Wwooooohooooo! After 7 months of waiting... from the official end of last year's season... the NFL Pro Bowl, to the NFL Draft, training camp and preseason, finally its here. The first week of the regular season in the NFL.
Now... if you're pinoy/filipino and reading this post, you'd probably be asking yourself... why does this guy keep track of the NFL? Why can't he just be like everyone else? I mean, yeah, I've been playing basketball since Vergel Meneses was a rookie... and that's a long time! It's just that I haven't really had a good run at it... yeah, I'm relatively tall... but I'm not built for it. Although, I admit, there are times I wonder what would have happened if I spent more time playing bball. But back when I was in HS (enter the HS angst and the High School Musical soundbites), I didn't fit in with the jock clique, actually I really doubt if I fit in with any of the cliques... So anyway... thats another post. Back to football...
Well, it really started out a long time ago with a few games of touch-football, these games triggered my interest in the game. During that time, about 12-13 years ago, I'd be watching the NFL on cable, and I'd be awed and dumbfounded at the sheer brilliance and precision that the San Francisco 49ers displayed as they ran their vaunted West Coast short passing offense. It was beautiful. It unlocked a whole world of strategy and tactical thought beneath the otherwise violent sport, known more for its hard-hitting players the size of mammoths.
Here you had Steve Young dropping back 3 or 5 quick steps in consistent rhythm and tempo and finding the open crossing or slant route (usually ran by Jerry Rice, slicing through zone coverage or beating his cover man) and launching a quick, accurate bullet to # 80. Thats just beautiful, strategic football.
All of this served as a stark contrast from the rest of the league (who were just about to catch on to the heavy passing offense) who ran a smash-mouth offensive package of boring runs.
As I dug deeper, I found another startling fact... Football, well, at least in America, is a true team sport. No one could carry his team. Everyone was co-dependent. Unlike basketball, where Kobe would score... what 83 points? and Tony Harris (a PBA import) would dominate with 105 points in one game (I saw that one on TV), or baseball, with the success of teams dependent mostly on their pitching unit, football in its purest and rawest sense is a team sport.
Although a lot of casual fans only see the fame/glory going to the skill positions (the quarterbacks, the runningbacks, the receivers) Their success is anchored on so many factors, such as the pass-blocking or run-blocking success of the offensive line, the scheme, the field position, etc. An even greater team dependence is visible with the defence, wherein their success is anchored on how long the offense holds the ball, and how each of the units perform. A good pass-rush will ease the work of the secondary and vice-versa. Good run gap control by the linebackers would force the offense to pass, which would open them up to turnovers and force them to become one-dimensional.
Football is great because, everyone is a specialist. You find something you can absolutely be good at, and master it, and beneath all the action, the strategy and codependencies you read into the game just add so much more fun to it. You actually see the blue-collar guys getting their due, and superstar skill players know that whatever success they have is also only possible with these lunch-pail guys.
Observe a local basketball game... like in a barangay league. And one of the things I notice is how most players just look forward to one thing, actually getting to touch the ball and getting it into the basket. In John Nash's economics, that's not a very good game, because the roles you play centered on the ball are very limited, and with that scarcity, there is bound to be a monopolist star.
Whereas, with football, because of the myriad of specializations and roles, everyone can be something. That, I think, would be a very good model of the real world. We all just have to find our roles and play them well.
Of course, that statement opens a lot of debate too... I'm not discussing the sort of attrition that nicheplayers and specialists (like professionals and businesses) go through to survive and suceed. But, I think that whatever attrition is due to the fact that you might actually be doing something you're not really very good at.
Another thing, with the NFL, everything is built around team parity. Every team has a chance of winning, on any given sunday. Underdogs can become champions, and favorites, often fall with a resounding thud. Unlike baseball and futbol/soccer, where the Yankees and Real Madrid have been signing the biggest free-agents on a yearly basis, football's powerbase shifts from different teams and conferences, as trends ebb and flow depending on the age of the players, strategies, coaching player movement and injuries.
So anyway... back to football... Last year my team finished last... 4 wins and 12 losses... one of the worst records the Niners earned in 2 decades. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Before all of this, the Niners were the favorites... with 5 superbowls to their credit, they were bound to fall given the current parity in the NFL. But thats just the beauty of it. I'm even more excited now that I get to watch an underdog prove everyone wrong.
And that's just the tip of the storyline iceberg... I'll be watching Mike Nolan (the second year head coach) try to make a case as he follows his dad Dick Nolan's footsteps as Niner head coach... I'll be watching Alex Smith, a 22 year-old starting quarterback, coming from a small school, with a 40 wonderlic score (that's an IQ/learning test for players... and that score puts him into MENSA territory), go through the growing pains of a young team leader... I'll be watching this year's bunch of rookies carve out a niche for themselves and play their hearts out.
My season prediction, my 9ers win a wildcard playoff berth at 9 wins 7 losses!
Are ya ready for some football? I know I am!!!
