American Football: History takes a dirt-bath as the Dolphins sink …
Source: Independent ()
It was a strange kind of history created here in north-west London last night; what with this oh-so-modern sport of gridiron, in this oh-so-modern stadium of Wembley, at this oh-so-modern kick-off time of 5.04pm. But still, it was history all the same. And at least there was something that defined it as quintessentially British. It was called mud and it was everywhere. Never mind all that padding, where were the wellies?
There was a winner, though, (there always has to be) and the record will show that the first, albeit rather untidy victors of a regular NFL season game held outside of North America were the New York Giants by 13-10. As expected, they were just a little too big and a little too strong for a Dolphins team who, in this incarnation, were supposed to be less Dan Marino and more San Marino. They battled, though, and their refusal to accept the inevitable made the Britons warm to them and blessedly diverted all the talk from the mud. Honestly, with all the broadcasters’ bleating you’d think they’d never seen the stuff before.
In fact, the boys in the Fox TV compound were saying that most of these players probably hadn’t, not in game time anyhow. “The NFL hasn’t been played on one of these dirt-baths for years, if not decades,” came the cry.
It only took the teams one look at the grass to turn up their noseguards. They said it was less like a football field and more like a golf fairway and almost choked on their popcorn when the groundstaff went out their with their pitchforks before the start. On the telecast the announcer told his viewers that “The Queen’s turf is not ideal for football.” Perhaps, they should try out “the Queen’s Astroturf” next time. Either that or work out before that their studs needed to be longer before their backsides began to whack the ground with increasing regularity. They lengthened their “cleats” from five-eighths to an and it was just as well. Shouldn’t this have been worked out prior to the action?
So …