Have we? Is it really that common if you aren't a player/cheerleader? I have stood on an American football field only once and that's because I was helping out a friend capture audio of the game. I've certainly seen them on TV, but that doesn't really give a great sense of distance. I've seen the Statue of Liberty on TV a lot and that's about a 100 yards too.
I think that people keep complaining about it because it's clearly a flawed way to measure something, but people still keep using it because we don't really have something better to replace it with. We just don't have enough things around us that are measured reliably and consistently I guess.
Don't think we had a football field of either kind anywhere. The big sports were basketball and wrestling then baseball third (we had a baseball diamond). We had a 1/4 mile track for the runners. When they taught us soccer in PE class we played indoors on the basketball court.
I've only ever lived in "small town USA" so I guess I didn't consider what a privileged it was to have the space for a field. The current town that I live in (population 10000) has at least 3 or 4 fields. All publicly accessible by anyone for recreation (this probably is pretty uncommon these days with schools becoming more locked down)
I just looked up Google Maps of my old HS and inside the 400m track there are now both football lines + uprights and soccer lines and goals. Those weren't there when I was in HS.
It's also roughly the same size as a high school soccer field so in my town that didn't have football but did have track and soccer, it's still a relatable measurement.
I'm glad it wasn't just me! Although maybe we both somehow missed out on a quintessential high school experience and all the cool kids were hanging out in the middle of a field for some reason.
Have we? Is it really that common if you aren't a player/cheerleader? I have stood on an American football field only once and that's because I was helping out a friend capture audio of the game. I've certainly seen them on TV, but that doesn't really give a great sense of distance. I've seen the Statue of Liberty on TV a lot and that's about a 100 yards too.
I think that people keep complaining about it because it's clearly a flawed way to measure something, but people still keep using it because we don't really have something better to replace it with. We just don't have enough things around us that are measured reliably and consistently I guess.