I used to believe that certain babies were born with extremely huge shoulders.
These babies were sent to "training camp" (which is why you never saw them on the street as children and when they grew up the became professional football players.

Jane

I used to think that the Giants only played the Redskins because whenever I asked my dad who was playing, it was the Giants and the Redskins.

Dara

I'm from Atlanta and I used to believe that at the end of the Star Spangled Banner, when you sang "and the home of the Brave..." that everyone across the country put in the name of their own hometown ball team.

Anon

For years I didn't realise that "soccer" was football (i.e. English Association football). I thought the word was pronounced "sosser", and for some reason thought it was a game like throwing a frisbee.

Ray

I grew up thinking that the Washington Redskins were the president's football team because the president was from Washington (not the team)...

Anon

When I was growing up my grandfather loved to watch football on the television. I used to think that the players were really shaped the way they were. I didn't realize there was padding on their shoulders, so to me I thought they were monsterous people.

I also used to get freaked out everytime a television station would sign off for the evening at 11:00 or 11:30 p.m. Whenever they would start playing the national anthem, I would run into another room to get away from it. I have no idea why I was afraid.

Bob

(Australian spacific)

When we where young my father told my younger brother that he would not be allowed to go to the football (aussie rules) unless he could eat a Meat Pie with his hands without spilling any or becoming messy. (this can be quite difficult with the cheap pies that you get at the footy. He was told this to encourage better eating habbits/skills, You are not Australian unless you can do this :-)

Years later we went to see Gelong play, My brother stoped at the turn table where the ticket man stood. He wouldn't move,
My father said "Come on, other people want to get through",
"But he hasn't asked me the question yet." James replied,
Dad looked baffled, "What Question?"
"About the Pie,"
"Huh? what pie!?, come on, your holding up the queue"
"If can eat it without a knife and fork"
"Huh?, Oh... That's not really true, come on, your allowed in," said my father, then similing at the Ticket guy,

Paul

We lived near a huge sports stadium in Melbourne (the M.C.G) and back in the day giant plastic trumpet-type horns were popular in the crowd. When the footy was on and the wind was travelling in the right direction we could hear the crowd going mental and blowing these horns each time someone kicked a goal. My sister and I firmly believed they were trying to contact us, we would spend hours on the porch yelling at them full volume until we heard the horns sound, then we'd get scared and run inside. About a minute later we'd overcome our fear and resume yelling. This occurred every Friday night for six months of the year, much to our parents dismay.

Steve

After watching Tiswas or Multi-Coloured Swap Shop of a Saturday morning - sandwiched into the sofa, waiting for mother to drag us all out shopping - there was the boring television that followed.

A particularly disturbing episode of "It's the Wolf" was usually followed by an unending weather forecast, with sloppily-sticking magnetic pads.

Then it was time for Grandstand - the then grand but now somewhat delapitaded afternoon sports fest.

Raised in Epsom, at the foot of the hill that led up to the racecourse of Derby fame, I knew that the big tiered building at the end of the course straight after Tattenham Corner was called "The Grandstand".

Well, I put two and two together and naturally assumed that that was where the show was broadcast from.

Anon