An Indian Who Loves American Football
Yesterday was the eagerly anticipated beginning of the football season (The National Football League (NFL)). All the teams in the country played a game except the Pittsburg Steelers (the defending Super Bowl champions) and the Tennessee Titans who played a game against each other on Thursday. For most of the season (the season
ends with the Super Bowl in the first or second week of February) games are played only on two days (Sunday and Monday). There is only one game on Monday and it is called Monday Night Football. Each team plays 16 games.
American Football is a game that originated from Rugby. The first football game was played in 1869 between Princeton University and Rutgers University. The first professional football league was formed in 1903. This is a game with a long established tradition. The beginning of the football season means different things to different people. If you like summer and hanging around in the beaches then the football season marks the end of summer and time for you to get back to school.
It is the other way around for me. I like the fall and the winter. The changing of colors of the leaves and watching the leaves fall down one by one is a sight to remember. This is followed by winter which is my favorite time of the year. I love walking on the snow and breathing the chill air. Driving on the snow is even better (this experience can be thrilling if you have a car that has manual transmission and not automatic). After a week of battling the snow, on Sunday’s you huddle up with your friends and family, drink some beer and watch your favorite team beat up on their opponent!
I am a sports fan and watch all types of sports. My top five are Football (Professional and College), Cricket, Baseball, Basketball and Soccer. In America very few of my Indian friends watch Football. I think it is mainly because they do not take the time to understand the game. The game has a great design and will appeal to fans who love both the physical and mental aspects of sports. It is a very violent sport and it is common to see players getting hurt on the field and also see players playing hurt. Most of the players play whether they have broken bones and stitches and bandages all over their body (you can be in jail for years if you “hit” outside the playing field they way you do during a game). Of course the games rarely stop due to bad weather. It is fun watching these games when there is so much snow on the ground.
The intensity is enormous. Every game is very important because you play only 16 games in a season. The only thing that comes close to this is the feeling that I used to have watching some India-Pakistan cricket games in the eighties (there were some very high quality players on both sides and those cricket games meant a lot more for both the countries than just wins or losses on the field). Cricket does not do it for me anymore because most of the current crops of Indian cricketers are stars created by the media. They have very little to show for in terms of winning when it matters. The players have become larger than the system which was never the case back in the day.
My favorite football team is the Philadelphia Eagles. This team was established in 1933 (the Eagles were named after the Blue Eagle which is a symbol used for the stimulus programs undertaken during the great depression. Stimulus anyone !!). I am following this team for the past 16 years. They are one of the elite teams in the league but their play has fallen off in the past three years. They have my blind support because they are my hometown team. Without them I do not know how I would pass time on Sundays during winter. NOTE: My Eagles beat the Panthers in the opener 38 to 10.
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- India Playing Cricket in Empty Stadiums
Category: Sports & Entertainment