Football, Australian and American

I am an AFL tragic who goes into deep mourning when the Australian football season comes to an end in late September. Waiting for the first bounce of Round One of the next season seems an eternity away. Now with the AFLW, or women’s competition, the wait has been shortened and the first bounce was last Friday night.

There’s a lot of sport on at present. The Australian Tennis Open has recently finished and the Davis Cup is now underway. Soon the Winter Olympics will start in Korea and the Commonwealth Games gets going in Brisbane not long after. Then we have the World Cup in Russia when the world stops to watch.

Well, this week most of the US stopped to wstch the Super Bowl, a game that has long intrigued me, although I know little about the game. So I thought as Seth Meyer says on SNL “It’s time for a closer look”.

My closer look started with a youtube search for a brief guide to Gridiron, only the absolute basics. Unlike other football codes gridiron players dress up like knights in armour, and I wonder if they ever start a NFLW will women players have to don the same gear, and war paint.

AFL flows quickly, and although there a brief “stoppages”, NFL has short plays and then gatherings to instruct on new plays. Teams have 11 players in 3 units, defense, offense and special for punting and kicking. These units can be changed depending on the state of play. It’s all very technical and confusing to spectators like me.

I read that the game has 4 quarters of 15 minutes each, or an hour of play in all. But due to all the constant stops and starts, and timeouts, a game goes for much more than 60 minutes. Add the entertainment and hype and the Super Bowl is a big day out. But it’s all fun and games and beyond US a world that tunes in. Like the Melbourne Cup, another nation stopper, once a year is enough for me but I reserve judgment as the dying minutes of yesterday’s close game had me gripped. I even learned what a “holy mary pass” is in American football. When there’s nothing else to do and you’re desperate then throw the desperate holy mary pass. What have you got to lose, right?

Even I had heard of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots from those odd glimpses of sports news. But when the Lombardi Trophy was held high I was further intrigued. America has many Italian influences starting of course with Christopher Columbus and continuing to the present with Madonna, Robert Di Nero, Nicholas Cage - the list goes on. The Vince Lombardi story is quite fascinating. Despite successes like Valentino and Frank Sinatra, Italian Americans had their share of discrimination, against even the legendary Vince Lombardi. Lombardi was a strong Catholic and considered entering the priesthood. Amazingly he was considered unathletic and unfit for college football.

Remarkably back then, during the civil rights era, there were few black American players and that started changing when Lombardi began his illustrious coaching career and paved the way for their entry. Today a significant number of players in every NFL team are black, and many have "taken the knee" in protest at the treatment of black Americans by the police. Interesting some Eagles stars, black and white, are in protest not attending the White House reception for the winners of the Super Bowl. Take that Donald Trump!!!

Lombardi, best known as the coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 60s, had a son who was gay, and he strongly supported gay players: he came down hard against sex discrimination. His list of achievements is long and illustrious but he sadly died at the age of 57 from a digestive tract problem. I’m sure he would have supported a NFL women’s competition if alive today.

There are many fine skills in American football such as passing, and weaving through defensive players. It’s a fast game when it gets going, and a fine annual spectacle. But I'm biased and don’t think it can compete with the sheer speed of Aussie rules: the leaps, the kicks, and the passes are a treat to behold week after week.

And week after week, all year round, I walked and jog extensively, always with my Eagles cap on my head and Eagles shorts above my knees. Go the West Coast Eagles.