Watching Football/Thinking about Rugby

So tonight in NJ (which is where the NY Jets and the NY Giants play for those of you who dont realize that) it was about 20 deg Ferineheight, and with the wind, it felt around 5 deg.  And, as we watched the Jets destroy the Bengals, we could not believe that anyone would be out there in that weather, especially by the end of the game.  But, there they were, braving the cold for the last game ever to be played at Giants Stadium (the new one is almost done right next door) and watching one of the UGLIEST football games I have ever seen.  The Jets were playing very well, and the Bengals were hardly even playing.  My high school football team, which was (when I was in HS anyway) one of the WORST in the state looked more organized than this football team.  And I hate to see when that happens to a team, because I have definitly been there.

When I played rugby out in AZ we went to a tournament in Albuquerque, NM called the High Dirt Rugby Classic.  We played the Lobos and were DESTROYED by them.  It wasn't even fair.  I had been playing lock, but the girl playing flanker (we'll call her M) on the weak side wasn't making any tackles, and their eight definitely had her number.  My coach switched us out, hoping that I would have better luck (I did get a few good tackles in, including one which rammed her into a fan's chair).  Well, that switch frustrated M and she got even more frustrated when our team began to knock on the ball almost every time someone touched it.  When the ball is knocked on (it hits the body above the knee and goes forward) play is restarted with a scrum.  I am not sure how many scrums we did before she went off the deep end, but man was it ugly.  She was so frustrated that she swung at her fellow lock, and it took the other captain and I pulling them apart to get them to stop fighting.  It was so embarrassing for our team, and M was seething mad.  Not only were we beaten, but our own teammates were fighting DURING the game.  But what do you even do in that situation.  It's so hard not to get frustrated when your team looses, and when we lost that badly to them, we were all nearly in tears.  Luckily the Lobos did not hit up the party later that night, because I think that eightman might have repaid me for the chair incident (not my fault!  her fans' chairs were sitting about a foot off the touch line).

I have lost badly in rugby before, and I have won by so much its pitiful, but never has a game been so horrible as that one was.