Good question.
I’ve played golf, tennis, ran track, played baseball and basketball competitively. Not football.
And while there are some very athletic people playing golf and tennis it’s more of individual skill sets and coordination not raw athletic ability like speed and size provide in the team sports.
We usually see a limited number of greater talents dominate the individual sports for longer periods of time.
The QB has become the more critical position in football, at least at the professional level because of the Salary Cap. He’s the one position you protect usually over the life of their career because it’s so difficult finding QB’s. In Amateur football the QB isn’t as vital to a team’s success because they can stockpile surrounding talent while having one does enhance the team.
In MLB the pitcher is most critical and why odds are based on who’s pitching. And NBA is usually limited to a handful or less of teams and players. Very individual talent driven.
I was born, raised and live in Germany. So my influence is more soccer which i played from 7 to around 13. So i am no professional here but made some experience in that sport. I played badminton for around 12 years. Decathlon, 100m sprints, played some basketball and tennis (but that was more out of fun because Boris Becker was my hero back in the days). I also played in The GFL ( thats germany's major league in american football). I played RB in my earlier "career " some OLB and QB. Later in the GFL mainly CB and some safety. I also had a girlfriend in Wales for a couple of years and was able to watch some Rugby games there. That brought me to playing football
.
I figure american football and especially on offense is a very systematic sport. I can't name another team sport that comparably works like it.
Especially on offense every player has a specific task to fullfill. If he makes a mistake it cant be compensated by another player on that sepcific play (with some minor exceptions of course). Most of the time the play ends with a negative outcome.
Some positions though can be successfull even if the player isnt able to do certains things. For instance WR. He can be very successful even if he isnt able to run all the routes or hasnt the whole understanding of what the idea of the offense really is about. Still he can compensate for it. TEs can be pure blockers and still florish or help the offense being successful.
But the QB position is much more demanding. If he cant throw the deep ball the offense will stall. No matter how good he is in understandig the system, reading defenses, making proper calls etc. Kellen Moore i guess is a good example.
The QB is the most exposed player on the field. He has to be at least good in everything to have his offense be really successful. He makes the calls, changes plays. Needs to have a deep understanding of defensive systems etc. Everything depends so much on him. If he throws a bad ball the play is dead. If a WR runs a wrong route the QB may still adjust and make a play to another guy. But DCs will pick your QB apart if they find a weaknes in his game.
As i said i have a good knowledge about soccer. But i cant Imaging a position there which has such a radical dependency on your teams success. Even for example Messi (a great argentinian soccer player who is a genius to some) and his position as a central midfielder to me isnt as vital to the sucess of a team.
Rugby ? No. Cricket ? I dont know enough of that sports but as it is related with baseball i would say no also.
There are of course a lot more team sports but i kind of find it hard to point out a position that is more vital to a team then the QBs. Maybe the headcoach
. (Well, in the end i couldnt resist, haha).
