I will be honest with you; my extent of knowledge about American football was stretched to the concept that it is similar to rugby.
It soon became significantly clear how little I knew when, shortly into the Colorado Mesa University homecoming game, the crowd was cheering and I had no idea what they were cheering about. I asked my friends what I had missed, and they happily told me the first touchdown was scored. I was silent for a moment and decided to just go for it.
“What does that mean exactly?” I asked. After some laughter, they were more than willing to explain it.
Ten minutes in there was still nothing but confusion. One of the things I did realize was that the game would be easier to follow if the ball was bigger or more brightly colored, as I kept losing track of where it went.
Rugby games are easy to follow due to the ball being incredibly large and is normally colored white, therefore, making it easy to see from far away.
Something that surprised me was how many players were actually standing next to the field on the sideline, instead of on the actual field itself. Seeing as I am used to soccer games, where they only have a couple of extra players on the sidelines, I was wondering if I had missed something and the game maybe had not completely started yet.
My friends, luckily, were happy to tell me that there were these so-called ‘“defense”’ and “offense” teams and they switched depending on their game tactic at the moment. I still felt pretty confused, but to be honest, trying to find the tiny ball on the huge field took up most of my attention anyway.
Other things I have learned is that American football players must have balls of steel. Honestly, if I was on that field and saw a horde of big angry men running at me, I would probably prefer running in the opposite direction. The players on the field, instead, charged right at each other, only to be quickly pummeled by a couple of bigger men.
Overall, the atmosphere of the band playing, the audience cheering and the cowbells ringing made me feel welcomed and happy to be there. I loved to be a part of a game like this instead of just seeing a glimpse of it on the cafeteria tv. Also, the fact that we crushed Dixie State 45-24 made this a perfect first game to experience.
