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Football to me is the ultimate team sport (at least at the pro level). The kind of coordination that it involves is just insane, as opposed to sports like basketball (which I hate) or baseball (which I love). There is still a one-on-one aspect to the game, individuals making plays, but 99.9999999% of the time those highlight plays are the result of 10 guys doing something to get the 11th guy free.
In baseball, in the end it almost always boils down to the pitcher versus the batter, and then the batter/baserunner against an individual fielder. Many plays you'll have 2 guys touch the ball, sometimes 3 or more. But it's generally, talking about the defensive side of it, always about executing the same exact set of moves, dependent on the situation. It's not rocket science, and it never has been.
Basketball I won't talk about because I don't really watch it, and couldn't give it a fair summation....
I think with football, in a lot of ways you think of it as these big dumb jocks playing a game, but, especially now-a-days, there's a real chess-like quality to it. About putting guys into positions, and creating opportunities, often by setting things up early in the game that don't get exploited until (much) later. Playbooks with hundreds of plays, offenses trying to outthink defense, who try in turn to outthink them right back. It's not just about strength and speed, although they're always going to be a major part of it.
It's really cool.
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