Football is a game in which players use their feet to try kicking a ball into goals for points. That’s what I had grown up believing and seeing around my home country, Pakistan. The only football known back home is called soccer in the United States. Of course, I had heard about another game with the same name which was played in the far away land of America, but I never believed I would get to see it.
You can imagine my surprise when, for the first time in my life, I saw real, live American football. My first question was where is the “foot” in football? A number of people tried to explain something about passes, touchdowns and yards. I just sat there clueless and cheered for the Cardinals when everybody else did.
Overall, it was a fun experience. According to the instructions of my roommate, a sophomore at North Central, we went to the Fan Fest very early to get the free t-shirts. It was a good move, because not only was I able to get a t-shirt in my size before they ran out, I was also able to mingle and enjoy some great food. There’s sarcasm somewhere at the end there – trust me.
We gave the stink eye to some people wearing the opposing team’s jerseys and all was good. I was really getting into the spirit and I could almost understand why Americans are crazy about football.
That was until the actual game started. I sat there snapping away photos and asked my friends when the game would start. They informed me it had already started. Confused, I lowered my camera and actually looked at the field, but nobody seemed to be doing anything. They were just standing there looking really cool in their gear. I looked at the timer and that was paused as well.
I think my companions noticed the look on my face, because they explained that every time someone kicks the ball a distance and gets tackled, they stop and move that orange thing to the new position. I really didn’t get all that the first time, but my friends were really patient with me. It was well into the second quarter when I first understood what they were doing and saw the marker on the sidelines.
The ball, usually defined as a “solid or hollow sphere,” also seemed to be missing in American football. A football is a soccer ball, which is truly shaped like a sphere. Americans play with an oddly shaped spheroid and are still adamant that the sport they’re playing is indeed football.
Summarizing football from my inexperienced perspective, here is what the game is; pass the so-called ball, not using feet, teammate to teammate. One takes it farther, the bad guys jump on him and then it stops. This keeps happening over and over again until someone reaches the end and people cheer, the band plays and the cheerleaders do their thing.
Even if I didn’t really understand the game, I could somewhat get the charm behind it. The first likeable aspect that comes to mind is community; it’s a place to gather, cheer and eat. Parents come to support their children and friends come to just hang out or show their support as well. Another thing I like about American football is that it’s a legitimate reason to be aggressive. I mean, I would love to do a sport where I can hit people and tackle them without repercussions. But, in all seriousness, some children are naturally energetic to the point of aggression and I believe that channeling that energy into a sport like football may be beneficial for them and their future.
One cannot forget the entertainment. The band, the cheerleaders and the dance team were tireless in raising school spirit. The color guard especially fascinated me. I would never be able to be coordinated enough to hold a flag straight, let alone twirl it over my head.
At the end of the day, what matters to me is not the game or the reasons why Americans love it. What matters is pride. The Cardinals are playing and for the next couple of months, I am a student at this amazing institution. So, I will be there at football games, wearing red, not only trying to understand what the game actually is, but to yell, “go Cardinals!”
