Football and Footy
Last night I was up much later than I planned to be because I got sucked into the vortex of the Miami - Florida State football game. An all-ACC contest (as much as I have mixed emotions about that) between the 9th ranked and 14th ranked teams respectively. Ay yi yi. What a crapfest. FSU won by the glittering score of 10-7. Scoring doesn't necessarily make the game but not scoring can sure unmake the game. Miami did everything but put the ball in the endzone or through the uprights and the FSU defense made Miami look frickin' silly at times. Not that FSU looked like a top 20 team either. If there is any justice in the world (of college sports - and there's not), both teams would drop in the rankings.
So I wasted about as much of my life as I spent on the hideous last Star Wars movie. It's a habit I must break.
On the other hand, the Footy program featured the final regular season game between the top two teams in Aussie Rules: the West Coast Eagles (the "Weagles" - gotta love that) and the Adelaide Crows. The game was played at Subiaco Oval in Perth, home of the Weagles yet the Crows were able to beat the team that has stood atop the ladder all season to take the top spot at the end. The score was Adelaide 82 (12 goals, 10 behinds) to West Coast 74 (10 goals, 14 behinds) and it was a barn-burner. Both teams had something to prove and it showed. West Coast went through much of the season undeafeated only to stumble at bit late. Given the contest I saw, I have to think the Crows are going to take the Premiership this season.
Sadly, the Collingwood Magpies ended the season ahead of only the Carlton Blues who get this year's wooden spoon for finishing at the bottom of the league. Small comfort is taken in the fact that the thuggish Brisbane Lions also finished in the bottom eight and are not in thre hunt for the Premiership. But the Lions finished the year with 40 points to the Pies 20. Collingwood needs to do some serious rebuilding.

A while back, Paul asked what brought me to watch Footy. I don't think I ever posted on that. So.... It's as simple as a jersey. Or guernsey as they're called in Aussie Rules. I happened upon a game where the Richmond Tigers were wearing game guernseys with the phrase "Drink Drive Bloody Idiot" on the back. I thought it was hilarious. It turns out that one of the team sponsors is the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) which used the phrase as a slogan. I was intrigued enough to keep watching and found the game to be remarkably interesting. Interesting because I didn't know what was going on. So I continued to watch and now understand a good deal (though by no means all) of what goes on. And it's just a great game. A combination of the action of soccer (non-stop) with the scoring of American football (weird), played by tough guys who don't wear pads but crash into each other all the time. I mean all the time. Between having to run for the entire game and the physical strength to take a mark (catch a kicked ball) in a crowd, Footy players are incredible athletes.
By the way, I do own a Richmond Tigers guernsey. Yes, it has the slogan on the back.