

We have at least two rinks that have hockey leagues, and each rink has several leagues participating

In comment 14014051 DC Gmen Fan said:

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Most of the skills needed to successfully play baseball are developed during youth. Learning to develop an eye to distinguish a 90+mph fastball vs an 88 mph slider that will drop out of the zone. Or throwing a breaking ball. Fielding a ground ball properly. Etc. Same with hockey in terms of the need to know how to skate. Much easier to learn as a kid. Having played adult softball after my baseball career, you can tell the people who never learned to throw or hit properly. Their mechanics are stiff. That's why softball is so popular. As for football, besides QB (maybe kicker) or defensive back, I don't know how much "skill" is needed rather than just raw athleticism. Most anyone can learn how to play basketball. Obviously taller or more agile people will fare better.

Even when I lived in DC men's hockey was big. I played in Fairfax every week. and this was mid=90's. I also played in an embassy league which was brutal (each embassy hated the others so much there were fights every night). I played as a sub one of the US teams.

Now, in MA and throughout the Northeast there are tons of adult rec leagues. My league now plays in one facility in Marlborough, MA that has 8 rinks. largest facility in north america I believe and we still play at 10 or 11pm at night often and there are hundreds of teams.

hockey may be skilled and maybe even the hardest to pick up late in life, but there are tons of men's leagues, more so in the northeast, but all over the country.

I played a bit of adult baseball a while back but my arm is completely shot. I threw harder when I was 14 years old.

Could still hit though :). Even recently, on a trip to the cage for my son, I stepped in to prove to him that the old man can get the bat on the ball and still acquitted myself OK for an out of shape 41 year old who hasn't swung a bat in a decade.

I played in NABA too.

I should have said relative to the number of softball leagues.

pitching aside -- you need to be able to do them all to play. A baseball player generally needs to be able to throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball.
In football player A can be a 320 lb. dude whos only job is to plug gaps and tackle, while someone else is 190 lb speedster whos job is solely taking the top off the defense and running fast deep. Almost like they're playing completely different sports. A bit different than the difference of shortstop and center field. Pitcher definitely applies, but most of the mechanics of throwing a baseball are shared by position players and pitchers.

kind of allows for baseball to have people who cannot or do not catch and throw well.

In comment 14014052 FatMan in Charlotte said:

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of basketball players, particularly centers who pick up the game in a short period of time is pretty long. There are some colleges that will recruit raw, tall players in the hopes they develop. What does that have in common with football? Both sports utilize people who make up a small subset of the population. There aren't many 7 footers roaming the Earth, just like there aren't many athletic 350 pound people. Both sports also can be played by a lot of people. On the schoolyard court or grass field, you'll find plenty of people who can play well. Can shoot, can catch. Can throw. But in basketball, 5'9" guys who can do things decently aren't close to what the professional needs are, just like a 175 pound guy who can block in a flag football game isn't worth anything on the NFL field. It is less about skill and more about physical size

Agree with this we actually spoke about the fact that height in basketball is the one exception. Being 7ft tall will get you more time to develop vs being 6'5" in basketball

LOL.

Is a good sport for little kids for reasons. Tennis and golf is hard as hell.

A pro qb reading defenses and making 5 reads in several seconds is also very difficult.

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sports is hit a 90+ MPH fastball!

In comment 14014062 Greg from LI said:

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I played a bit of adult baseball a while back but my arm is completely shot. I threw harder when I was 14 years old. Could still hit though :). Even recently, on a trip to the cage for my son, I stepped in to prove to him that the old man can get the bat on the ball and still acquitted myself OK for an out of shape 41 year old who hasn't swung a bat in a decade.

I did the same, but against live pitching. In my son's last practice of the year, one of our 2 main pitchers was running his mouth and got his dad (the HC) to take BP and he was trying to strike his dad out. This is a 13 year old, but he has some heat. His dad had a couple of nice line drives. Then I stepped in. His first pitch was at my ankle and I took a half swing to tap it back to him. That got his mouth going. His next 5 pitches were nowhere near the plate and his dad is yelling at him to throw strikes. The next pitch went about 350 feet and he shut up. The pitch after that was a rocket line drive into the opposite field gap. I then stopped swinging and laid down 3 perfect bunts.

It was fun to hit a live baseball for the first time in MANY years. I've been playing softball, which doesn't have the thrill. I never played in an adult league because in the NYC area the teams I found were all outside the city and I wasn't gung-ho enough to drive an hour or more to practice during the week.

Even for the biggest guys, technique is very important. And, these days, OL and DL run as fast as some skill players did years ago.

But, football is probably the most cerebral of all the major sports. No other sport has the extensive playbook that the NFL has.

You simply cannot play the game as much as you can in such sports as Soccer and Basketball---you'd use up your body trying.

Outside of the Catch and Throw specialists, no other players can practice with the intensity and time commitment as the other sports.

Largely, football is very segmented by specific skills and athleticism by position...I believe it's actually a better sport for Coaches and Fans than it is for the Athletes.

I'm left with a love-hate relationship to the game I played--- I'd dreamt of coaching through college, but fell out of love with the game as my college career ended. When my sons threw me Footballs, I threw them back---but I rolled Soccer Balls and Baseballs and Basketballs and Golf Balls AT Them...and disuaded them from playing a game now built around brute force and Tactics.

No finesses here. Man on man competition most of the time.

The best o-lineman are skilled in lowering thier center of graviy and blocking... this is a skill that some players have and others ( Erik Flowers?) do not. Being a good route runner makes a reciver a better player in the NFL than a reeciver who does not make the sharp cuts and ROUNDS OUT his routes. Being a good route runner is a skill that not all recievers have. Being a good linebacker requires skill and we as Giants fans should know this from some of the bad LBs we had under Reese. Being a good saftey requires skill in anticipating and quickly diagnosing where a play is going... Not all safteys have this skill. Cornerbacks have to have good concentration skills keeping thier eyes on the recivers eyes and hands to anticpate when the ball ia about to arrive. Some Corners have this Skill others do not. Certaily RBs require great skills of speed and agility. If you are comparing football to the ablity of a baseball player to hit a round ball with a round bat traveling at 95 MPH, or the abilty of a basketball player to hit a 30 foot jump shot clean through the hoop or a scoccer players ability to control a round ball with his feet and head then you may say that football is not as skillfull as those sports. But it still requires a high level of SKILL to play in the NFL. And the differnce in level of skill between an NFL player and somseone in College or the CFL is signicant.