But not of the round-balled variety. This weekend has largely been spent watching the North American version of the sport in various guises; CFL, NFL and NCAA College Football. I suppose the games started with Thursday night's NFL season opener between Tennessee and Pittsburgh. The less said about it, the better. Pittsburgh won 13-10 but are a crashingly dull side to watch; yes, they've now won 2 of the last 4 Super Bowls, but they do so based on strong defence rather than running up the score. Think of them as the George Graham era Arsenal. Not fun.
Friday night was a barbecue at the boss's house, but I got home to see the last 10 minutes of the second instalment of last weeks' CFL 'battle of Alberta' between Edmonton and Calgary. Last Monday's game was very one sided, Calgary winning 32-8. When I got home, Calgary trailed 34-21, but two late scores meant a 35-34 win. The defending Grey Cup champion Stampeders are now 6-4 and are now turning a corner after a wobbly first couple of months. I'm much more into CFL this year; having spent 20 years or more following the NFL from 'down south' I found it's Canadian counterpart somewhat disorienting with multiple rule changes. I suppose the easiest analogy is between Rugby Union and League; the CFL has 12 players rather than 11, the pitch is much larger, and so the players have more space, generally resulting in higher scoring games. There is also the very Canadian touch of 'single points'. There is some actual rule to this that I can never remember, but missed fieldgoals seem to be awarded with a point for trying.
Saturday was College Football day. The whole ranking system and Bowl games at the end of the season seems completely arcane to me, but I had remembered the fuss about them when I was in San Francisco three years ago, and so resolved to myself that I would make an effort to watch a game or two this weekend. Thanks to the numerous American TV channels I receive, I managed to catch Notre Dame University vs University of Michigan on Saturday afternoon, followed by the University of Southern California vs Ohio State University. The crowds for the two games were 103,000 and 106,000, all decked out in the teams colours, marching bands, 'battle songs' and so on. The attendances are so high because ticket prices are - due to stadia being located on the campus itself - much lower than the NFL, and stadia are largely bench seating, allowing larger crowds. In small University towns, the whole town attends.
They were both very good games; it seemed far more open than it's professional counterpart in the States. I think this is probably because the players are younger and so more inexperienced, and perhaps play with the confidence of youth rather than the cynical eye of more experienced ones. Just one thing: I can't take a team seriously that has glittery helmets (OSU have silver, glittery helmets. Just wrong). But good fun, and a better way to spend Saturday afternoon than watching Toronto FC.
And so to today. NFL day again. As a very long standing Denver Broncos watcher, this has been a prolonged offseason to forget. The Christmas sacking of two-time Super Bowl winning coach Mike Shanahan, for losing all three games down the stretch when one win would seal play-0ff qualification, was probably overdue. Denver had won just one postseason game since the last Super Bowl win in 1999, principally due to the inability to replace retired Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway who retired after Super Bowl XXXIII. A procession of would-be replacements have been and gone in the ten years since. It seemed that in Jay Cutler that such a replacement had been found. Yes, he was prone to interceptions at desperately inopportune moments, but could equally pull rabbits out of hats. At the age of 26, he could have been moulded into that franchise player if he could bring consistency to his game.
That was until he threw his toys out of the pram and demanded a trade after he instantly didn't hit it off with the new head coach, the architect of the New England Patriots 16-0 offense in 2007, Josh McDaniels. To cut a long story short, Cutler was traded to the Chicago Bears for their first round draft picks in 2009 and 2010, other lower round picks, and former Bears starter Kyle Orton. In addition, wide receiver Brandon Marshall was suspended from practice for tantrums when he wasn't traded away after the man who would supply him was dispatched for the Windy City. This lead to todays games; Denver opened in Cincinnati while Chicago travelled to Green Bay.
The former game was terrible to watch, and a lapse from Orton looked like losing Denver the game before a miracle play (or idiotic blunder from the defender, depending on your point od view) in the last 20 seconds saw wide receiver Brandon Stokley complete an 87 yard touchdown run to win the game 12-7. I then tuned in for Chicago's game this evening. To describe the first 30 minutes of Cutler's debut as inept is not being too harsh. Three interceptions in the second quarter lead t0 a 10-2 halftime deficit. He rallied the troops in the second half, but a 15-12 lead became a 20-15 deficit with 71 seconds remaining. He had won 7 game from behind in the 4th quarter for Denver, giving rise to those Elway comparisons. Could he do it again? On the first play, he was intercepted for a fourth time.
It goes to show that people should be careful what they wish for. Cutler doesn't have the quality of options that he had in Denver; the Broncos had the league's 2nd ranked offense by yardage last year. The reason the team struggled was their 29th of 32 ranked defense. From today's game, the new defense (there were 30 new players out of the 53 on duty today) did well, but Cincinnati were hopeless so it's hard to gauge how good they are. It could still be a long season, because Orton was also very poor and needs to raise things considerably. More as the season unfolds.
Friday night was a barbecue at the boss's house, but I got home to see the last 10 minutes of the second instalment of last weeks' CFL 'battle of Alberta' between Edmonton and Calgary. Last Monday's game was very one sided, Calgary winning 32-8. When I got home, Calgary trailed 34-21, but two late scores meant a 35-34 win. The defending Grey Cup champion Stampeders are now 6-4 and are now turning a corner after a wobbly first couple of months. I'm much more into CFL this year; having spent 20 years or more following the NFL from 'down south' I found it's Canadian counterpart somewhat disorienting with multiple rule changes. I suppose the easiest analogy is between Rugby Union and League; the CFL has 12 players rather than 11, the pitch is much larger, and so the players have more space, generally resulting in higher scoring games. There is also the very Canadian touch of 'single points'. There is some actual rule to this that I can never remember, but missed fieldgoals seem to be awarded with a point for trying.
Saturday was College Football day. The whole ranking system and Bowl games at the end of the season seems completely arcane to me, but I had remembered the fuss about them when I was in San Francisco three years ago, and so resolved to myself that I would make an effort to watch a game or two this weekend. Thanks to the numerous American TV channels I receive, I managed to catch Notre Dame University vs University of Michigan on Saturday afternoon, followed by the University of Southern California vs Ohio State University. The crowds for the two games were 103,000 and 106,000, all decked out in the teams colours, marching bands, 'battle songs' and so on. The attendances are so high because ticket prices are - due to stadia being located on the campus itself - much lower than the NFL, and stadia are largely bench seating, allowing larger crowds. In small University towns, the whole town attends.
They were both very good games; it seemed far more open than it's professional counterpart in the States. I think this is probably because the players are younger and so more inexperienced, and perhaps play with the confidence of youth rather than the cynical eye of more experienced ones. Just one thing: I can't take a team seriously that has glittery helmets (OSU have silver, glittery helmets. Just wrong). But good fun, and a better way to spend Saturday afternoon than watching Toronto FC.
And so to today. NFL day again. As a very long standing Denver Broncos watcher, this has been a prolonged offseason to forget. The Christmas sacking of two-time Super Bowl winning coach Mike Shanahan, for losing all three games down the stretch when one win would seal play-0ff qualification, was probably overdue. Denver had won just one postseason game since the last Super Bowl win in 1999, principally due to the inability to replace retired Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway who retired after Super Bowl XXXIII. A procession of would-be replacements have been and gone in the ten years since. It seemed that in Jay Cutler that such a replacement had been found. Yes, he was prone to interceptions at desperately inopportune moments, but could equally pull rabbits out of hats. At the age of 26, he could have been moulded into that franchise player if he could bring consistency to his game.
That was until he threw his toys out of the pram and demanded a trade after he instantly didn't hit it off with the new head coach, the architect of the New England Patriots 16-0 offense in 2007, Josh McDaniels. To cut a long story short, Cutler was traded to the Chicago Bears for their first round draft picks in 2009 and 2010, other lower round picks, and former Bears starter Kyle Orton. In addition, wide receiver Brandon Marshall was suspended from practice for tantrums when he wasn't traded away after the man who would supply him was dispatched for the Windy City. This lead to todays games; Denver opened in Cincinnati while Chicago travelled to Green Bay.
The former game was terrible to watch, and a lapse from Orton looked like losing Denver the game before a miracle play (or idiotic blunder from the defender, depending on your point od view) in the last 20 seconds saw wide receiver Brandon Stokley complete an 87 yard touchdown run to win the game 12-7. I then tuned in for Chicago's game this evening. To describe the first 30 minutes of Cutler's debut as inept is not being too harsh. Three interceptions in the second quarter lead t0 a 10-2 halftime deficit. He rallied the troops in the second half, but a 15-12 lead became a 20-15 deficit with 71 seconds remaining. He had won 7 game from behind in the 4th quarter for Denver, giving rise to those Elway comparisons. Could he do it again? On the first play, he was intercepted for a fourth time.
It goes to show that people should be careful what they wish for. Cutler doesn't have the quality of options that he had in Denver; the Broncos had the league's 2nd ranked offense by yardage last year. The reason the team struggled was their 29th of 32 ranked defense. From today's game, the new defense (there were 30 new players out of the 53 on duty today) did well, but Cincinnati were hopeless so it's hard to gauge how good they are. It could still be a long season, because Orton was also very poor and needs to raise things considerably. More as the season unfolds.
