Sunday Feb 5th- SU-PER-BOWL SUNDAY

SU-PER-BOWL! SU-PER-BOWL!

I go down to "The Ram" to watch the game. Actually, I watch the first half at home with Ann, and the two new "roommates" (that's what they call lodgers here). I met them this morning and they seem OK. I met the guy as I came downstairs...
"Hi, I'm rich!"
"Well there's no need to brag about it!"
"No, my name is Rich."
"Huh, that's rich!" I thought.
His missus is called Becky. They are from Delaware, a little state tucked between New York and Washington DC! They're here for 4 weeks doing a TEFL course. As I got here first, I have bagsied all the space in the fridge and the bathroom. They will have to pay me to put down so much as a Q-tip (cotton bud) or potato chip (crisp).

We leave for the Ram with the score standing at 7-3 to Pittsburgh. It was a close first half, with a few questionable decisions by the officials. That is how it continues in a packed-out Ram. There is a local TV news camera crew stood by us ready for the big celebrations. I chat to the cameraman who's a proper gent. He asks me if I know Nathaniel Pocock, as he used to live next to him in Carolina! I wonder how many people he thinks live in the UK, but I just say that no, it's a small world but not that small in this case.

The Steelers score again- 14-3. Woe is us. The place is subdued. The pom-poms are put down on the tables, and faces emblazoned with a blue and silver seahawk are downcast. Then, as it looks like the Steelers are going to wrap it up, an interception and a 70 yard return. WOOH! EAT MY SHORTS, PITTSBURGH!?!?















Back in the frame at 14-10. Look at the guy in the black T-shirt. He's doing that thing where you stick out your thumb and little finger. And go "Wooh!" There's a whole bunch of "wooh" goin on, trust me.

But eventually the game slips away. There is a period of about 5 minutes where it could go either way, and the smallest of margins makes the difference. I guess this is a bit different to English footy where a team can get battered for 90 minutes and still steal away a draw or a win. American football is a bit more obvious somehow- it's like watching a military battle from atop a hill- and surprises are therefore not as common. I remember when the NFL was popular in England for a year or two, and we tried playing it at breaktimes in the schoolyard with a tennis ball... cue high-pitched voices... "Hup! Hup! Going long... TOUCH-DOOOOOWWWNNNN!" But somehow the sport doesn't fit the British psyche, and we soon reverted to FA rules... cue high-pitched voices... "over 'ere... on me 'ead.. GOOOAAALLLL!"

Pittsburgh won the game with a great play. The geezer who normally chucks the ball gave it to the fella who normally runs dead fast and catches it. And instead, it was this fella who lobbed it right up into the air and into the bit with the coloured grass, called the ENDZONE, where another chap ran into, caught the ball and started doing the funky gibbon. Or the funky chicken (it wasn't clear which). After that, half the fans went "Wooh!" and the other half held their heads in their hands. It's what is known as a TOUCHDOWN! Perhaps I have just found my calling as an epic sports journalist- Norman Mailer, eat yer heart out! So for the Seahawks, it all ends in a rather British-style heroic defeat.

In other news, Liverpool get beaten by (ugh) Chelsea, Sheffield Cents probably got stuffed by some one-legged coal miners, Chester City got beaten 5-0 by Carlisle, and I expect that every team I have ever played for or supported got soundly thrashed, including King's School Chester, Sheffield Uni and Spiderman Fan Club FC (3rd team).

In bed for 11.......Busy day tomorrow........I Hope!