My girlfriend told me yesterday that she looks forward to reading the blog because she likes reading my articles, but hates sports. She even went as far as to suggest that I switch to writing for the Life section upon my return or stay in Europe longer so I can’t write about basketball. She’s the best. This post is for her.
This weekend was one of the best of the year if your interests include watching overgrown men running into each other. The Six Nations Rugby Cup (or Championship or something) kicked off Saturday and I hear the Super Bowl happened Sunday. Six Nations is one of the biggest rugby tournaments of the year, featuring six national teams from Western Europe, and is particularly important in Ireland, where rugby is the most popular sport and the Irish are expected to compete for first place. I had never watched a full rugby match before Saturday’s matchup with Italy in which Ireland was heavily favored, but I was excited to give it a chance.
Two hours later, I still wasn’t entirely sure as to what was going on but I knew for a fact that I was considerably less excited to watch another rugby match. Basically, American football is the better sport. Sure it has far too many breaks and commercials, but I would rather watch a commercial (especially a Super Bowl one, which were supplanted by infomercials and ads for sex hotlines over here) than most of a rugby match. From what I could tell, rugby is like football without the forward pass. Players run very short distances, get tackled, then give the ball to their teammate who does the same until they either make enough progress to score a try (basically a touchdown) or the other team somehow gets possession. About four times a game a player will break free for a 10 or 20 yard run before being tackled. Once in a blue moon a player will kick the ball over a defender’s head, catch it himself, and keep running–the absolute apex of rugby excitement. It’s pretty cool, but like I said, it doesn’t happen very often. People said the Ireland-Italy game I watched was not a particularly thrilling one, but my heavy eyelids had already told me that.
American football, on the other hand, is great. Players run very fast and jump very high and throw very far and coincidentally all of those things are exciting to watch. There are too many commercials and sometimes teams run the ball too much (read: play rugby), but every play represents a new chance for a 50-yard bomb to Randy Moss. It probably won’t happen, but it could. There is no such potential during a rugby game. That is why football is a better sport.
“The only reason they can do that is because they wear such heavy padding,” rugby fans say. So? As a viewer, I’m not watching to see people get hurt. I’m watching to see people run fast, jump high and throw far. If pads facilitate those activities, then I’m all for them.
Side note: I watched the Super Bowl in my room with 25 or so people from my program. We got the NFL Network’s international broadcast featuring basketball announcer Dick Stockton and idiot Sterling Sharpe. Stockton seemed a little confused most of the game, but he was better than Sharpe, who began openly rooting for the Giants in the second quarter. I’m a big Patriots fan, but by the time the fourth quarter came around, I was hoping they would win more to hear what Sharpe would say than to see my favorite team win the Super Bowl. I’m pretty sure he would have just called New England a bunch of cheaters and left the studio. Great game though. Eli’s play on third-and-five was classic and the Patriots choked somewhat, but I’m stating the obvious.
Back Wednesday with more.
