By Ed Adamczyk
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-763604.mp3
Buffalo, NY – It's been said that a good teacher learns from his students. If that's the case, I'm a heck of a teacher.
The class was a free, one-night seminar at the Kenmore public library last week we entitled "Football for Women." The idea was to demonstrate and explain some of the basics of the game, now that football season is here, to an audience that has an interest but lacks the elementary grounding that so many other people have somehow picked up by simple exposure to the sport. The class would be presented as a basic guide for the football watcher.
In me, they picked an appropriate educator; I've neither played nor coached organized football, but oh boy, have I ever watched it. From the bleachers, from the sidelines, from the couch on Sunday afternoons (and evenings, and Mondays). The first game I clearly remember seeing, on television, was the National Football League title game of 1958, an epic and historic overtime win by the Baltimore Colts over the New York Giants. Being 8 years old I undoubtedly missed a few of that storied game's nuances, but I am thus closing in on 50 years of paying attention to the sport of football. Not a resume for bragging, but an appropriate one for "Football for Women."
I showed up to the community room of the library (a busy place, with regular performances of one sort or another. The day before it was Mr. J and his puppet and magic show, and from what I was told, he's a tough act to follow), and I was armed with videotape, a brief Power Point presentation and all its requisite equipment, a blackboard and chalk, and plenty of notes --- funny anecdotes and the history of the game and plays to diagram and a genuine regulation football (which read "Canadian Football League" on its side).
The students showed up as well, women of varying ages, singly and in groups (and, it should be noted, one man), and library director Kate Weeks later reported that 28 people were in attendance that night, an astounding turnout for a grownups-oriented event at the library. Clearly, there is demand for this sort of thing.
This so-called teacher was amazed they knew so little about subject matter in which I had been marinating for most of my life. They watch the games, they attend the games, they have sons who play the game on the high-school level, they sit in living rooms with know-it-all football fans yelling at the television screen, and they clearly have an interest, but no one has bothered to explain to them what they're seeing. If you, football fan, have ever been at a ballet or an art gallery with a "dazed and confused" attitude, you'll get the idea. Several women in attendance admitted they'd never had a football in their hands; each was handed the ball, given instructions on how to hold it (fingers on the laces, etc.), and tossed me a rainbow for their first forward pass (complete, to Adamczyk, at the thirty-yard line!).
When I put a photograph on the screen, of actor George Clooney in circa-1920 football gear, they recognized him before I could identify him. The most basic elements of the game, such as the concept of advancing the ball 10 yards in 4 attempts in order to earn 4 more attempts, evidently was a new one to them. Watch the referee, I told them: his forward, arm-pointing motion is indicative of a "first down." We all tried it, yelling "First Down!"
So it went, with the dimensions of the field, the "hard count" tactic designed to flummox the defense into jumping offside (and what "offside" means), the complex interpersonal relationship between the cornerback and the wide receiver, how a play looks when it is pre-planned and diagrammed by the coach (and then how it looks when it is executed), the story of the year North Tonawanda had a team in the National Football League --- basic theory, basic rules and a few nitwit stories to keep everyone laughing. My students were eager to learn, stayed awake and asked plenty of questions; a teacher cannot ask more from a classroom, and the evening was deemed a success.
To me, it all seemed so elementary. This stuff has been a part of my DNA for years, but the women in the room have been exposed to all of this for years as well. No one took the time to explain the rudiments of what they'd been attempting to follow, the how and why of what they were watching. That is all they evidently were seeking, a little guidance from someone willing to explain it to them. Think of the categories of life you would better understand if one person with a modicum of knowledge, and a willingness to share it, could clarify it all for you.
After the session, we went onto the adjacent lawn of Kenmore Middle School to run a few plays. Five down linemen in a two-back set and three receivers. The quarterback handed the ball off to her running back, the guard pulled right and the tackle pulled left, and for the first time in her life, the lady with the ball crashed through the offensive line for a gain of yardage. They all loved it.
Ed Adamczyk is a columnist for the Tonawanda News and is village historian in Kenmore.
Click the "listen" icon above to hear the commentary now or use your podcasting software to download it to your computer or iPod.