A Russian's first taste of American football (Times intern)

[MLOhawks]

I thought this was a neat article. A Russian journalist from Pravda is interning at the Seattle Times and they sent him to cover the Hawks/Cards game, and here is the article he wrote about his first experience with American Football:

A Russian's first taste of American football: Deafening, incendiary, confusing
http://seattletimes.com/html/take2/2019882023_taketwo11.html

 

[SouthSoundHawk]

"A small shock was waiting for me on the way to the stadium. In Russia, when you go to a football (or hockey) game, you see five police cordons, army soldiers, trucks and Rottweilers. That’s part of the atmosphere of sports in Russia."


A SMALL shock? That's insane, glad I don't have to deal with that crap just to watch a kids game.

 

[ottawahawkfan]

Enjoyable read, thanks for the link. Let's hope we see the Bills throw a full shopping bag on Sunday. :th2thumbs:

 

[MLOhawks]

Enjoyable read, thanks for the link. Let's hope we see the Bills throw a full shopping bag on Sunday. :th2thumbs:

LOL I have no idea what that phrase means.

 

[Hawker]

Hahaha and I quote, "sort of a bird derby"

 

[MLOhawks]

Bird Derby was awesome, I'm going to use that from now on when two bird teams play hahaha.

 

[therealjohncarlson]

"A small shock was waiting for me on the way to the stadium. In Russia, when you go to a football (or hockey) game, you see five police cordons, army soldiers, trucks and Rottweilers. That’s part of the atmosphere of sports in Russia."


A SMALL shock? That's insane, glad I don't have to deal with that crap just to watch a kids game.

Im not following this part...

 

[MLOhawks]

He must think football is so easy a cave man could do it.

 

[FlyingGreg]

My favorite part:

Halfway through the game, the score was already very shameful for the guests

 

[mikeak]

Love it - as a foreigner in this country I can relate

1) For those surprised about the police presence at soccer games in Europe - you really have no idea. I have been to many soccer games where we were met at the trainstation by police, we had police around the bars that we went to before the game, we got led into caged in areas of the stadium, we had to wait 45 minutes after the game before we could leave, escorted back to the train and still somehow we managed to have a nice little brawl with a few hundred people involved that the media didn't like........

2) I have sat in bars with others from my native country and tried to explain the game. This was after they had gone to their first college game and their take on it was hilarious. They litterally had no clue about the game when they went the first time and they went "sometimes they kicked and it wasn't good and other times they kicked and everybody cheered and points went on the board - didn't get it".

It doesn't take much to explain the basics of the game though. Once people understand the significance of the 10 yards you need to get and how you can get it then the foundation is laid

I personally love both kinds of football

 

[TriCHawk]

Cool article.

Where are you from mikeak?

 

[ShyCheetah]

I had a similar experience with my uncle from the Philippines. He had the most perplexed look on his face and all he kept saying during the game was "why...why...why?". Lol. As a non American I find football and baseball (to a lesser extent) to be very imperfect sports that can't work unless u have uber complex rules and a dozen refs monitoring every thing. Nearly every player on the field is playing with a different set of rules and the play is constantly stopping and resetting. Pretty much the only sport where there is no continuous play. I still love it. But as a game hockey still rules. Go Canucks!

Shy

 

[razgriz737]

I've realized that football is a very strange sport, haha. At my college, there's a lot of international students who know absolutely nothing about football. When they ask me why certain things happen, I've found it quite difficult to explain, at times. Especially all the weird terminology. Stepping up into the pocket? A safety? Interesting to look at it from another perspective.

 

[HawkFan72]

Then there is a support group called the Seagals.

Twenty-two burly guys in helmets ran around together, slamming into each other in the struggle for a small ball. Running around, knock, stop! Then officials restarted the play, players repositioned themselves and the crush continued. All the time.

LOL. It is funny seeing the stadium experience through a different cultural perspective.

 

[nwgamer]

Probably one of the neatest reads in some time tbh.

 

[mikeak]

I've realized that football is a very strange sport, haha. At my college, there's a lot of international students who know absolutely nothing about football. When they ask me why certain things happen, I've found it quite difficult to explain, at times. Especially all the weird terminology. Stepping up into the pocket? A safety? Interesting to look at it from another perspective.

Take them to a bar - have them buy the pitcher and explain it . I know it was very appreciated when I did this. You start small skip all the odd rules like safety etc.

You have four downs to move the ball 10 yards but you use the last one to kick it so the other team doesn't get the ball where you ended so really you use 3 most of the time

7 pts - TD ball possesed in the end-zone, 3 points, FG

Really it is almost that simple to get them to understand the basic premise

I am lucky in my home-country they would take one game each week (I now afterwards think it was the MNF game) they would get rid of all breaks in the game so went snap, down, snap immediately. But they would have their own two commentators. They would explain everything and make it very easy to understand. Then the last five minutes of the show was weird plays from around the league and they explained those. So once I got over here I knew a lot about rules that many americans don't know (sure most everyone here knows that stuff). I still don't fully grasp all the different kind of defenses etc but trying to study every weekend

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

This was in my paper this morning too (Vancouver, WA Columbian). Loved it.

 

[m0ng0]

very cool read!

 

[CrimsonWazzu]

I read that entire article imagining the voice of the Ex-KGB guy on American Dad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAcw9T8z9AA

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

Very, very cool article. Hope they send the guy to the next couple of home games.