Super Bowl XLV Abroad

As you all know, Super Bowl XLV was played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Super Bowl Sunday is a great day in America where family and friends get together to eat, drink, and watch the great game of football. It doesn’t really matter if you like the sport or even if you pay attention to the game. What matters is that you are in good company and enjoying yourself.

In Europe it is a completely different story. I started talking about the Super Bowl a few days ago and got a whirlwind of different reactions. Some people had heard about the super bowl and some hadn’t. Some knew that it was a big deal and some didn’t understand the concept at all but I gathered up a small group of friends to watch the game with.

Prior to Super Bowl Sunday, I started doing my research to find a pub that would be showing the game. Seeing as it is one biggest events in American sports, I thought finding a pub to watch the game would be easy. I thought wrong. I walked into the first pub and asked “excuse me sir, will you be showing the Super Bowl on Sunday evening?” His response was, “Super Bowl? What is, Super Bowl?” And such was the case in four more pubs until I got to the fifth.

I walked into a pub called Winkle Van Sinkel and asked a waitress the same question. She responded with an excited “Yes!” and continued to explain how her brothers like American football and how she used to watch it with them. Excited and tired from walking around town all day, I ordered a beer and sat at the bar. Only to have my hopes shattered when the same waitress approached me and said, “I’m sorry, there was a misunderstanding. I talked to my boss and we will not be playing the Super Bowl on TV.”

She referred me to a pub that she was certain would air the game and off I went to find Mick O’Connell’s Irish Pub. It wasn’t far and I found the place with ease. In the window of Mick O’Connell’s was a half sheet of white paper with ‘Super Bowl XLV Sunday @ Midnight’ written in red marker. I poked my head in just to double check and when I asked the question to a waitress, she responded “Yes, maybe.” That was good enough for me.

We left our apartment around 10:30pm on Sunday evening to get a table at the pub. I thought since there was only one establishment in the entire city center that was showing the Super Bowl, it would fill up fairly quick. Again, I thought wrong. We showed up around 11:00pm and the place was dead. There were maybe 20 people scattered throughout the pub. We sat at a table with a good view of the TV and ordered our drinks.

I came to the pub with five other people (two Turkish guys, two Spanish girls, and girl from Belgium). The girl from Belgium enjoyed football and knew the rules while the other four were completely clueless. The two Turkish guys thought the Super Bowl was a championship for rugby, one Spanish girl thought it was for baseball and the other didn’t really care. She just came for the experience.

I played eight years of football and consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about the game. So, I thought it would be easy to explain the general rules and regulations of this great sport. I had no Idea what I was getting myself into.

It started with the kickoff. One of the Turkish guys asked “So, you can use your feet too? I thought that wasn’t allowed.” My response, “It is allowed during the kickoff and a few other occasions.” He came back with, “Why do they, kickoff?”

It continued with a Spanish girl, “Why are they lining up across from each other, and why is there a yellow line on the field?”

This is where I attempted to explain the bare essentials of American football, “downs”… This was my attempt, “The team with the ball gets four attempts to go 10 yards”… Interruption from one of the guys, “Wait, how many meters is that.” My response “It’s just less than 10 meters.” Explanation continued, “If they don’t move the ball 10 meters in four attempts, they must give the ball to the other team.” Interruption, “Why do they just give it up?”

After that arduous conversation ended and I thought I was in the clear, Green Bay scored their first touchdown and the questions started flying again… “They just scored one time, but there are 6 points on the board, why?” My response, “Touchdowns are worth 6 points, and then they have an untimed attempt to try and score 1 or 2 points.” The Packers went for 1, and the conversation was over…

Then, the Steelers went and kicked a field goal; oh boy. There were many confused faces because when the field goal was good, the scoreboard showed 3 more points for the Steelers and the questions continued. “Why was that kick worth 3 points and the other only worth 1.” “Why are they allowed to kick the ball before they score?” “Can you run and kick the ball through the bars for 3 points?”

And so the night continued. Here are a few of questions I would never expect to answer about American football.

“If they are playing in Texas and it is warm. Then, why are some players wearing gloves?”

“Why didn’t the other team get the ball when he ran out-of-bounds?”

“Why are all the players so fat?”

“The clock is moving but the players are just standing around”

On the rule of forward progress “Is it normal to have corrupt referees? That guy put the ball 5 meters ahead of where the player fell.”

During the first commercial break “The first period is over already?”

On touchbacks “So if you can move ahead 20 meters by falling into the touchdown zone, Why don’t they just run back there every time?”

When halftime finally rolled around it was 2:00am and everyone was tired. We rode our bikes back to the apartment discussing what had just happened. Everyone seemed to have had a good time and learned quite a bit about American football.

For me this experience was an eye opener. I never realized how sheltered football really was. It is a multibillion dollar business that barely exists outside of America and yet, I was still able to enjoy a beer, some good company, and watch the game that we all love.