Things are looking up!

To me this time of the year is just a huge sports "black hole".  I'll say right up front I'm not a sports (plural) fan.  I'm a FOOTBALL fan.  (And I'd best clarify that and say American football.)  I start to perk up when spring training begins, am on top of the world from September through the January bowl games, kinda coast through the pro football playoffs, then go into hibernation after the Super Bowl.  I really enjoy the Winter Olympic Games because to a Texan winter sports is the epitome of "exotic", but they're still a full year away so there's no sense getting excited about them yet.

I'm definitely a product of my upbringing.  Here in Texas football is King.  Twenty thousand will turn out for a high school football game, maybe a few hundred for a high school basketball game, and less than that for a high school baseball game.  The same ratio probably holds for college sports, too.  Hockey is a northern sport imported here when all the Yanks began heading south 30 years ago, and soccer is here because....well, I have no idea why soccer is here.  Golf for me is a near-death experience.

K has taken the lead on solving our off-season sports dilemma by introducing a new one for us to latch on to:  Rugby.  She chose rugby because last weekend she was channel surfing and there they were...the Northampton Saints VS Gloucester Rugby.  She decided Northampton would be her team because she liked the color of their shorts and T-shirts, and one of their guys flashed his tooth during a post-game interview.  Apparently there's nothing sexier than a guy wearing short shorts and showing off his last remaining tooth.

I must admit I found it to be rather entertaining, too.  They get in a big huddle, throw a f__ked up looking football in the middle, and have at it.  It's like tackle football, only without pads.  Or helmets.  It's not a game for wusses, for sure!

She was all heartbroken when she found out her team wouldn't be on the "telly" today.  But being the avid Northhampton fan that she has become she's following them via streaming live internet (audio only).  Now I've listened to many a football game on the radio, but at least I understood the terminology.  When the announcer said "the quarterback took the snap and ran left on a naked bootleg", I could "see" that in my mind.  

The only thing that made (sorta) sense to me on the streaming live audio rugby game K is listening to was when the announcer said the game was "simmering nicely".  Ohhh....now they're talking about "attacking".  I can almost see the bloody slobber and protruding bones.  I think I might like rugby!  

It's halftime.  Gotta go make nachos.  ;)

S