COME ON, SOUTHGATE, GIVE US SOME GAZBALL... PUNTERS WILL LOVE IT!

ALTHOUGH American football has long been a staple on our TV screens, the casual observer is probably not up to speed with its intricacies.

So, when the Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell declined to take a relatively routine field-goal opportunity and instead tried to convert a fourth down in the NFC Championship game last Sunday, the significance of his decision may have passed some people by.

But, at the time, with 22 minutes of the game remaining, his Lions led San Francisco by 14 points – and adding a three-point field goal would have meant the 49ers would need to get at least three scores to win.

If you want to think of an equivalent, imagine a rugby team leading by 14 points at that stage and not kicking a penalty from in front of the sticks, but instead trying to run it in for a try... and failing to run it in for a try. And then going on to LOSE the match.

Think of going all-out for the jugular, but ending up paying for it. That is what happened to the Lions and Campbell (right) – who, later in the game, did it again – but the coach has no regrets in the way he fell one step short of the Super Bowl.

That is the way we play, he essentially said.

It was Bazball in the USA, and representative of a culture change in sport – one in which coaches, whether it be Detroit’s Campbell or England’s Brendon ‘Bazball’ Mccullum in cricket, challenge convention.

It was not quite Ange Postecoglou still playing a gung-ho high line when his Tottenham were down to nine men, but all spawned by the same mentality.

Talking of Ange, why is he loved when a couple of his notable predecessors were not?

Postecoglou’s first 22 Premier League games as Spurs manager brought 43 points. Antonio Conte’s first 22 league games as Spurs manager brought 42 points.

True, Jose Mourinho needed 24 Premier League games as Spurs manager to bring in his first 41 points... but not huge differences.

What a world of difference all the same. That difference is Ange’s gung-ho high line. His style is fun. Following sport is an expensive business nowadays. The tickets, the transport, those TV subscriptions, all that merchandise, etc.

To simply grind out wins is not good enough any more. These are worrying, difficult times – sport as escapism works, if it is entertaining.

And any coach or player or athlete who challenges the conventions – and consequently puts themselves at greater risk of being defeated – should be lauded.

In Campbell’s approach in that NFL game, in Mccullum’s approach to England’s cricket team, there is a sense of adventure that is becoming more and more important to so many sports fans.

That is why even if Mourinho gets a new job in the Premier League, it will NOT be one at a marquee club.

And perhaps that is why Three Lions manager Gareth Southgate’s popularity does not appear to tally with his impressive results? His conservatism has cost him in careerdefining matches.

So maybe now, if and when England get to the later stages of the Euros, Southgate (left) might go all-campbell, all-mccullum. Might finally produce Gazball.

For entertainment’s sake, let’s hope so.