 (Source: USA Today) |
Q: Hello Andrew. Welcome to VOV’s Culture Rendezvous. Football is the most popular sport in the US, but many foreigners may not know or understand it. Could you please, briefly describe how this game is played?
A: The game is played between 11 men on 11 men, 22 people on a field. There are offense and defense. The object of the game is to score the most points.
Q: So how are points scored during a match?
A: There are 4 ways of scoring points in a football game. One, you score a touchdown, 6 points. Number 2 is the point after attempt, after a touchdown, 1 point. That is set 25 yards behind the goal line of the end zone, and you kick the ball between 2 goal posts. Number 3 is a field goal. If you don’t get a touchdown, but you are in the range that you can kick the ball through the goal posts, and get 3 points. The last is called “the safety”, when the opponent tackles the offensive player holding the ball, they get 2 points
Q: I see, that sounds complicated, but fun. So why do you think football is the most popular sport in the US?
A: I think football represents the competitiveness nature of American people. And it represents the societal idea of winning. No one cares about the second or third place, as opposed to a lot of other leagues, like “Oh we did pretty well, we got second place”. No. The bottom line is you win the entire thing. It’s the only thing that everybody remembers and cares about.
And I think it’s a representative of war. It’s the competitiveness nature with other opposition. I think football has a lot of qualities of war in terms of its brutality. You can get hit really hard and get hurt really badly in the game, and that’s acceptable. Americans are open and fine with that brutality. I think that is from the story of America becoming what it is now.
Q: And that means there are similarities between football and American history?
A: American history. Yeah. And it’s a game of wisdom as well. You have to be smart. It’s kind of ironic when you have to use your body but your brain also, especially for quarterback or middle line backer. They have to be what the other team is giving them, and react to it to do their job.
Q: One of the most anticipated events all year for fans of American football is the Super Bowl. Could you tell us what that is?
A: Super Bowl is essentially the 2 best teams in the league, which includes 32 teams, play in 1 game to decide who is the best that year, they will have a trophy, and go down in history.
Q: Would that make it the last game of the football season?
A: It’s the last game.
Q: But if you consider the name, it’s a bit odd! Why would they call it the super-bowl?
A: I think it’s the shape of the stadium, pretty sure. I don’t know what else that could be. It’s because there are so many festivities and the fireworks and it’s a lit up bowl.
Q: Fireworks? Yes! Please tell us more. Apart from that, what other activities do they organize for the match?
A: Every year, they have artists to perform during the half-time show, and the advertisement in the Super Bowl. To get your ad running on the Super Bowl costs like 2 million dollars. Every companies save their best advertisement for the Super Bowl, because everyone watch it. It’s a cultural holiday.
Q: What do you usually do when that time of year comes back around?
A: We cook a bunch of food. My mom is a fantastic cook. We have about 40 people coming to our house. She cooks distinct food from each place where the two teams are from in the Super Bowl. So this year, there were Philadelphia and New England. She cooked Philly cheese sticks, and New England clam chowder, among other things. It’s a lot of fun. The game is great. The commercials are always crazy. The half time show is a big show. It’s a prime time television.
Q: Thank you very much for sharing some very interesting information about American football!
Culture Rendezvous will be back next week with more stories on different cultural features around the world.