My Secret Love

Being a small, scrawny, sensitive, book worm, theatre loving Englishman, I love Football. But I'm not talking about the Fifa Brand, Premier League, UEFA cup style Football but American Football. Today is Sunday, so therefore I have the option of staying up until four in the morning to watch the Philadelphia Eagles play the San Francisco 49er's and I probably will.

Though American Football is something that gets little to no attention in England, but I really think so many people I know would enjoy it if they understood it. I'll even betray my country and admit I think American Football is better than regular Football! Yeah, I said it.

My biggest pet peeve with American Football is, because people don't understand it, the majority of their gripes with it are actually wrong. For example one complaint about it (this one usually comes from Rugby fans) is that the players can throw forward which makes it so much easier than Rugby. What people don't know, however, is only one person on an entire American Football team can throw. Doesn't seem so easy now does it?

The other biggest complaint is people have is about the armor. People think that American Football players are some how pussies because they have all this protection but one, you'd never say that to a Football player's face because they'd kill ya. And two, have you ever seen how hard those guys hit each other? I'm going to go a head a say no on your behalf and tell you it's pretty damn hard. In Rugby people are tackling around your legs or waist because anything higher is considered dangerous, but in American Football people are running for pelt and hitting each other with what are essentially flying clotheslines and it's perfectly legal. In that situation if you aren't wearing a helmet, you're dead.

The best thing about it as a sport is the strategy, it's like warfare. The different parts of the team are even called units. The amount of different plays the teams have and switch between depending on how far they are until the next first down makes it so interesting to watch and makes every game very different. It literally makes our Football look like 22 guys kicking ball aimlessly around, there's next to no strategy in that game by comparison.

Really what I'm trying to say is don't knock it until you've watched a game knowing the rules or with someone who knows what they're talking about and can explain it for you because there is definitely a reason why it's America's favourite sport.