Lesley and I spent October in the US and as is our wont, we spent a considerable amount of time sitting in bars, where we were often confronted by ‘the game’. Now no one could describe me as a sports fan, so as a result my analysis may seem a little off key but as far as I could make out ‘the game’ took one of three forms – two involve adults playing rounders or netball and a third game described as an American football which I found somewhat of a misnomer as there seemed to be little contact between anyone’s foot and the ball in question! Anyway this is my attempt to understand the rules of American football:
1 There are a large un-specified number of players on each team.
2 They all arrive somewhat late to the game by motorbike, since they don’t appear to have sufficient time to take their crash helmets off. I suspect this must happen regularly as they have their names on the shirts otherwise you would be unable to identify them.
3 Somebody blows a whistle and one person throws the ball to another player, who is preferably a member of their own team.
Meanwhile the other members of the teams bump into each other for a while until the whistle is blown again.
4 This is then repeated until it’s time to go home.
Got it?
I did actually explain my hypothesis to an American friend who is a fan of ‘the game’and he confirmed that I had actually grasped the main principles.
rowlandwithaw 