College Football Madness

Football is big here. I mean, it's big in Australia as well, but it really reaches new levels over here. And a lot of interest isn't necessarily in the major leagues like the NFL - a lot of people are crazy about their College football team. Can you imagine in Oz the local university team having a dedicated TV station? Or a 100,000 seat stadium, regularly sold out? Or even the half-hour daily news reporting school football results.

Gator Girl's brother lives in Texas and managed to get us tickets for a Texas A & M (Aggies!) college football game. We arrived at about 10pm on the Friday night before the game, only to be told that we were 'just in time'. "Just in time for what?" we naturally asked. Answer: For the midnight yell practice, which apparently occurs before every game. So at midnight before every home game, several thousand people turn out at the stadium to practice the yells and cheers that will be performed the next day. Check out the scenes:

Midnight at Kyle field

The crowd and the court

Hard to tell the crowd size from these shots, but two levels of the size of stand you can see in the background were full of aggies. And what's that on the field - yes, it's a basketball court specially put down. Apparently the Saturday was the first day that the basketball teams were allowed to train, so they held a post-midnight training session for both the mens and womens basketball teams.

The guy in the bottom picture is one of the yell leaders. There's a series of these people who's job it is to lead everyone in the chants. I'm not totally sure what the other hundred or so people standing on the field are for.

Basketball practice on a football field after midnight.

We are all listening to a guy in blue overalls with a stick.

Day of madness arrives, we turn up to find a real festival kind of feel to the day. Thousands of people are buying maroon coloured merchandise, taking pictures with cut-outs of football players, or more likely tailgating. Tailgating doesn't have the same meaning over here. Here it refers to the fantastic gameday tradition of turning up at 6 am on the morning of the game (or for the really keen, the night before), setting up a cooler (esky) of drinks, a portable barbeque and sitting behind the tailgate of your pick-up drinking and eating to warm up for the game. And if that's not enough for you, you can put on a show for the passing traffic......

And they did.

Tourists.

Maroon madness outside the stadium.

American football is an odd kind of game. For a start, each team has three teams. That is: each team consists of an attacking, a defensive and a special plays team, all of which have a full complement of players and reserves. So when you look at the sideline there can by 60-80 players standing by, ready to play. I can't help but feel sorry for the poor guy who's only job in life is to run 2 feet directly ahead and stop his opposite number from getting past. I mean, he'll never score a touchdown, kick the winning goal in a grand final, or even get noticed by most people. I know it's an important job, but I think I'd struggle if that was my only role in a sporting team.

The game itself doesn't really resemble a sport so much as a game of chess with people as the pieces. There's a lot of standing around, planning tactics, swapping teams, interspersed with occasional pieces of play. Luckily the crowd and (Gator Girl's favourite) the marching band is there to keep you entertained while you're waiting for the actual play to start.

The crowd itself is worthy of another comment. The Aggies are big on their traditions, and one of the most famous is that the entire stand in the picture below 'stands ready' to join the team should they need help. Hence the entire stand stands up the whole game. Luckily we were sitting in the opposite stand and could enjoy the comforts of the metal bench seat.

The Maroon stand with people.......well.....standing.

The small army of players on the sideline. And the back of someone's head.

Another shot of the subs. I think this many subs is worth two photos.

So they're all crazy. But a very entertaining form of crazy. And they think we're crazy for playing AFL without padding.*

* Swamp Boy has never played AFL. Just like he has never really wrestled a crocodile or ridden a kangaroo to school. But he doesn't admit any of that to the locals.