Salt Lake City, Utah – I’m back in the USA after a few months in Tonga. Fast lanes, traffic-jammed freeways, fast food, fattening food, and endless American football everywhere is the fall season madness in every community.
The American version of football has rushed ahead of baseball to become America’s No. 1 past time. After USA won the 1924 Olympic medal in the rugby (union) football version, American football exploded on college and university campuses across America.
Even youngsters as young as eight (8) years old are now suited up in full grid-iron gear as well. They used to play in the Pop Warner Youth Football, which start boys and girls at 10 years and older, but there are so many organizations now operating.
Football on the other hand, is invading the neighbourhoods, elementary and middle school playgrounds every Saturday morning. High school games are all played on Friday nights with many cross-town rivalries turn Friday night into a rowdy evening. Collegiate football contests are traditionally for Saturday afternoons and evenings. Scores of college games are covered live, and on tape-delay basis.
Forward Pass Popularizes American Football
Then there is the professional National Football League (NFL). Their games start every week with a game on Thursday night; they play Sunday all day on national TV; and two games on Monday Night Football are also televised live . If this is not football overkill, then I don’t know what is.
Bored with rugby football restrictive rules against forward passing, Americans legalized it to add speed, pizzaz, and finesse to a brutal game. Even eight-year-old youngsters can float the football with a perfect spin to another youngster running at full speed with great accuracy.
And parents, grandparents, with all the children in the family make Saturday morning football a weekly family event. They cheer, cuss, and even fight other fans on the sidelines during the games. The volunteer coaching teams are prohibited from encouraging fans fights, which have gotten ugly at times.
It is quite a spectacle to watch American families engage in youth football in the fall season. The children are quite good at it, with good sportsmanship the mission of every organization. At the end of the season, the teams travel across state lines to compete in a playoff designated site.
Promoted by the local hotel and merchants’ associations to bring business to their communities, the playoffs are quite a enthusiastically designed, and unfortunately sad sometimes. Some kids and their parents can take a loss to be emotionally devastating.
The youths are all pumped up to compete in a display of Gladiatorship competition for the parents and family members to enjoy.
(Analysis 2: High School Rivalries. 3: Collegiate Rivalries. 4: Professional Rivalries.)
(Photo and article by Sione A. Mokofisi, a syndicated journalist who travels back and forth between his homeland of Tonga and his adopted country the USA. He is editor of the newspaper and Website Niuvākai – The Tongan Engquirer. But his opinions do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of this Website. E-mail: S1mokofisi@yahoo.com).