American Football

by Stephen Boyd

 

It is now Football season in the United states. I will give you your first lesson on American Football. I won't explain all of the rules and the hundreds of plays that are involved right now. It's important that you understand the mindset of the game and the players.

Go Bears!!

 

 

 

1.  Football is like war.

 

2.  The object is to move the ball into scoring position through the other teams part of the field (Moving the ball through territory).

 

3.  As with armies, you can attack by ground (Running with the ball) or the air (Throwing the ball to a teammate).

 

4.  When one team is on offense the other is on defense.

 

5.  To stop the opponent from advancing through territory, the advancing players must be brought forcibly to the ground or pushed out of bounds. 

 

I'm sending you two videos of my sports idol. His name was Walter Payton. He played for the Chicago Bears. I grew up watching him play. Off the football field, he was a very mild mannered speaker, and a gentleman. His position was runningback.

On the football field, he was a warrior who actually delivered punishment instead of taking it. Due to the terrible punishment on the body, the average lifespan for a runningback is 2-3 years. Walter played for more than 10 years!  Remember, the men in the

different colored uniforms are trying to tackle him hard to the ground!  Walter had to run from them or evade them to advance the ball to the goal in order to score. In the videos you can see that Walter scored many touchdowns by himself.

He was the first runningback to jump over an entire pile of men trying to stop him!  Sometimes when I am going through problems, I think of how Walter played and faced those big guys. He went around them, over them, and even through them!

 

His motto was : Never die easy 

 

I hope that you like these videos:   

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT79Be2KzEs            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzPvzto8cdU&feature=related

 

Always,

Stephen