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saint66au wrote:Can someone explainto me the reasonings behind that "onside kick" or whatever it was called that turned the game after 1/2 time? Just when you think you've got 1/2 a grip on the rules they throw that in!
Also noticed the apparent lack of hardcore fans of either side in the crowd. When Tipper (?) made that intercept and ran down for what was obviously gonna be the TD that decided the game..they showed the odd fan or two hi-fiving..but where were the bays of harcore fans going nuts that even the AFL manage to put into our Grand Final?
Does anyone wear the team colours over there? The crowd seemed mostly in civvies..with the odd scarf or jacket. Where was the sea of Colts blue?
..and lastly..wtf is with the 500 people who can stand on the sidelines????lol
Michael,
The on-side kick is so that the kicking team can regain possession of the ball straight away without having to go into defence.
The specific rule is the ball must travel at least 10 yards forward (unless the opposing team touches it first).
It has a very low success rate, around 10% and is a huge risk because if the opposition team gains possession its going to be in great field position.
The surprise onside kick has a much higher success rate though. While I can't remember one in the superbowl, they happen from time to time in the regular season.
For all its many obvious failings as a game, American football showed off a few points of excellence today.
The brilliance and courageousness of the coaching in this game was more legible than it ever is in ours. (The legend of Barassi's 'handball at all costs' effort in 1970 may be an exception.) The knowledable contributions of Saintsational posters on these moments of real drama is testament to something amazing happening there, amidst all the stoppages and ad breaks.
Two contradictions of the American game stand out, in a sport grown within the world's most commercialised of cultures:
1: the anti-captalist / socialist? system of salary capping and bottom-up natioal drafting works extremely well. The commercial health of the game itself seems to depend fundamentally on it. (As has been well pointed out by earlier posters here.)
2: The uniforms of the two teams are compltely free of advertising! The Colts looked as plain, simple, noble and traditional as any team could -- (as down-home old-fashioned as they did in the first game I ever saw, in 1971!)
The Saints, to me, looked superb. Sleek and clean, tough and smooth, ultra-modern and traditional at the same time. As good as it gets, and all due to rigid (+ insightful) control of the aesthetic culture of the game.
These qualities are part of our own footy-uniform tradition too, but are constantly ruined by
a) crap and ever-changing lame graphic designs, and
b) the creeping cancer of ads and logos all over our beautiful (traditional) team strips. We're well ahead of Rugby League, but, sadly light years behind the Americans.
As seen gloriously this morning.
A mate who is in Chicago will be buying me the champions cap and t shirt for me which i'll proudly wear to some of our games.
To me the NO saints are the mirror image of St Kilda, they were an obvious choise to follow back in the seventies when i started following NFL.
The last time they had won their division in the NFC was back in 96-97. They quickly fell away but after Katrina they slowly built up ie 2004 to now.
The similarity is amazing New Orleans were always were the "aints", it must be an omen.
We will have our day
