"Football" on the radio....

It's Sunday. How do I know this? Well, other than the fact that I'm in the midst of a show weekend, and have completed 3 runs (Friday night, and Saturday afternoon and night), had to wake up early this morning to Pilat, and know that it is exactly 2 days until my birthday (a tuesday), the way I know it's Sunday is because I had to make sure I was home at 10am to turn on the DVR to record the Seahawks game for Bob. Yes, as in most American households, Sunday is football day in our family. We usually sit on the couch in our jerseys and sweats, glued to the TV, maybe getting up to use the facilities or refill the chip bowl...but other than that, motionless to make sure we don't miss a single play. However, this weekend, Bob is elk hunting in the Idaho wilderness. Yes, out of touch in every way, without enough cell service to even catch the highlights on ESPNmobile. So I have diligently been DVRing as much TV as possible, so he's not behind when he gets back from the wilderness. This of course includes as many college and NFL games as the schedule will allow, as we are only able to DVR 2 programs at once. Yesterday I was lucky enough to get the Husky game, which ended up being fairly epic, but I think the end (it went into double over-time) was cut off due to another programming conflict.

Today, however, I came home to start the DVR, and then instead of sitting on my couch watching, I headed up to Bothell to get my new iPhone (23rd birthday present!!!) activated by the resident family Apple specialist. :) On the way, as with last night as I drove home from the show, I turned on the radio and found the game. This clearly inferior way of experiencing the American past time, started to remind me of a particular chapter of one of my favorite books. In a Sunburnt Country is a Bill Bryson adventure comedy about his travels through Australia. The way in which Mr. Bryson describes an Australian past time, via radio, is truly the way I feel about most all sporting events on the radio....here is a little sample:

"As if to emphasize the isolation, all the area radio stations began to abandon me. One by one, their signals faltered, and all those smoky voices so integral to Australian airwaves–Vic Damone, Mel Tormè, Frank Sinatra at the mindless heights of his doo-bee-doo phase–faded away, as if being drawn by some heavy gravity back into the hole from which they had escaped. Eventually the radio dial presented only an uninterrupted cat's hiss of static but for one clear spot near the end of the dial. At first I thought that's all it was–just an empty clear spot–but then I realized I could hear the faint shiftings and stirrings of seated people, and after quite a pause, a voice, calm and reflective, said:

"Pilchard begins his long run in from short stump. He bowls and...oh, he's out! Yes, he's got him. Longwilley is caught legbefore in middle slops by Grattan. Well, now what do you make of that, Neville?"

"Thats's definitely one for the books, Bruse. I don't think I've seen offside medium-slow fast-pace bowling to match it since Baden-Powell took Rangachangabanga for a maiden ovary at Bangladore in 1948."

I had stumbled into the surreal and rewarding world of cricket on the radio."

THIS is truly how I feel about football on the radio. A fairly ridiculous alternative to watching on TV or live, radio football is unbelievably hard to follow, or even understand, and very commonly prompts unwarranted rage or, even worse, praise when you're just so sure that you're team has the ball, runs it down within the 10, breaks a tackle and TOUCHDOWN!!! You're honking the horn and jumping around, just trying to keep your car in the right lane, before you realize that actually it was the OTHER team that had that player "Williams" who just scored 7 for your enemy. A very real kind of danger when you're in control of a vehicle. Just hope those drivers around you are not also listening in to ESPN radio, thinking "Williams" was their Williams.

It can be safely inferred that I am a visual person. When it comes to football, I'll stick to the TV, because when it comes to sports on the radio, it's all Australian to me. Thanks Bill, for putting it so well:

"So as we break for second luncheon, and with 11,200 balls remaining, Australia are 962 for two not half and England are four for a duck and hoping for rain."

....huh?