Now Americans are CRAZY about football, and college football (not to be confused with 'collage football') is HUGE. Stanford alone has a stadium with a capacity well in excess of 75,000 people - though, because it was a low-key game on Saturday, the stadium was only half full. Still, it looked VERY impressive ...
... We were expected to thrash UC Davis, who, apart from having unbelievably small amounts of money to spend on their football team compared to us, aren't considered a "top division" team. Though both of our mascots are pretty unintimidating - compare the "Stanford tree" versus the "UC Davis, um, blue dog-type thing" ...
But a college football game in the US actually begins well before the game in the parking lot/areas surrounding outside. There everyone has "tailgate parties" (I know, I thought these sounded quite dangerous to when I heard them). At these parties people bring BBQs and eat food and drink for ... well, all afternoon leading up to the game. Yes, my kind of thing exactly!
As for the game itself? It was an incredible atmosphere (made all the more special by the cheap entry price!). There was a band ...
... cheerleaders ...
... fireworks (during half time, for no reason?!) ...
... lots of crunching tackles and "stacks ons" (and no, I don't understand the rules yet) ...
... and, lots and lots of standing around. Just see how big the entourages (players only!) of the two teams are, watching play continue!
In the end, we lost - our worst loss in a few decades (not my fault, honest!). But I was there for the journey, not the destination anyway ...
1 comment:
ooh how fun~ we started playing a lot of grid-iron back home; but don't worry about understanding how to play - some people spend their whole lives trying to figure it out O_o
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