Football as a spectator
I have been to several women's football games so far, but Saturday was the first time I got to see the game as a spectator and not as a videographer. So rather than see tiny images flicker on a 2X2 screen, I got to see it all with my own eyes, focusing on the things that draw my attention.
More than half of the Phoenix came to watch this game as well. Their season ended last week with a 5-1 record, better than most of the full fledged teams. They wanted to see a game as spectators as well.
One of the teams we saw was really large, they came from a big city, and had a big budget. They brought their own team of announcers with them. These announcers filled the booth, but they didn't talk over the loud speaker. They weren't there for the game, they were there for their team. Camera, laptops, sound equipment, the whole deal. They recorded the game to play back on the internet later.
The team was big as I mentioned, and rich. Big enough and rich enough that they had their own bus they came in. Their uniforms were all modeled after their home city's NFL team. There were things that really impressed me about their team. For instance, they scored a touch down and are going for the extra point. By the time the whistle was blown at the end of that play, the kickoff team was already in place waiting to kick again. This team had an entire offense, defense, kick off, and return team and back ups for each of those teams. They moved on and off of the field with precision, and never got tired, because they really didn't have to be on the field all that long.
I spent some time talking to their teams videographer. He was very proud of his team and wanted everyone to know it. He spent the game talking about all of the ways that his team was better than all the other teams. He talked about how much money they had. He talked about their big college educated coaching staff. I gathered the coaches had all played college ball, and some of them probably coached college ball. He told me about the individual players. Congratulations to the player who just graduated from law school. He told me about how each of their players has a personalized workout designed by Velocity. Then he went on to tell me a whole bunch of other things that, frankly I lost interest in. He started trying to impress me with his personal football knowledge. Thing is, since I have absolutely no football knowledge at all, his words had no meaning to me. I was polite though. I think I nodded and smiled in all the right places.
Based on all I saw on the field and all he told me, they can be easily be beaten by a team of 22 with a good coach. Everything else is just window dressing really. Impressive, but in and of itself won't win you any football games.
