Last night, KC took me to my first and possibly last American football game! UCLA Bruins vs Arizona Wildcats (yes, like the team in High School Musical). YEAH. GO BRUINS!
American football is a little bit tricky to explain. Basically, you have two teams. And each team has two of its own teams, one for offense and for defense. When your offense team is on the field, you're trying to score a touchdown (5 or 6 points, I think) and the other team's defense is trying to stop you from scoring a touchdown.
The game is divided into four quarters of 15 minutes each. Two quarters make up one half (yes I know this sounds like a basic maths lesson). Each team gets four chances to move the ball at least ten yards (I don't know how much a yard is, but luckily they mark it out on the field and the helpful scoreboard tells you how many yards they've moved). Each chance is called a 'down'. If your team manages to move the ball ten yards in 4 downs, they get 'a first down' which basically means that they get another 4 chances to try to move another 10 yards. If they don't manage to move ten yards in their four downs, or to score a touchdown, the teams switch and the opponent's team gets to try and score a touchdown on their side of the field. The thing, though, is that they start at the point that your team managed to get to, so in your turn, you want to try and get as close to your own 'touchdown zone' and as far away from their touchdown zone (also called the 'endzone') as possible.
The quarterback is generally the guy with the ball who's trying to dodge past all the opposing players to move the ball forward. Mostly he carries it, but sometimes he throws it. He's super fast and nimble. If he's doing it right, it looks kind of like he's flitting across the field. Like Tinkerbell. I'm sure quarterbacks everywhere would love that comparison.
My impressions of football (spoiler: we won. 17-7):
1. It's incredibly violent. HUGE AMAZON-SIZED men run smack-bang into each other and proceed to wrestle while the quarterback runs through them all with the ball and a target on his back, the opposing team charging after him in hot pursuit, attempting to knock him down using any tactic necessary including tackles that would earn an instant red card in rugby. Tackles. Directed at his head. I'm amazed that nobody broke a neck.
2. Did I mention how HUGE the players are? And there are literally at least 100 players on each team. Different sub-teams, for lack of a better word, do different plays, so they swap in and out depending on what play they're doing. The coolest thing was when the Bruins came out to warm up. They do a synchronised warm up, and there are so many of them in silver and gold and blue uniforms, and they look like a very intimidating army. 8 mile was playing, which only added to the scene. I had shivers.
3. You do not want to be the opposing team. The crowd was incredibly hostile towards the Wildcats, who were playing on UCLA's home turf. Every time the team came onto the field, the crowd booed and catcalled and heckled. Not cricket.
4. Marching bands are pretty cool. And VERY big. And they manage to march in formation, in time, and play. They played 'Happy' and 'Bastille'. KC used to be the drum major (the conductor, essentially), so she was pretty critical - apparently the band wasn't up to scratch.
5. Cheerleaders do scary things. You couldn't pay me to wear a skirt that short and jump around with pompoms. It would end badly.
6. The football ethos, spirit and general vibe, reminds me a lot of the Hunger Games. The spectator participation and attitude, the way they introduce the players on the big screen, like they do the players of the Games, and the general 'bread and circuses' nature of the whole event felt eerily similar to the way that the Hunger Games were portrayed.
7. Football is very much a spectator sport, and as a spectator, you will not have any fun if you don't dive right in. Everyone tailgates before the game, which means they take their car, set up their barbecue, drink beer, and play cornhole (basically throw bean bags into a hole) and get jazzed for the game. Then you head in, grab your hot chocolate with whipped cream, bacon-wrapped hotdog and soft pretzel (so best) and find a seat. If you're smart, you'll learn the cheers so that you can get involved. And don't forget to boo the other team. Oh, and DO dress up and put on face paint and embrace the culture for one fresh minute.
8. The rules truly aren't that complicated. Learn them. Get involved.
Here are some pics of the tailgate, our warpaint and beers (GO BRUINS! YEAH!), and the beautiful clouds.
In other news, did I mention that it RAINED in LA on Friday night? Actual downpour. Bliss. And there were clouds, beautiful ones. Here's a picture:
