Feeling more at home

This is a bit of a strange post as it's sports related.  If you know me well, you might know that the only team sport I ever played was softball when I was nine.  I found it so awful, I couldn't wait for the season to finish.  Oh, and I played one game of netball as an adult.  I thought I was going to die the girls on the other team were so rough and I had no idea what I was doing. 

This passed Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  We went to the same international students event we went to last year which is great for having a great big screen, helping to explain the rules, and providing plenty of Super Bowl type snacks.  I really over did it on the chips this year.  They are my weakness.  

Over four years living here, I have learned that Super Bowl is a National event similar to Christmas or New Years.  The food is important, the event you attend is important, the team you are rooting for is important.  Or it's important that you pick a team.  This can be tough as the teams are linked to cities so if your city is not represented, you have to grab at tenuous links.  Like my friend who comes from Southern California.  He was rooting for the Baltimore Ravens this year because there is a rivalry between San Fransisco and Southern California.  Rather than rooting for his rival, he chose to root for an East Coast team.  That is a far less tenuous link than my other friend who was rooting for Baltimore because the two coaches for the two teams this year are brothers* and he wanted the younger brother (Baltimore coach) to win.  The important thing is that they were rooting for the right time. 

You must know by now that Jbird and I lived in Baltimore for two years so of course we were rooting for the Ravens on Sunday night.  And what a game it was.  The Ravens were winning by a huge deficit of over 20 points by the end of the first half.  They came back after the break with a really exciting play where one of the guys conquered most of the field and got a touch down in one run.  Then there was a 30 minute power cut (!) after which the San Fran 49ers came back from the deficit and nearly overtook Baltimore!  NEARLY.  Baltimore won.  After four years, I can nearly follow all of the rules (or most of them), except that at the end I had to ask can I be happy now? I wasn't sure whether play could be extended beyond the hour.  With all those time outs, it can be really confusing.  It was an exciting, close ending too, 34-31.  

Now that I have had a not so tenuous link to a Super Bowl final (and winning) team, I somehow feel more linked to America, a nice feeling to own.

*What's neat is their brother-in-law is the Indiana University basketball coach and he was at the Superbowl game cheering his brother-in-laws on, in the family box.  What a family of coaches!  What a box to sit in!  By the by, the IU basketball team - the Hoosiers - won their game on Saturday night against the Michigan Wolverines putting them at Number One.  The Wolverines are my sister-in-law's team and by default my brother's team.  Except we don't really care or follow the sport.  Except we do kind of care...