When football isn’t football

Cameron Henkel, a ninth grader at Stratford High School, moved to Houston from Aberdeen, Scotland, and went to his first “American football” game this year.

Pass to the right! Fake to the left! GOAL!” This is what I expected to hear when I went to the Stratford vs. Memorial football game this fall. Instead, I watched a brawl between two teams fighting for an oddly shaped ball. I moved to the Houston area six months ago from Aberdeen, Scotland, and so I misunderstood what people meant by a football game. Football is, in my experience, what most Texans call soccer. Over the four years I lived in Scotland, I was surrounded by people who would call what the Spartans played “American football.” This starts to explain my perception of the game. And the differences weren’t just limited to what was happening on the field.

Hot dogs and hamburgers and fries! Oh my! The concession stands in Scotland pale in comparison to what I saw at the game. The Scots serve meat pies and stovies, crisps, chips and bottles of Lucozade, a popular energy drink in the United Kingdom. The concession stand at Tully Field provided popcorn, candy, soda and, most surprisingly, Chik-fil-A sandwiches. In Scotland you would be hard pressed to find a football stadium that served food of any type that came from a restaurant. Back at the game, I decided that American football is very slow. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Watching from the bleachers it felt like I was watching old gears desperately trying to move, and when they finally did move, someone would blow a whistle and everything would stop abruptly.

Between team time outs and penalties, the clock seemed to stop every 10 seconds. Scottish football/soccer, on the other hand, is fast paced and only ever stops for halftime or for a life-threatening injury. All throughout the game the clock is winding down. If the two sports were named after dances then American football would be the “robot” while real football would be the worm – a fluid, ever-moving game. Although I might not agree with the naming of the sport, I do plan on attending more games. School spirit translates the same in both countries.

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