From a public perception standpoint, I shall never suggest that U.S.
football be metricated. Not only do Dr. Sherman's practical considerations
make it unworkable, but I don't think football fans would stand for it for a
moment. How the jokes would really fly then! The point is well taken,
though, that in a metric America of, say, 2075, would the referees, born
into metric units only, take out their measuring cable and say, "Fourth down
and 20 mm to go," when the field is still measured in yards?
Modern metrication is a technical change in the society, usually involving
commerce. Even Australia scrupulously avoided measurement issues that were
wholly cultural. There were no "metric langage police" in the streets
looking to cite someone who was talking in yards instead of meters. Where
U.S. football field measurement touches upon commerce should be left up to
the owners, fans, and players of the game. If I ever became a member of the
U.S. Metric Board, I would probably have a small subcommittee dealing with
this very issue, because it is such a sensitive one.
As U.S. society becomes wholly metric, the culture will follow. It will just
take time. Remember that it took 200 yearto stop quoting U.S. stock prices
in pieces of eight. Maybe the U.S. football field in the year 2200, when
nobody cares about yards, will be changed to 100 m. Maybe it will go in like
the designated hitter rule in the American (baseball) League (but this one
will be in both football leagues, please!)
Just MHO.
Paul T.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kimbrough Sherman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: 29 September, 2008 09:22
Subject: [USMA:41768] Re: Metric American Football
Forget metric American football! I cannot foresee problems converting any
sport other than football to SI, as Soccer (International Football) has
always had difficult metric measures for dimensions created in yards. But
American football has two almost impossible barriers to conversion.
1. If we could convert all specifications from yards to meters, it
would be hard to compare past performances with 10 yards for a first down
to 10 meters or to use 9 meter measures as the qualification for a first
down.
2. If "ten yards" became 10 meters, no stadium in the NFL, and probably
few stadia in the college ranks could accommodate a 120 meter by 50 meter
field. Maintaining yards as a football measure may have to stay for ever,
and to my mind, it wouldn't matter. I wouldn't care if horse racing kept
their furlongs, as long as the total race length is stated in meters.
Moving "quarter mile" posts to 400 meters would be no harder than the
conversion of running tracks thirty years ago.
Nonetheless, I think that the use of "millimeter" as a term of very short
distance is no small event. If this time it doesn't move into the U.S.
public consciousness, the next use will.
A. Kimbrough Sherman
Associate Professor
Dept. of Information Systems
and Operations Management
Loyola College in Maryland
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore 21210
410.617.2460 Fax.2118
"Ziser, Jesse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 9/27/2008 10:21 PM >>>
This does not surprise me.
I think people who grew up in the United States and were taught metric
alongside WOMBATs sometimes
kind of mentally mix the two into one set of units. They see metric units
as filling in the
gaps. "centimeter" is sometimes (uncommonly) used in conversation to mean
"about a half-inch",
and millimeters are (more commonly) used for smaller lengths just because
the US "system" doesn't
provide a small enough unit. Speaking in "32nds of an inch" or some such
verbose nonsense just
isn't worth consuming the extra joules.
I've said it before: I really do believe most Americans know more metric
than they think they do.
--- James Frysinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
With a bit over 2 min left in the third quarter and just after a
reviewed call on a possible safety, the ball was placed "one millimeter
from the goal line", according to the lead announcer on the ESPN
broadcast.
Ironically, a penalty backed the ball back up into the end zone
resulting in a call of a safety against Indiana and in favor of Michigan
State.
That's my first observation of metric units being used in American
football. Yep, she said "one millimeter".
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
