Even if scripted, roller derby in the 70's took athleticisms and power. I agree the sport of roller derby is different now, but practitioners of the past deserve respect. The level of training/conditioning in all sports is very different now, does not mean past practitioners were not athletes. Comparisons across eras is difficult because standards change.
It is definitely a sport, although every time I've tried to watch it, I've been confused as hell. Even reading the rules confuses me. But I don't doubt it's actually as sport. Cricket is a sport and it's really confusing too.
There's a simplified, and faster, version called Twenty20 cricket which I kind of understand after watching a couple of games, but I'm still relatively confused.
I want to understand cricket. Something about a sport so complicated that most of the world is totally befuddled by it, but yet it is super popular in a lot of Commonwealth countries and independent former British colonies, intrigues me. But I've pretty much given up.
I know about Twenty20 and, while nowhere near as bad as Test Cricket, it's still basically bizarre baseball for damaged people pining for the "good" old days of more blatant British imperialism 😉
Btw, who the fuck calls the absolute pinnacle of excellence in their sport "test"? Ffs! 😄
I have long been puzzled by the word "Test" being used also. Best I can figure is that a Cricket match is a test of of the players know how to play correctly and a test for the fans in watching a whole match.
I assume that he's disparaging the act that soccer players put on to act like they're much more seriously injured than they are when fouled.
I would guess that the reason that some people really don't like that is that in some other sports, being able to play through the pain may be considered admirable, so culture friction.
Tbh the penalties for simulation in a lot of leagues have been turning the tides on the egregious theatrics. I'd agree what you were saying was a lot more prevalent, say a decade or so ago.
You'll still always be able to cherry pick incidents, and some leagues will be worse than others for it, but the game has moved on a bit, and you do see it way less frequently than we did even just a few years ago.
Edit: elsewhere in the thread reminded me of the other aspect of this
There's also the tactical fouls which are (whether you agree with it or not) part of the modern game. A player can weigh up the risk of getting sent off if they think it might prevent the opposition from otherwise scoring. These kinds of fouls can look pretty cynical to those unfamiliar with it, not least of all because they tend to also be softer than genuine fouls as the players tend to not want to actually injure themselves and others. So just enough of a foul to stop play, but ideally not even pick up a yellow card, and often in this scenario if the victim of the foul clocks what's going on, they'll try to hit the ground harder to increase the chances the fouling player gets booked.
A player (or even team) can probably only get away with this once or twice in a game before they piss off the ref though, and players will start getting sent off. In the same vein teams want to avoid getting a reputation for it too, otherwise they'll end up facing much closer scrutiny.