You have heard the saying “As American as Apple Pie.” Forget it. Today, it should be “As American as American Football.” Learning about American football is a good place to start if you wish to get integrated into American culture.
In this country that loves sports, nothing unites or divides people like football talk. Anywhere in the country, strangers will join you in talking sports. But the sports they most want to talk about – at the airport, in the office, in a doctor’s waiting room or at any other location — is football. Hence, I always advise new immigrants to learn the sport, but not get addicted.
Many immigrants dislike football, because they see the brutal collisions in the game. And there are Americans too who detest it for the same reason and refer to the players as modern gladiators who injure themselves in the name of sports.
But that brutality has not stopped the sport from becoming the predominant one in the country. It is, therefore, a mistake, for an immigrant to cling only to soccer. Furthermore, the occasion when you are most likely to get invited to people’s homes is the Super Bowl, the final game of the year of American football. The Super Bowl is the biggest social event in the country and dominates conversation weeks before and after.
Grown up Americans did not just wake up one day to start learning the sport. As kids, from as early as age six, they probably started pestering their parents to be allowed to play. Kids then move on to youth leagues. From there, they progress to high school football, even though that would entail three hours of practice, five days every week for most of the year. Universities recruit from stand out high school players, who then progress from university to the National Football League (NFL).
At each level, the competition gets tougher and the athleticism gets better. Some football players are Olympic class sprinters. Some also played multiple sports. For example, three of the current top quarterbacks (the predominant position in football) were stars in baseball. Others represented their schools in basketball or sprint events. Increasingly, people who came from countries like Nigeria and Australia and first picked up the sport in high school are excelling in the NFL.
Football, like other forms of athletics, requires discipline and commitment to rigorous training. Such training has no respect for the time you need for your academics.
The game is easier than first appears to a foreigner. Importantly, Americans are eager to teach you, in part because they like you to join them in watching a sport they enjoy.
The easiest place to start is to learn that the aim is to score a goal, like in soccer, by advancing the ball to the end of the field on the side of the opponent. The goal in soccer is a goal post. The physical goal in football is the End Zone.
American football advances in “downs,” which also means attempts. Each side that gets the ball first has four downs to move the ball 10 or more yards from the point where the side gets the ball. The side can keep the ball until it scores or fails to advance the 10 yard
The other thing to learn is the pass or the run. The way to advance the ball is to get someone to run with it or have a person, usually, the quarter back throw it to a person who will run with it. American football allows a forward pass, which often is the most exhilarating part of the game.
Your hard work, professional achievements and old friends are important in America. But a little knowledge of American football will keep you in the game if you wish to integrate faster into the community.
