I Miss Football!

I don't know why but this morning I had a breeze of nostalgia blow though my bones. I don't know about anyone else out there but I was missing football. There's no explanation other than the completely inadequate set of sports that are currently available to watch including basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, or the impending Olympics. Each of them has their appeal but no other sport provides for me what football does. I think it is because I know football football so well.

The most important part of watching the sport is to understand the complexities of it. I've played and coached it so I appreciate a great pull block or a precise post pattern.

I appreciate things I know and tend to be totally clueless about what I don't know. A good example is when I learn a new word. Suddenly, I begin hearing that word in conversations or seeing it in print. I wonder at such times how much meaning have I missed by not knowing that word? And how did I get along without it in the first place? Did I simply stand and nod my head when it was used like some bobble-head baseball toy?

Now baseball is a good example of a sport I have no understanding of. I know that there is a complex game of chess going on out there but I have never been introduced it. I only know that baseball games are fun to go to and lousy to watch on television. And to be truthful, I only like to go to them to eat hot dogs, drink beer, boo the umpire and sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". Baseball needs a John Madden who writes on screens and uses descriptive language to help the uneducated understand the game a little better.

Basketball is also a fun live sport and also so-so on TV. I have never learned to dribble so I am somewhat fascinated that anyone can actually run, stop, start, change directions and glare at the referee all while bouncing a ball with one hand. Basketball also has lots of strategy involved. That strategy is like a word I've never learned used in a conversation, it is like looking at a street sign in Greece. I can see there's something there but it's about as useful to me as my keys are locked in the car. I do enjoy Charles Barkley, he's basketball's curmudgeon so I don't even have to understand basketball to enjoy his commentary.

I go to Mexico for vacation sometimes. While I am there I practice my Spanish on unsuspecting locals. My accent is pretty good on the approximately 150 words I can speak fluently so when I start a conversation I can be mistaken for an actual speaker of Spanish. That's when things get unmanageable. As they launch into conversation, I end up bobble-heading it and hoping that they don't ask me a question. That's when they figure out that the bobble head is listening but not copmprehending. I don't talk to people in Mexico about soccer. It is way too creative for me to get technical about. Futbol is something like Chaos Theory, there's a lot of movement that eventually leads to a big bang but nobody knows how it happens.

I never feel like a bobble head with football. I've studied it long enough to feel comfortable. Football is like an well-loved book in my hands, I know all the words. When football season starts, it's like when I return from Mexico and am suddenly I am enfolded by English. My ears and mind relax and breathe a deep sigh of relief. Football is effortless and familiar like that and I can't wait for it to begin again.

By Missing Link at crankyblog.com.