(American) Football

In a way, I cannot believe I am writing this, but I am. For a long time, I understood "football" to be the sport in which players kicked a black and white ball with their feet. My minimal exposure to this other sport, known in the rest of the world as "American football," where people geared up with helmets and tons of padding in order to pile themselves upon one another, made it difficult for me to understand what this sport was about. For a long time, I did not understand why people used their hands to play FOOTball and how a sport was played based on human pileups.

Then I came to this land where everyone seemed to be crazy about this "football" game. I learned that people would pay a lot of money for tickets, begin their tailgating hours before the games, eat a lot of food, and dress up in team colors. In my case, it was orange and blue, a color combination which I first found quite unusual. I also quickly learned that game time was the best time to go to the library or grocery shopping.

Years later, things changed. I lived in a town during the time our NFL team won the Super Bowl and our young college football team had an undefeated first half of the season and blasted its way up to the number two ranking. Feverish atmosphere.

In between, I learned about this great coach by the name of Tony Dungy, who loves the Lord AND football. He won the biggest prize in professional football and gave all the glory to God in front of millions of people. The book he wrote after his Super Bowl win, Quiet Strength, is a great read, and I am looking forward to reading his new book.

There is also this guy named Tim Tebow. A missionary kid, and perhaps the best college football player as many have contended, he understands that his athletic talents come from the Lord, whom he unashamedly proclaims, and always carries quite an infectious smile on his face, which either says "Phil 4:13" or "John 3:16" during game time.

Slowly but surely, I began to understand that the pileups was a way the game was played. I began to watch it more often, and slowly came to understand the rules enough to know the happenings on the field.

And then...(gulp)...I began to...(hmm)...enjoy...(clearing throat)...football...A few weeks ago, I was cheering loudly for the Gators during the BSC Championship Game, almost as much as I would for Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal when I am watching my beloved tennis.

As a bonus, my orange and blue team won.