Superbooooooooowl!

So I have to say. I was never a football fan. But the New York Giants have been doing surprisingly well, and seeing as how I live here, I couldn't help hear about it.
"Watch the New York Giants with us on their road to victory!" announced a sign outside a neighborhood pub. and that wasn't all... "After the Giants win the game on Sunday, our store will be open additional hours!" trumpeted the local Sports Authority.

And actually I was kinda getting into it.
It started on the way back from our ski trip - we were getting pizza on the way back from the bus, when we noticed that our pizza was emerging very very slowly from the oven... the guys running the pizza shop's eyes were all fixed on the bigscreen TV behind our heads. Turning around to watch, I saw the Giants going long in an amazing touchdown against the Greenbay packers. (Hey.. weren't my coworkers taking bets on the outcome of this game?) I thought. When we got home, we had the pizza and some beers, and I flipped on the game out of curiosity. I suddenly felt like a True American.

There was one problem - I didn't actually know the rules. I knew there were four quarters and four downs and there were touchdowns and field goals, but Pesky Takeshi kept asking me pesky questions I didn't know how to answer; like - why does one team keep the ball? it's been more than four downs!

After a not-very fruitful search on Wikipedia, I pulled up the official NFL rules page and actually learned them. And then suddenly, the game seemed much more interesting! Funny how that works.

Unfortunately the enthusiasm didn't catch on with Takeshi, who started taking a nap during the first quarter of the superbowl, even after promising he'd watch it in a bar with me.

I tried various methods of waking him up, like suddenly cheering loudly when there was a good pass. Of course that was hard because most of the first half of the Superbowl went like this:

1)Wait nearly the whole 40 seconds of the play clock
2)Throw the ball to the QB
3)DOGPILE!!!
and repeat a bunch of times.

So ok, there weren't that many exciting passes to cheer. But damn it, I was in New York, and the New York Giants were playing in the Superbowl! I had to get in on the local action. Right at the end of the third quarter the Giants suddenly pulled ahead and were in the lead! I had to see the reaction in a pub. I poked Takeshi and told him I was going, to which he grunted 'nnmmmff, sure, go ahead zzzzz'.
I rushed past the doorman, who was studying his phone, and shouted 'they're up by three!' and he suddenly came to life. 'Yeah I saw!!'

When I got to the bar it was humid, dark, and a buzzing hum of general excitement. Every fumble, pass, tackle and dogpile were cheered and booed in loud happy voices. Even the commercials were chuckled at appreciatively.

Then suddenly the game got very exciting - as the players got tired, there was less dogpiles and more speedy rushes to the endzones, and suddenly the Patriots and the GIants were playing an odd game of tag. At the last 50 seconds, the Giants came ahead with a touchdown, and everyone in the bar was suddenly on their feet screaming, old men hugging each other, and strangers giving each other high fives, and the few Patriots fans even managed to boo cheerfully.

Out on the street the cars and trucks on the road were honking, horns blaring and lights flashing in a raucus victory dance. Looking around, I felt very happy and silly being a part of something so chaotic and so very New York.

When I finally got home (after exchanging high-fives with the doorman), Takeshi was awake, and very very aware that the Giants had won. 'aggggh, the stupid traffic won't shut up!' he grinned. 'Guess I should have come to the bar after all.'

Damn straight! ;)