the world: sport

I used to believe…

whenever we watched football on tv i used to think that the abbreviation "og" [own goal] was some wierd Scandanavian surname and one day i was at the house of this boy i really liked with his mates and football was on and the text said "Tanner og" and i said look he is another of that bloody og clan, they all laughed thinking it was a joke and so
nobody explained it to me until i moved in with my last partner and he never let me live it down - in other words i didnt know og meant own goal until i was - wait for it - 26 years old.
by then i even understood the offside rule!!!!!!!!

I used to believe…

When I was really little and watching the Olympics opening cerimonies (sp?) for the first time, my mother explained to me that flame had been carried by an athlete on all continents. I pictured some poor runner carrying the torch all the way across his or her continent, and also thought they had to use foot-powered paddle-boats (like the kind we rented at City Park Lake) to get it across the oceans. It never occured to me to wonder how they ever started the the Olympics on time. I thought that was why it was only every 4 years.

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.

I used to believe…

when I mentioned that (american) football fields looked so much bigger on TV, my dad told me that it was because professional football used 4-foot yards. I believed him until I was 16.. after all, there's a five-quart imperial gallon.

I used to believe…

One day, must have been around the New Year, I asked my Dad why the College Football Bowl Games had such crazy names: the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, Gator Bowl, etc. He told me that they used whatever object was in the title of the game as a substitute ball. For example, for the Rose Bowl a rose was used, for the Orange Bowl a bag of oranges was used and for the Gator Bowl, a baby alligator was attached by its teeth to the players jersey who would then run up the field with it. As a child of 6 or 7 it sounded pretty logical to me. And the sad part is I don't think I realized he was pulling my leg for about 10 years after that!

I used to believe…

my parents are avid football fans. i used to watch the game and i believed that i the point of the game was to chase after the person with the ball and rub his face into the ground.

I never realized as a child that on a golf course, the hole was just a cup. I thought that each hole was a tube, and they all led to a building where the golf balls were collected.

I believed (up until I was married) that the Washington Redskins were an NFL team from Washington state. My husband must have thought I was an idiot when it finally dawned on me that they are from Washington, DC. The sad thing is that I live in West Virginia which isn't too far from DC.

I used to believe…

To me, football (or actually, futbol) has always meant what is called soccer in the United States. When I first saw American Football at a fairly young age, I thought that players in that sport had gigantic muscles, though it turned out to be their shoulder pads.

I thought that every goal scored in Australin Rules football was scored by Neil Kerley (a well known S. Aust. football player) as I believed he was the goal umpire at every game and at both ends of all games.Only Australians will understand how this would screw the whole scoring system

I used to believe that when football players were in a huddle, they were praying.

Dear god, help us win this game. Amen.

I used to think that football players (American football that is) were not human. They wear those helmets and massive shoulderpads, which I thought were actually their heads and the shape of their bodies. I was very surprised the first time I saw one of them take his helmet off!

I grew up in the New York City area, where there were at least two teams in each of the major professional sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA). Because the Yankees and Mets in baseball were in different leagues and never played each other during the regular season (and never did until just a couple of years ago), as a little kids just starting to discover sports, I thought that was how all the New York teams in all sports were set up. So the Rangers would never play the Islanders, the Knicks never played the Nets, and the Giants never played the Jets. It just somehow made sense that way, and I was probably around 15 before I realized my error.

I used to believe…

One day when I was about 8 we drove past a cricket field. When I asked my mum what the white screens were for she told me that they contained hidden cameras for spying on the crowd - yeah, nice one mum. I'm 30 now, but I still check my behaviour near those screens.

I used to believe…

my daughter used to stand in front of the t.v. alot. Her dad(being a very big CUBS fan)would tell her if she didn't move, the pitcher was going to throw the ball at her.

I was about nine and I use to think that every time the batter fouled one back that the umpire caught the fouled ball because he would always give the ball back to the catcher to throw back to the pitcher. It wasn't until I actually went to a baseball game did I notice that the fouled ball went back into the stands and the umpire pulled a new ball from his bag. I just remembered thinking "those umpires have some fast hands."