robwoolford.com

I would quite like to reach a knowledge base in the NFL and the NBA like I have in football. That’s not to brag, but in football I know the squads of the majority of the major clubs in Europe, I know most players pasts and I know their qualities. I’ve geeked it up and it’s taken me a long ass time to know as much about these teams as possible. But I suppose you can only ever gain an understanding like that by investing time.

I’ve started to with the NBA. After two years of following the Knicks I’m starting to get somewhere, but still nowhere near where I’d like to be. I know faces, I know names, I know franchises, I know histories and I gain a little more each time I watch.

NFL on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish.

I find some people’s knowledge of the NFL quite startling. This isn’t because of the large squads or anything like that, I just find it incredibly hard to focus on anything other than the quarterbacks, the running backs and the wide receivers. With plays lasting only a matter of seconds, it is hard to gauge the qualities and the weaknesses of, say, the linemen for example. Sure, the longer they keep off the other line, the better they are - but how can you judge the qualities of a player who is merely knuckling up against another player for a matter of seconds?

This is just one area I struggle with, there are actually loads more.

I suppose it helps that the commentators break each and every play up, highlighting players with specific qualities and those having good games.

But for me I struggle to take in anything other than the QB, the running backs and the wide receivers - because their qualities are evident. They are the central point of each and every play.

A quick look at the New York Giants roster (my team of choice) shows 4 QB’s, 8 Running Backs, 9 Wide Receivers, 6 Tight Ends, 11 Offensive Linement, 8 Defensive Linemen, 9 Linebackers, 10 Defensive Backs and 2 guys on Special Teams.

Fuck.

Now I know only half of those guys are going to be first string, in fact maybe only a quarter of them, but I find it increasingly difficult to come to terms with squads that size when you only see players for seconds at a time.

And each and every team in the league has squads this size.

Of those 67 players on the NY Giants roster, I ‘know’ Manning, Burress, Bradshaw, Tyree and Alford. Those are the only ones I can comfortably say I know. And Alford is only because he sacked Brady in the Superbowl final. I don’t think I could pick his face out of a crowd.

I’m going to make a big effort to step up my NFL game when the 2008/09 season rolls around. I hope to catch a game every sunday, and then the highlights on Sky, but even then I don’t expect to get-to-know any of these teams/players. If all 32 teams have 70-man squads that’s 2,240 players - with around 1,000 of those playing regularly. Compare that to 220 players playing week-in, week-out in the Premier League in Britain… I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

Seriously though, American football fans, how do you assess each and every player when a play only lasts a matter of seconds? I don’t expect to be John Madden or anything, but fuck me there’s a lot of players.

Still has me on the edge of my seat.

If there was ever an advert for the NFL as the world’s most extraordinary sport, then last night was it. For those who don’t watch NFL regularly, or those that criticise it as a game that takes too long or has too many breaks then what you saw last night was the perfect example of why none of that should matter – last night was hours of nail biting football. So engrossing was the game that I left a packed bar in the city at half time because I couldn’t concentrate, and I parked my ass about a metre in front of my TV so I could properly absorb the second half – and I’m glad I did.

For the past few months every time you looked up the NFL in the news, on the web, heard it on the radio or wherever you couldn’t escape the chatter of this years ‘perfect’ New England Patriots, destined to outdo the Miami Dolphins of 1972 and finish this season with a flawless season. It seems almost too surreal that the New York Giants could come up with such a perfect answer on such a big stage. The Patriots have spent much of the season looking composed and almost a sure thing to go 19-0, like it was already a done deal and they made things look so easy. It is bizarre that it should be the Giants, a wild card entry into the play offs, that should strip Tom Brady’s Pats of their place in the history books – especially as it was the Giants 38-35 defeat to the Patriots that provided the catalyst for their playoff form.

The Patriots did break record-upon-record this year, I can’t even keep count of how many they broke, but the only one that really mattered was going 19-0 and winning Superbowl XLII. Eli Manning and the whole Giants defence weren’t having any of that though.

It will surely go down as one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, as Manning hit Plaxico Burress with only 35 seconds left on the clock to take it to 17-14. That whole drive in the last few minutes was unreal. I’m sure you will see Tyree’s helmet-assisted catch for years to come. There isn’t much that gets me out of my seat at 3AM but that was one of them. An amazing catch, behind his head, after Eli Manning had shrugged off not one, but two challenges. A great bit of quarter backing but an even better catch. One of the most breathtaking plays I have ever seen, and without it New York wouldn’t be celebrating today.

The Patriots marched a good 80-yards just before that Giants drive and Brady found Randy Moss, as he so often has this season, for a touchdown with only 2.42 remaining. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that upon seeing this, you kind of thought the Giants’ moment had gone. Just under three minutes to get a touchdown on the all-so-professional Patriots? In the Superbowl final? Nah, that is too much to ask. But what followed was three minutes of brilliance. Brilliance that I’ve watched on repeat twice already, and probably will do many more times tonight.

MVP Manning and the Giants snatched the Patriots’ fourth title in seven years from under their noses. And I’m so happy for Manning. Criticised and ridiculed for the past few years, he completely outshone Brady last night. With every pass and every play Eli looked so composed, and it is no surprise that with the way he played they won the Superbowl. Wes Welker was definitely a shout for MVP but it is hard to look past a Giants player for the nod because they were all fantastic last night in Glendale.

I’ve never been the biggest follower of NFL, it is hard to be when you live outside of NFL-obsessed America and you don’t have access to ESPN, but it is games like last night that make me wish there were an extra few hours every weekend so that I could catch up with this sport that I find so fascinating. Congratulations to Manning, The Giants and to New York – I’m glad you pulled it off.

Congratulations to the New York Giants on their NFC championship. They’re the first team to do it with three wins on the road and advance to the Superbowl. Perhaps what’s more impressive is the fact that they were a wild card entry too!

Congrats once more… Brady and the perfect Patriots await… I’ll be routing for you there as well.

If there was ever a game that showed the true brilliance of one quarterback, and exposed the blemishes of the other - Super Bowl XLI was the one.

A mouth watering first quarter will have left many people surprised. Chicago, or running back Thomas Jones in particular, did excellently to run 52 yards straight from kick off and score a touch down. Only 14 seconds were on the clock. Incredible stuff. And by the time 11 minutes were on the clock, the game was 14-6 and we’d already had three touchdowns. The Bears started well, but in truth the Colts just didn’t come out to play in the first quarter. The moment that sums up that period of the game for them was when they even failed to convert the simplest of field goals following their first touch down - the ball slipping away as it was placed at Vinatieri’s feet.

Manning endured a pretty tough first quarter, but the Colts really sorted themselves out after the disappointing start and only allowed Chicago an extra three points for the remainder of the game.

The mediocrity of Chicago quarterback Rex Grossman really didn’t help. How does a team make it to the Superbowl with a quarterback who is that poor? He fumbled the ball twice from the centre, gave away two interceptions with ridiculously weak, floated passes and there were times where he just didn’t know what to do. At one point in the game he shimmied left, bumped into his own player, shimmied right and realised there was nothing on and in the ensuing panic he dashed left and without setting his feet launched a ball 20 yards to the left receiver - which should have been intercepted in all honesty, god knows how Grossman didn’t get sacked. The Bears fell apart and Grossman can’t have instilled any confidence in the rest of the team. He was a walking advertisement for how not to QB in a Superbowl.

Manning did fumble once himself, but with 25 completed passes out of 38 amassing 247 yards, I think we can forgive him that. He also threw one interception, but they were nowhere near the magnitude of Grossman’s freebies. Joseph Addai was another player who had a really good game, catching 10 passes for 66 yards and carrying 19 times for 77 yards.

It must be said that the Colts really didn’t take full advantage of their domination of Superbowl XLI. After the first quarter, they ground the Bears down with a series of field goals and if it weren’t for a rather fortunate interception returned touch down in the last five minutes, the margin would have only been 22-17. Grossman really gifted the Colts the game in the final quarter, if he hadn’t then the Bears certainly would have been in with a shout until the last minute. Manning made an excellent touch down pass for Reggie Wayne, but the major points came in the second/third quarter from Adam Vinatieri. His three completed field goals, either side of Dominic Rhodes’ run from a Vinatieri kick, drove the Colts up from 9-14 to 22-14. And from there the Bears had very little reply.

I really enjoyed this year’s Superbowl. I must say my flat mates weren’t into it as much as me, I watched every play but they all took turns on the PS2 on our other TV. I wish the world could stop for 4 or 5 hours every day so that I could fit in more NBA/NFL but alas, that doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon. This year’s ‘bowl started off so well, I couldn’t believe the 14-second return at the start of the game, and the first half really was just end-to-end, fumble-by-fumble, turnover-by-turnover excitement. Either team could have had the game killed off by half time if they’d exploited the mistakes of their opponents… but the Colts deserved their win, the Bears and Grossman in particular were pretty substandard.

It’s only a few hours until the Superbowl is under way. After a rather depressing evening (getting knocked out of our football cup 1-0), the Superbowl is a good way to unwind.

I’m even less up on my NFL than I am with my NBA. I’d struggle to name you 5 players. Seriously. But I love the game, the tactical knowhow and planning blows ANY other sport out of the water. I even signed up for an American Football team this year, but had to ditch it because the games clashed with my soccer. It was great fun though. I was a lineman. Probably because I can’t catch, I can’t throw and everybody else was a whole lot better than me. So there was nowhere else for me, really.

Last year I watched the Superbowl with all my flat mates, and we’re doing the same again this year, except we’re having more people over. We’ve got beer and hot dogs. Result. I’m expecting a Colts win (Chicago aren’t a big NFL force, are they?) - although I predicted wrong last year, such is my lacklustre American Football knowledge.

And that’s all I have to say about that. Laters.