Just as George Carlin once famously compared football and baseball, a comparison of football and basketball - and their underlying natures - might show why we struggle with one and succeed at another...

Football is played outdoors, in any weather short of lightning, in any temperatures above -40º F (except Green Bay where -60º is allowed) and below 140º. Basketball is played indoors, in climate controlled conditions around 68º (though there was that one season when the Lexington Thoroughblades used Rupp and the block of ice under the court was chilling things down to 59º )

In basketball the ball carrier is required to drop the ball against the surface of play repeatedly. This is known as dribbling. In football this is known as fumbling.

In football the object of the game is to capture enemy territory in ten yard parcels, ultimately driving the ball into the endzone. In basketball you throw the ball into a basket. The farther from the basket you stand, the more you score.

In basketball almost any physical contact with the ball carrier could become a foul, especially if you knock him on his backside. In football the latter is called a tackle and is both expected and required to end the play. Malcom White at LSU doesn't understand this particular difference as we saw last year in his foul of Anthony Davis.

Football is a game of downs - what down is it? Basketball (and baseball as well) is a game of ups - who's up next? Take the ball up to the basket.

In football the most common reason players leave the game - injury. In basketball - fouls.

In basketball the most points the offense can score on a drive is 3. In football 3 is the least the offense can score.

Basketball players compete mostly unarmored, where football players have enough gear on to impress a medieval knight.

Finally, the origin of football is as a men's collegiate sport so violent that, in 1910, Congress actually considered banning it. Basketball's beginning? A women's gymnastics exercise. Keeping this in mind recall that a football game is divided into quarters and a pro or high school basketball game is divided into periods. Coincidence?

Hope you laughed.