American Sport

I am also beginning to enjoy the sport here. I have mentioned that the 'local' Major League Baseball Team, the “Phillies”, or rather the Philadelphia Phillies, won through to the World Series and eventually won that to be proclaimed World Champions (I will not comment further on that). The 'local' football team (as in American Football) is the Philadelphia Eagles. Their regular season comprises of 16 games and they were expected to do very well. I do not pretend to understand just how the system work but in their penultimate game, they just had to win in order to make the end of season play-offs, which will eventually result in the Super Bowl. However, things did not go according to plan,. They blew it and lost, badly. The press was full of how poor they were and how it is likely many will be leaving. In order for them to make the play-offs, two high ranking teams had to lose their last game and the Eagles had to win. The problem was that these two high ranking teams were playing two low ranking teams and no body was expecting any sort of upset. Add to that, given the way the Eagles had played, it was unlikely they would win their last game even though it was at home. It was also against what a team who I gather are their traditional rivals, the Texas Cowboys who I was told are a very good team and are expected to win.

Just to explain, in National League Football, as far as I understand it, there are two conferences, or what I would call Leagues. The top teams of each conference play off for the right to play the top team of the other conference in the Super Bowl and be proclaimed Champions (not sure what of, i.e. All American or World Champions. Given that this is America it could be either or both).

So, on the last Saturday of the year the final play-off teams would be decided. The Eagles were playing late so they would know their situation by the time they played their game. As it turned out, the last day produced all sorts of upsets, not only did the first lower ranked team win (good for the Eagles) the second lower ranked team kicked a 55 yard field goal right at the end to win as well. This meant the Eagles came out, to a packed stadium containing something like 100,000 screaming fans in extremely cold weather. This was effectively a play-off game as the winner would gop through and the loser would be eliminated. Needless to say the Eagles players hyped up the crowd so that even watching on TV you could sense the atmosphere. The Eagles did not play the way they did the week before, they did not beat the Cowboys, they destroyed them and so are through to the play-offs as a wild card. I have no idea how that works, but they play their first play-off game this week against one of the top teams and so I suspect they will have to do it the hard way if they are to get to the Super Bowl. Given that Philadelphia is already on a high with the Phillies, expectations are sky high.

I have also discovered that college sport is massive over here. There is no equivalent in either the UK or Australia to the phenomena called college sport. It seems there are something like 8 (or 10) conferences (read leagues) with the teams playing 12 games a season. At the end of the season teams from the various conferences play-off for various Bowls. Quite how it is decided who plays whom and why I have absolutely no idea. The 'local' Philadelphia team is Penn State (Pennsylvania State College), otherwise known as the Nittany Lions. They were playing ion the most prestigious 'Bowl' the Rose Bowl' against the USC Trojans. I believe USC stands for University of Southern California and they have won the Rose Bowl for the past two seasons. I watched this game which started at 5.00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) but was played in California (no idea what time it was there). Was amazed at not only the size of the stadium but that it was full. I am guessing that there was at least 100,000 people there and of course the game was televised live. Each 'team' had a large marching band who gave displays at half time, a large cheer squad, and huge numbers of support personnel. Each team of course comprises of the defensive team, the attacking team, plus various other specialist 'teams' for things like the kick off (slightly different depending upon whether you are attacking or receiving), the kicker and the team that supports him (again, different depending on who has the ball) etc. The game comprises of four quarters, each of which last approximately 12 minutes. But, that is 12 minutes of game time. There are so many stops in play where the game clock is stopped, the game did not actually finish until almost 9.00 pm EST. Sadly the Nittany Lions lost as the USC Trojans are regarded as the best team in the land by many. I gather they have a habit of losing one game each year, which is why they end up in the Rose Bowl and not the Championship match. But, they are the first team ever to win the Rose Bowl 3 years running and if they reach the Rose Bowl next year, it either become the championship decider, or they will they go on to play the Champions (not sure quite how it all works I am afraid).

I got used to the end of season play-offs to decide the champions in Australia and I must admit it makes it exciting. Having said that, I still prefer the English method of the team that finishes the season on the tip of the league being crowned champions. However, with financially lucrative places in Europe at stake depending on how high you finish and relegation an issue, plus off course the various knock out competitions they also play, the excitement is maintained. So I can see why such a system is not needed in the UK. But in places that don't have all these extras, I can see the sense in it all. Having said that, sport here is definitely different.