US FOOTBALL : LET'S GO BLUE!!!

Done... I went to the Michigan Stadium this afternoon and Wolverines (Michigan) beat Wisconsin 27-13. More familiar with amazing Brazilian Soccer games Flamengo-Vasco and much more passionate by futebol, I was wondering if this experience would not be too “American” for me... What kind of interest could have a sport where two gangs of Robocop specimens are fighting violently so as to send one of them to the other side carrying a rugby ball?? And where are the delirious fans, the street vendors, the violent cops and the complete disorganization surrounding the stadium, as it happens usually to be at Maracana stadium??

It is another sport, another country and another attendance. People coming quietly to the stadium, singing several odes to the Blue… ha! At least one common point: both ingurgitate huge quantities of beer. The sport itself is maybe more interesting than Rugby... When a team touchdowns, the movements are generally really amazing... each player has a specific duty and the guy who is penetrating in the so-desired area is only a mere element of a collective effort... well, at least it was my perception..

Around the game, Michigan fans keep on singing and crying "Let's go Blue" and other canticles I cannot remember. There is no insult against the opponent or its fans… no animosity, no violence… far different from the stupidity equally widespread among soccer team partisans… I observed also the excellence of the Michigan orchestra which had a tremendous success by imitating dead zombies of Michael Jackson's movie clip "Thriller" as they were performed this music while half-time. I just found the cheerleaders less exuberant than expected...

Generally speaking, everything seems to be choreographically too much prepared... even the spontaneous reactions of the attendance. Maybe the most amusing interaction of them with the game was during the key-times… literally, before all decisive moments of the game, fans take their keys and shake them and that creates a general noise of keys in the stadium... inventive... it's really key-time!

Comparing to soccer, well! I won't be heretic... and will continue to pray in my primitive church where Pele is one and eternal Lord, Maradona is His Son and Ronaldo the Holy Spirit ... Sorry dudes... I prefer the non-educated and disordered torcidas singing their indecent canticles, eleven vs eleven and fuck the referee, his mother is a bitch!!! ... But I enjoyed the moment and will certainly come-back for other Wolverines wins...

Last hilarious detail: at the entrance, I was not authorized to get in carrying my umbrella... I had to drop it and I decided to leave it on the top of a letter box... "as it may rain... well at least it would save somebody's hair brushing...", I sadly thought... almost three hours later, when the game was over, it started raining... and I found my umbrella at the very same place I dropped... weird... it is a samsonite umbrella... 30 dollars, manufactured in the US... valuable... Weird… well, it's America... (encore?)