American Football

American readers can now switch off. You do not need to read this, as all this stuff is bread and butter to you. But to us Europeans, these are matters of deep mystery, in much the same way, I guess, as cricket puzzles non-Brits.

We have now “done” American Football, having been to see the local University football team, Minnesota University, known as the “Gophers”. Denis and Kay are season ticket holders. Kay gave up her seat, and Denis took us and Jim Barrington. What an experience.

Now you would think that you turn up, park the car and go in to the stadium. Oh foolish fellow. No. We start with “Tailgating”. This is not sitting on someone’s bumper on a motorway, but enjoying a Barbeque and a beer, at the back of your car, in the stadium parking lot, together with 1,000 or so other fans. For this, of course, you need to arrive 2 hours before kick-off. I bet you didn’t know all that. Fantastic. Who thinks this stuff up? (But don’t worry – it would probably be banned in England on Health and Safety grounds)

Then there is the band. Not any old band, but a 300+ person affair (I did not count them – you are welcome to try). They not only play at the start and half time, but keep up a constant level of musical activity throughout the game at levels of energy that defy description.

What you don’t know is that we have spent several weeks learning some of the basic rules, mostly from the Internet and friendly restaurant waiters. So you must “make 10 yards in 4 downs” and you get 6 points for a touchdown. This requires serious effort. Denis also gave us a summary in the parking lot, while we were tailgating and there was no end of useful hints on what was happening from the surrounding fans.

Oh yes – and the result. Well, being Ipswich Town Football club supporters we were well prepared for the outcome. Starting off as favourites, we lost to North Illinois 34 – 23. Oh dear. Plenty of unhappy fans. Denis suggested that I would be popular by suggesting that the coach should be fired. He was right! (Similarities with English soccer here). For those of you interested, here is a link to the match report, as seen from the viewpoint of North Illinois.

http://www.niuhuskies.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/092610aab.html


A quick mention of timeouts. We had learnt about these (Each side is allowed to call three timeouts of a minute each, per half). What I had not realised was that Television also can call timeouts for Adverts. Guess where most of the timeouts came from. Timeouts, plus the fact that the clock stops when play stops, means that one hour’s play plus 20 minute halftime, results in 3 hours 30 minutes of entertainment. When the man in the red cap from the television steps on to the pitch, the game stops. Now that is power!!