Sports Update

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23. It was a very exciting game actually. The first half maybe not so much until Pittsburgh intercepted a pass from Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner near their own goal line and ran it back all the way for a touchdown. Then things started to get tight in the fourth quarter when the lead was traded back and forth a couple times. Arizona got a safety when a Steelers player was called for holding in the end zone, and Cardinal reciever Larry Fitzgerald caught a pass for a 64 yard touchdown. But then the Steelers staged a drive and scored a touchdown with 35 seconds left on the clock. Arizona tried to come back, but a fumble ended their slim hopes.

In tennis: Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer to win the Australian Open. I feel sort of sorry for Federer 'cause he was very upset. But that's competition. Somebody has to lose. I get the feeling I'd be a very bad competitor because I always end up feeling for the losers.
I didn't see the match myself, but by all I've heard about it, it was exciting.

So thats the condition of sports. At least, the few sports that I pay attention to and had time to read about.

Poor Vikings

The Vikings got into the playoffs!! And lost in the first game. Ah well. Up and down, great to horrible, would be a good way to describe the Viking's season this year.

I feel sort of sorry form them because they worked really hard to get so far. I imagine that Gus Frerotte is not very happy right now. And probably the person I feel most sorry for is Tarvaris Jackson. He gets yelled at a lot by the media. What they say isn't wrong, he didn't play very well, but I'm sure it's not very fun being him right now.

*sigh* It's been a up and down year for football in Minnesota. But at least we're not in Detroit. Vikings fans have something to be thankful for afterall.

#1 Texas vs. #5 Tesas Tech

It's been a crazy game. I just had to say something. Tex Tech was leading, then Texas got ahead, then T.T. came back. Then with like 1:29 left. Texas scored and was ahead 33-32. Then the T.T. quarterback went into hyper-efficiency mode and threw like four first downs in a row. Then he threw a pass, the receiver wrestled his way free of a guy and scored a touchdown with 1 second left giving T.T. a 38-33 lead. Then the crowd (Texas Tech people) stormed the field and broke the goal posts. It was a crazy game.

Crazy!!

Yikes!!!! The Gophers (football!!!) beat Illinois!!! 27-20!!!! Crazy!!!! There is something seriously strange going on when Minnesota beats a team that creamed Michigan. Speaking of which, Michigan lost to Toledo, who I've never even heard of before. There are some very sad Wolverine fans out there right now.

That's all for today :) I just had to get that out there.

A good way to get squished disguised as a game

So, I've been reading a lot about football recently in the newspaper. The NFL season started a couple weeks ago and all that stuff so football is one of the biggest sports going on at the moment. I got somewhat interested in football like a year or two ago and I admit to reading the articles about games and players in the sports section. But I'm still continually perplexed by football and football players. First of all, why is it called football? I mean, the players carry the ball with their hands. I looked that up online and found some answer about American football evolving from rugby football and rugby evolving from soccer (I'm an American so it's soccer not football) but it was still pretty confusing and I didn't get a clear answer. 

Personally, I don't think I would ever want to play football. There seems to be a high chance of being injured, squashed or killed. However it does seem that some people really like playing it and do so for hours on end and for a profession. But then again, I fence and I suppose you could find something similar in voluntarily getting out a sword and letting someone try to stab you while trying to do the same to them, and voluntarily getting on a field and presenting yourself as a target to lots of 300 pound guys whose job it is to squash you. 

Surprisingly enough, I actually like both the Minnesota Vikings and the Gophers (college team). The Vikings I don't know why I like them, probably because they worked hard and came close to the playoffs last season but didn't quite make it. I like the Gophers 'cause I feel sorry for them 'cause they had a horrible season last year. They're doing much better this year though with an undefeated 3-0 record. Of course I don't think it'll stay that way but considering they were 1-11 last year, it's a big improvement. In the NFL I also like the Green Bay Packers. I think it's cool that the majority of their stocks are owned by fans and not just one or two super rich people. I'm also rooting for their new quarterback Aaron Rodgers because he was put in such a hard position, following Brett Favre. 

Football. A game where the object of the offense is to move a ball down the field and score. And the object of the defense is to promptly squash the guy holding the ball. Though the first recorded mentions of modern football were during the mid 19th century I can easily imagine cavemen playing a similar game during their days.