You might be wondering why I put football in the title of my blog when I've hardly discussed it. All I can say is wait until the season starts! As for right now it's kind of hard to write about it when nothing new is going on besides mini-camps and the fact that Adrian Peterson missed a mandatory Vikes practice to go celebrate himself in his hometown (isn't that nice?). But that's all part and parcel to being a football fan. You know the saying "you never know what you got until it's gone?" Well, the off season is our insurance that we never take the game for granted. I have gotten tired of a lot of things, but never football. In fact, I am feeling anxious for the season to start already!
Some people say football is "just a game", and with a roll of the eyes and a wave of their hand they dismiss it. This pisses me off. Of course football is a game, it's a super awesome game!
I think one of the things that non-sports people don't get is the complex strategy involved in every play of every game. Non-sports people are like, "What's the big deal? Some overpaid pretty boy throws a ball and 21 other guys run around like idiots trying to get it."
What's the big deal?!? I'll tell you!
Not only do players statistics, and injury status factor into the play calls, but so do things like match ups between players, wind speed and direction, ground conditions, which quarter they're in, and time left in the game. It's like chess in that each team tries several possessions in advance to predict what the other team will do, and circumvent the their plans. It's like war with positions and lines, deception and combat, except (happily) nobody dies. There is so much information taken into consideration for every play (for every player in every position) that I find it hard to believe those guys can keep it all straight and do whatever it is they are supposed to, and equally hard to think that other people are not fascinated by their ability to do so. There has been a stereotype that jocks are dumb, (the same stereotype has been applied to my own field of geology, and thus "rocks for jocks" became the unofficial title of Geology 101) but that is simply untrue. Football players may not unify general relativity and quantum physics but their reflexes are unsurpassed, their split second decision making skills are higher than most, and their observational skills would put Nancy Drew to shame. That's why it's so exciting!
I love watching how the game unfolds. I like figuring out why a play was called over another, I like to watch the fluidity of 11 guys all doing exactly what they are supposed to at the right time, and the (sometimes) fantastic results. I like when the quarterback or the defensive captain changes the play in reply to something they've seen across the field. It's like watching a choreographed routine where at any second the whole thing can change, but no one on the floor misses a beat. They all know what to do...they've practiced it a million times. I enjoy shouting at the TV when I think the coach or a player made the wrong call, and I could have done it better. I like when a risky play gets called and everyone knows the odds are stacked against it, but they go for it anyway.
Yes my friend football is a game...the best one there is.
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