American football is the most complex and strategic of all popular sports.

My first argument will attempt to portray the complexity of American Football. Complexity is generally used to characterize something with many parts where those parts interact with each other in multiple ways (Wikipedia). In other words, complex means many interacting variables. I'd like to focus on four categories that can be used in any sport as an indication of complexity: variety of roles, variety of plays, variety of rules, and variety of ways to score. American Football dominates everyone of these categories. Roles In no other sport do we see the amount of roles, and especially the difference between those roles than we do in American Football. It is the only sport I can think of in which the offensive players don't transition to defensive players. There are 6 unique defensive roles, and 8 unique offensive roles. There are an additional 22 roles for special teams, for a total of about 36 totally different roles played by different players. These roles require completely different skill sets, play memorization, and physical ability. An offensive lineman has a completely different experience than a wide receiver, and a quarterback in no way mirrors a running back's role. It's almost as if they are all playing entirely different games simultaneously. This is not true for other sports. In soccer, or hockey, or basketball, you could swap two players roles and although the team would struggle, the game would still go on and remain somewhat competitive. A defensive soccer player could play as a forward if they had to. A first baseman in baseball could play as outfielder. But a wide receiver could never be an offensive lineman, nor could a quarterback ever be a running back. The team would be massacred. These roles don't just require completely different knowledge and skill sets, they require completely different body types. For these reasons, there is no sport on the planet that has as much diversity in roles than what we see in football. Plays This is simple. No other sport has as many play varieties as football. There are anywhere from 500-800 plays in an NFL offensive playbook. Not only is each play different from the other, but they fall into categories that are very different as well. You have passes (slant, deep, screen, fade, swing, flare), you have runs (power, dive, sweep, counter), you have fake run passes (play action), you have fake pass runs (draw), and a variety of trick plays. There are also hundreds of formations proceeding the play including special teams plays. I don't really see how this point is debatable. No other sport even compares to the variety of plays we see in football. The more plays the more complex the play calling and execution. Rules I'm not 100% on this one, but I think football has more rules than any other sport. If not, it is certainly amongst the top. A large rule book obviously adds to the complexity of a game, making it more difficult to understand, navigate and execute. Scoring You can score 4 different amounts of points in football in 3 different ways. You can score 1, 2, 3, or 6 points. You can score by kicking the ball between two posts (field goal or extra point). You can score by tackling the opposing player in their own end zone (safety). And you can score by bringing the ball into the end zone (touchdown). A touchdown can be scored in two ways, running the ball into the end zone, or catching the ball in the end zone. I can't think of any other sport that has as many different scoring options as football. These variations in scoring add to the complexity of play calling and decision making in a game. I believe I have clearly and objectively shown that American football is the most complex and layered of all sports. No other sport has more variety in roles, plays, rules, or scoring. In some of these categories, no other sport is even close. I now turn it over to Con. . http://en.wikipedia.org...