Football And Basketball Similarities

There are many differences and some similarities between football and basketball. In this paper I will explain to the reader aspects that are similar and aspects that are different between the sport.

The court that one would play on in basketball may be smaller than a football field, but an individual would have to do much more running up and down than they would do in football. Basketball a more demanding sport on a player’s lungs than football is because of the fact that a player has to run almost continuously back and forth down the court, which keeps the blood pumping. In contrast, football players switch between the three units offense, defense, and special teams. Because of these switches of role, an offensive player can cool down or

even get cold while the defense is on the field, so on the next possession the offense could perform poorly because they sat down and cooled off and get cold and have a bad possession. The third unit in football, called special teams, is unique because it contains both offensive and defensive players. Some of these players don’t play offense or defense and only play special teams.
Football is a more singled out sport because an athlete only has to be good at one position to be good or considered “the greatest.” In basketball, on the other hand, a player has to be a good all-around player: he or she must possess some skills in every position to be considered the greatest to ever play. One possible exception to this rule in football is a position called wide receiver, the job of the wideout or wide receiver is to run the path drawn up by the coach and make himself as open as possible to receiving the ball so the team gains yardage, or possibly scores. On running plays, however, a wideout has to block for the running back (the player that normally lines up with the quarterback, and who also runs ball). These are the only things receivers have to do unless they are on special teams, so in order to be the best at that position one just has to get a lot of catching yards and receptions in their career and they are the greatest in that one position. In basketball, an athlete has to be good all-around, because if just one part of a player’s game is missing then they cannot say they are the best. For example if a player is a force to be reckoned with on offense but they can't really play defense, this player couldn’t say they are the greatest to ever play because of the fact that this athlete can’t play both sides of the ball very effectively . Looking at this argument from the other side, one could see that a player is fantastic on defense but can’t really shoot very well, and can’t really dribble. In this case someone could say they are a great defensive player, but that person isn’t the greatest player in general because they cannot bring the same talent to the offensive side.
In basketball, there are many injuries to players every season, sometimes to the same player over and over, other times one injury to many players on one team.

However, it’s in the type of injuries that tend to occur that basketball and football are very different. If someone looked at most of those injuries in basketball, they could see that most of them are not brain injuries, but rather are more than likely broken bones or a sprains. These injuries are nothing compared to the brain trama a player can get from playing football. In football, there have been great players who have retired because the game has gotten too dangerous for them. These men have families they have to support, and if they are relying on football to do so and they get a brain injury they could be seriously hurt or even paralyzed and then all of a sudden they can not support their families anymore so there goes there funds to support them. For instance, Patrick Willis was an extraordinary player who retired because he did not want to risk getting injured playing football. He played football professionally for eight years, playing great when he retired, he was at the top of his game but he chose to to retire, all because the NFL concussion protocol was not strict enough and he didn’t wanna take the chance of getting seriously hurt. “I was drafted number 11 when somebody said I wasn't a top linebacker I felt like I had something to give back. That's why I do the way I go, practice the way I practice, treat people the way I treat them I am so humbled,” This was a quote from Patrick Willis’ retirement speech, when I watched the video of his retirement press conference and I heard him say this, it was honestly saddening to hear this come from him because he was still a great player when he

retired.
Although it’s possible readers might still like the sport of football more than basketball. But honestly with the concussion trouble one would go through in football and the fact that you can never be the absolute greatest player of all time, or the fact that basketball is better for your lungs would you really wanna keep playing football?