Ben Clapperton

Business Intelligence Specialist at Steamforged Games. BA, MA, PhD in ancient stuff. All posts are my own.

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@rationalhumanis Otherwise you’d have to conclude that American football is a bad product because you can barely make a living playing it outside the US. When it’s actually the case that it developed in isolation from rugby and never got exported anywhere outside NA.

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@rationalhumanis So it seems far more likely that the two important factors as starting points are the sports which were already embedded in each country controlled for population size and GDP.

3/

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@shhhbreslin It should just be the position of the feet.

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@DanRiffle A player in both rugby codes is offside if they’re ahead of a teammate carrying the ball and they can’t take part in play until they get back onside. That is a moving line which isn’t painted on the field.

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@woodyVSworld Likewise a soccer forward only has to make sure they’re onside when the ball is played forward. They can move to gain space before it’s played and run ahead of the defense to reach the pass first. Something which happens literally all the time in a game of soccer.

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@woodyVSworld He’s not allowed to be beyond the ball before it’s snapped and can’t even move before it’s snapped if he’s lined up on the LOS. If he is beyond the LOS before the ball is snapped then he is… offside! 🤯

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@JackPosobiec Broke Titanic’s (joint) record which was also a movie about killing white people. When will it end?

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@VigilantFox Stephen wanting some of this sweet sweet presidential money for himself

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@ClappDescendant @implausibleblog I’m ashamed to have you descended from me

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@BristOliver Lad in the year ahead of me at school signed for Forest back when Clough was in charge. He was so good there was no point in him playing against the rest of us as we could never get the ball off him. Made 14 appearances for Forest and got sold to Swindon

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@dkrusmc0321 @uncanny_eli

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@Phinhead83 @AlbertBreer We always primarily called it football. We were also just not that bothered about using soccer as an alternative name prior to the 1990s as that’s name which differentiates it from the other football codes (much as what you call football I call American football)

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@Phinhead83 @AlbertBreer It was more the 1990s we got militant about calling it football. We always did call it football but were more willing to call it soccer as well to differentiate it from Rugby football.

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@AlbertBreer Both sports are called football. There’s seven football codes. You call the one dominant where you are ‘football’ and use the nickname for the other six.

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@3YearLetterman The Brits are so bad at soccer they’ve never even made a World Cup finals

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@ProjectStrider Those numbers aren’t accurate. At least 40 billion people watch the Super Bowl every day

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@stephenaltrogge Not one European nation has won the college football playoffs

[Ben Clapperton @BenClapperton]

@KRL_defi_ Everyone pays taxes. I’d rather have $7m left from $12m than $40k left from $50k