Capitalist Man Day

So I did something quite unlike my normal ideals/activities, I spent an evening/morning feeling very much like a male capitalist (possibly with an American twang?). By this I mean I was invited over by two friends of mine (James and Hector) to watch the Sunday night Superbowl.

Now normaly I might have made my excuses, but a combination in not seeing these two friends and a bit of curiosity about the game led me to accept the invitation. The closest I had come to the game in the past was (admittedly technically close) being a radio engineer when the NFL took over Wembley for one game. In this instance I couldn't really see the whole pitch from the sidelines and didn't actually understand any of the rules, it was also very cold and stressful and I would have preferred to be in a lot of other places at the time.

Anyway, I arrived early evening and after a quick game on the xBox it was time for the pre-match babble. For any sport I have watch I generally find this part of the coverage to be unessiary and long, however it was a useful time for Hector too try and teach me the rules whilst James cooked us all a meal.

To me the game was likened to Chess and this in someways I would agree. I would personally go for the war analogy, but either way, it shows that one of the important aspects is stratagem and foresight. A lot of play seems to involve well thought out pattens of some unit... players clearing a path for other players or some players causing a distraction or diversion whilst another bit of play is carried out somewhere else on the pitch. I think I could go as far as explaing the general rules of play but, then again, there is wikipedia's for these things.


Still, at about halfway through the 2nd quarter I realised, with a beer in one hand, two friends, a good meal in belly and an actual lose understanding of whats going on, I had started to get really into the game. I started cheering at good catches and making those little impressed sounds when a particular strategy actually worked well.

It was ashame in the end that the team Hector and James were supporting lost, even though it was an exciting game. I could see though, that this game is very much TV orientated as a specator sport. I should imagine being in the stadium with out all the slow-mo replays, cheep cold beer, toilet two rooms away and central heating, that the game could seem a little tedious/boring considering most games last around the 3-4 hour mark.

After the game we proceeded to get thoroughly baked and play video games till 9:30 am (which has completely thrown me of any sort of regular sleep patten again). Still all in all I had a really fun evening with two friends of mine and actually felt like I learnt a little about a sport.