| Understanding football makes it more enjoyable to | | | | and 12 minutes later the team with the most points |
| watch. The men I've been around for most of my | | | | wins. Not quite. Add players performing amazing feats |
| football watching were usually too caught up in the | | | | of athleticism, players making errors, factor in rules and |
| game to explain how it's played. I learned a lot from | | | | regulations, injuries, timeouts, commercials, and NOW |
| my first roommate, who knew a lot about football | | | | you have a football game. |
| because her brother played in high school and college. I | | | | Football basics include how to score. There is nothing |
| learned more when I was married to my first husband, | | | | like being at an exciting game, either because there is |
| from the total immersion that began in our house with | | | | little defense and the game is high-scoring, or because |
| the annual draft and continued through training camp, | | | | the defense is so good and it's low-scoring. Both make |
| pre-, regular and post-season play. Spreads, over | | | | for exciting plays. |
| under, who was favored, who was injured, who would | | | | The offense is the team with the ball, trying to score. |
| win and why, how the Dolphins did in the past season, | | | | The quarterback is generally handed the ball from the |
| what their prospects were in the next season - there | | | | center, who snaps it to him; then the quarterback |
| was football talk all year. | | | | hands it off to a runner, or throws it to a pass receiver. |
| My ex-husband subscribes to Dolphin Digest, reads | | | | Their goal is to go down the field and score points, |
| The Sporting News, watches all the games televised, | | | | while avoiding losing the ball to the other team (called a |
| attends Dolphin games (and tapes those that are | | | | turnover). |
| televised), and reads whichever newspaper has the | | | | The defense is the team trying to prevent the offense |
| best sports coverage. When I lived in Fort Lauderdale, | | | | from scoring. They can try to force a turnover, tackle |
| a group of guys (Don, Rick, Gary, Arun, and Russ, | | | | the player with the ball (if the player is the quarterback, |
| occasionally Ron, Chuck, John, and Carl) would watch | | | | and he's tackled while still holding the ball, it's called a |
| the games at our house. (And yes, they did this for | | | | "sack"), or intercept a pass. If a defensive player |
| college games too.) Fortunately I enjoyed the game, | | | | intercepts the ball, or recovers a fumble, and is able to |
| and learned a lot from being around all this. | | | | run back to the end zone and score, it's called |
| Football should be an easy game to understand. Run | | | | defensive scoring, or points on defense. |
| the ball, throw the ball, kick the ball, score. One hour | | | | |