(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

I acquired the Friday Night Lights pilot last night (like, a week before it starts airing on NZ tv, sigh) and as I finished the episode - which didn't really get me until the last five minutes or so - I thought, gee, I really can't start watching this show, because I'll have to learn stuff about american football. Like what a quarterback is.

People have previously attempted to explain this shit to me in terms of rugby, which is kind of wasted effort, since I know how rugby is played and I can follow a game but I don't know a flank from a hooker.

So of course I downloaded the second episode, and then the third, and now, well, now I am wiki-ing american football.

ETA: forward passes? I am blown away! And "lateral"/ "side" real passes are uncommon? Freakish.

ETA again: Oh, but this is hilarious: all that ridiculous padding they wear is designed to protect them from injury, which is fine, but since it was introduced, players actually tackle harder and more violently, resulting in more dangerous injuries. *snort* Job well done, then!

Comments

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

The joys of safety ;)

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

American football doesn't even make sense to Americans. Generally, it is viewed simply as "that sport where a bunch of guys fall on each other".

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

I see you have discovered why no-one with any familiarity with rugby takes American football seriously. Ever. It's not a sport, it's a stylised ritual.

I don't think there really is an equivalent to the quarterback in rugby, at least not judging by the tendency of American media to talk about quarterbacks and no-one else. We just don't have a position with as much symbolic, or supposedly sporting, significance. (And what do you mean you can't tell a flanker from a hooker? The hooker has a big 2 on his back, the flankers have either 6 or 7! They're numbered for your convenience!)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

yeah, I know, right? jeeze.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

well, thank goodness, right, because I wonder sometimes.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

aw, I dunno, most sports seem like stylised rituals to me.

um-hmm. the quarterback is apparently the one that gets the ball out of... I don't know, it's what we'd call a ruck, except they don't lock their shoulders together... I think... um. in re: sporting significance, yeah, very true. Plus they have all this weird shit, like a team is 46 people but 11 on the field at one time and they can swap em on and off, but you can, like, mix and match, so if you want more than one... fullback or something... in your play you can. it's all very like ritualised with plays and stuff, very strange.

The funniest thing though? their tries, they call them touchdowns, BUT they don't actually have to touch the ball down, AND if someone goes and stands behind the goalposts and someone throws the ball to them, that's a touchdown? but they can only do a forward pass once in a... something. it's funny.

And what do you mean you can't tell a flanker from a hooker? The hooker has a big 2 on his back, the flankers have either 6 or 7! They're numbered for your convenience!

Oh, of course, how silly of me, and there are eleven players on a team too, right? (Kidding. Kidding!)

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

What's craziest is when they run a play with TWO Quarterbacks and confuse the hell out of the other team. Bwahahaha.

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

Oh, American football. Both of my parents went to the college with the winningest college football coach of all time, so it has been forced into my brain over the years. Madness, I tell you, madness. My college doesn't have a football team. Which kind of makes sense, seeing as we're all-female. That doesn't stop us from wanting one, sometimes, to have a good game wich some gore every once in a while. *le sigh*

I love that bit about the injuries, though. Trust us to mess up our own safety precaustions. Tee hee, tee hee.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*points* see! that! crazy!

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

winningest? :PPPPPP

Y'all should get together a rugby team, plenty of women play rugby, or touch. Touch rugby is good fun.

[disturbed-kiwi.livejournal.com]

Start a sevens team.

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what they call'em. Hee.

I must to be thinking about doing that next semester. However, once we start it, I;ll be gone, since (OMG!) I'll be in NZ for the next school year!

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

It's a cool word.

That's confirmed? Holy shit, how did I miss that? :D That is SO cool! We're gonna meet up at some point, right?

[kitsunerei88]

Its okay.

Canadian football is different from American football too, and I don't even know anything about football at ALL, so it really doesn't matter.

So when my uni has a football game . . . I stand there and scream "GO WESTERN" when everyone else is doing the same thing because I have NO IDEA what's going on.

[sennical.livejournal.com]

HA hahaha, have fun. I'm more a baseball fanatic myself, but in the South football's pretty much a religion (in Alabama especially) and it's kind of hard to grow up without at least a cursory understanding. So.

I have to say that it's much more exciting live, though, and with teams you have some sort of historical stake in. Football on the TV just doesn't do it for me.

(I have to catch up on FNL too, this summer. I was always planning too since about the middle of the season, like I'm spoiled as all get out for everything but I was way too occupied with other stuff to make the effort.)

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

That it is.

Yeah, It's not totally confirmed, yet, but after my OChem final...I'm hoping. I'm so excited!! Yeah, we totally should meet up, that would be most fantastic and such things.

*uber squee of hope and joyness*