The American Football As I Perceive It

A friend of mine told me that the football team of the university from which he graduated, many, many years ago though, was on "60 Minutes". He just didn't need to tell me that. I did remember the name of his university. And as long as my Chinese made hard disk recorder is in its working order, it's unlikely that I would miss the programme. "60 Minutes" is always worth watching, with Andy Rooney's cliché in particular.

Later I spent some time, compromising some sleep, to watch it, together with a part telling a terrifying story about a drunk driver prosecuted for murdering a little girl riding in a limousine by crashing it with his car and severing the poor little girl's head.

Despite I was taken with anger that I agreed the irresponsible young driver deserved capital punishment, I found the football part of the programme rather interesting. It profiled a head coach with a decent belly just like many other coaches. This smart coach was able to transform the college team and lift it from nowhere to the seventh of the country's top ten in the season. It is particularly amazing that this fat coach has never played college football himself.

Yet the American football could be the last of all kinds of games I would like to watch, just next to soccer which is normally less violent.

In my opinion American football players are by and large warrior-like, consisting of 50% muscles and bones and 50% pure testosterone. Many even take certain drugs to help building up muscles and increasing body power. Some are really brutal, physically as well as mentally. Every now and then, someone gets seriously hurt or killed in the field, right in front of his loved sexy cheerleader's tearful eyes.

Yeah, those fellows of the university team simply call themselves "Raiders", don't they?
Someone might be trampled flat if he gets in their way! They just have struggled really hard to climb up to the high rank.

In ancient times when men raided their enemies, they conquered by killing and enslaving, and they snatched all the young women and girls for bearing their own children! That's what a raid, or an invasion is all about.
An American football player is meant to mimic the primordial human reproduction behaviour in this modern time, obeying the animal instinct that has propagated the human species so fast and so successfully.

The most essencial ingredient of this sort of game is always brute force. Without a heavy body build and very strong muscles and bones, just talking about the skills is absolutely pointless.

On top of brute force, of course, the offensive line must have good tactics in order to win, and so must the defensive line in order not to lose, but both lines must be made up of big tough guys in the first place! There are 300-pound big guys among the players. The gorgeous skinny cheerleaders surely won't be enthusiastic to cheer up small fellows in the field.

No doubt this is a big boys' game. Those who are small or weak can only be spectators or fans. They get their adrenaline pumped to their dilated pupils and extremities watching their idols raid and crush their enemies. It is the hormones and empathy that make the fans of a football team feel intoxicated.

If one doesn't want to have any hero to worship, and not any enemy to conquer, he probably wouldn't be keen on this sort of game, not even just being a spectator.