Yellow Jackets

American Football! I watched one this Saturday, at the Bobby Dodd Stadium, Georgia Tech.

Yellow Jackets Vs Jackson Ville

Yellow Jackets is the football name for Georgia-Tech team, which was supposedly the national conference champion some years ago (1917, 1928, 1952, 1990). Personally, I never had a good opinion about this sport, which was to me nothing but a bunch of guys rolling over each other throughout the match, but this time I did enjoy it.

One thing about this game (at least in GaTech, I'm sure other states as well) is that it manages to gather a huge crowd, something to the magnitude of a India-Pakistan cricket match in India. And, the extent of publicity it receives here is staggering. Every other day, I find people setting up stalls, selling tickets, handing out brochures, websites yelling hard. It kept me wondering if the game was worth the hype.

Well! no comments about it. I watched it for two reasons - firstly, it was a student ticket (costing $0) :P and secondly, I wanted to know what was so special about it.

I would say it is never close to Soccer (or the football that we usually perceive it as). Primarily, because the game is majorly confusing (esp for a newbie), when you step into the match, all you see is a group of guys running around in a haphazard fashion, more or less similar to bees flocking around a flower. And, size of the ball is too small to be even noticed, thereby making your judgement of the game rely on movement of the players, who play deceiving tactics and create false gestures most of the times. Its only when a someone hurls the ball in the air to his receiver, on the other end, that you get to see it. And, the rules are complex as well. You hear all new terms - touchdown, quarterback, etc. It took a while to realize what was actually happening in the field. The game is divided into four quarters (15 mins each), and believe me, each quarter takes atleast 45 mins of audience time (coz of fouls and stuff). So you spend like two and hours totally. And unless, you are a die-hard fan OR the match is exceptionally engaging, you are likely to get bored atleast by the last quarter.

Overall, a good break for me. I am now looking forward to a baseball match, sometime during the season.