SUPERBOWL

The American Football Superbowl is on tomorrow. That means I am getting up at 7 AM Perth time to watch the thing. In the US, it's on later, and in Sydney it's on at 10 AM, which is about when I usually get out of bed. (Lucky me!) But tomorrow, it's 7 AM, which means my brother will awaken me at 6 AM so that he can get some jolly good laughs at me waking up! (Only 4 hours away. Lucky me!) My brother took the day off to watch this game. I used to play it, so I have an interest. He really doesn't understand it much, but took the day off so that he can watch it with me. I remember the first time we watched an American Football match on TV together. We were sharing a house in Sydney with my old flatmate Paul and my wife at the time Christine. (Ex-wife now. Someone once asked if my wife was a MAN because I always called her Chris! It hadn't occurred to them that Chris was short for Christine! DUFUS! Of course, if they had actually met her, it would have been obvious.) Well, we were all watching the match (because I don't believe in women fetching the beers for the men. Men have two bloody legs and can get their own beer.) So the four of us were watching the game. The centre snapped the ball, and my brother Jeffrey turned and said, "Nice Hutt!" "What?" (All three of us said this to him at the same time). I had to explain to him, the SNAP of the ball is called a SNAP! NOT A HUTT. Just because the Quarter back says, "Twenty two blue! Twenty two blue! Hutt! Hutt!" at the line of scrimage, doesn't mean it's called a "hutt"! I am always amazed at the ignorance some people have for the game. I am forever encountering people at parties or work who tell me what a bunch of girls the American's are for playing with so much padding on. I can tell them, the padding doesn't stop you getting hurt. As someone who has played, Rugby (League and Union), Soccer, Aussie Rules and American Football, I have never been hurt so much in all my life as when I played the American brand. First thing I did was blow a lung, before ever playing a game. That's not to do with the game so much, as to do with an asthma attack I had at training. It ended up swelling my lung up, and causing some pretty bad problems. It could have happened in any game. Getting to real injuries though - Shin splints, broken eighth rib on left side, ankle problems, knee problems, damage & infection to my right foot, where the Doctor was talking about AMPUTATING it. (Yes, she wanted to take it off, because she said I was going to loose the leg!) Needless to say, I refused, and still have both my foot and leg to this day! I heal well. Broken nose. Blood nose on other occassions. After first game, was missing most of the skin on my arms, and badly bruised in the BACK on the left hand side (right side was only slightly bruised. Or might have been otherway round). Second game saw me get knocked out! Yes, I was hit that hard! BAM! In every other code of football, I never broke a bone. I admit, I'd lost some skin and got plenty of knocks and bruises in Aussie rules, and Rugby. I even got some nasty hits in the face, and a face gouge or two (but I also had guys try that in American football too ... just harder for them when you wear a helmet and face mask). Soccer, I copped a lot of hacks to the legs or shins. Which game did I find was the toughest. As far as injuries, American Football! The padding doesn't stop you breaking bones, or getting bruised, knocked out, broken nosed or injured at all. All it really does, is stop you getting killed. (Yes, you can quote Seinfeld. Why invent a helmet and keep doing a stupid thing. Just stop doing the stupid thing!) Well, I'm not knocking the other codes, I'm not calling the people who play them wimps. (Unlike what they say about the American Game). I love these games. They are great fun to play. Just, when people start saying American Football is for wimps, it shows their own ignorance of the toughness required to play the game. Whenever someone would claim it was a wimpy game, I always used to challenge them to come down and play. Not one person took me up on the offer. Of course, the other extreme was people who once hearing about my injuries, would then take the opposite tack. If it was so injury causing, then it should be banned. It's amazing how they could change from forward to reverse so quick. Yes, first it's wimpy, then it's too rough and should be banned! Let's put it into a bit of persepective. If you don't like the game, then don't play it or watch it. No one is forcing you to. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean you can invent reasons to ridicule it, or try to get it banned. People die in all sorts of sports, from Football codes, to lawn bowls. (and sports more or less extreme than both of these!) Let those who play each sport, play them and enjoy them. At least they're getting some exercise. I'm now thirty nine, so I am a bit too old to play football of any code. (Not without much pain anyway!) Maybe some squash and tennis is the way to go, or even golf. Either way, it was fun that I was able to experience all those forms of the game while I was young. Before you critisize any of these games, please, learn a bit about them first. I haven't met anyone who has played American Football who came away saying it was wimpy. (In fact, everyone I know, loved the game). Let's hope it is a good game tomorrow, and pray that everyone will come out of it alive. [As a Dolphin's fan, we've come off our worst year EVER! We only won four games! Still, the N.E. Patriots are in the same division, so I'm going for them tomorrow!] Go the Patriots! And Go the Dolphins Next Year. May your team fair well next year, in which ever sport you may or may not follow.