Football is a very odd sport, and one that fascinates so many Americans. Every fall, instead of being enamored with the cold temperatures or the wonder of the changing leaves, we are fascinated by football. This fascination intrigues me. 

Football is a sport named after feet. Yet, there is also very little kicking. In every other country, soccer is referred to as fútbol, a sport actually played by kicking. In America, fútbol is called soccer, and we created another sport, named football, that has very little to do with actual feet. 

Except sometimes you can score a few points with your feet. We all know the giant yellow carving fork in the sky, or more familiarly known as the goal posts. In all sports there is a goal, or a hoop that when you put the ball in it you score points. But in football, you do not need to put the ball through the goal posts to earn a point. In fact, you get more points if you don’t. Everyone gets so excited when football players score a touchdown, but it seems easier to score a touchdown than a field goal, yet a field goal is worth fewer points.

The other part of the name football is the ball, but can it even be considered a ball? It is this weird cylinder shape, like an oval but the edges are pointy. The whole definition of a ball is it does not have points. So why are people obsessed with a sport that does not even have the correct name?

Everyone knows the fast talking people who sit above the football field and describe a game we are already looking at. Why do we have announcers? We can already see the game. Though, I do find them helpful when they explain to me how the game works. Without them I would have no clue as to what is going on in the game. So maybe announcers aren’t as useless as I thought. 

But coaches? Coaches are a huge part of all sports activities, but sometimes they seem to be more mean than helpful. When you watch a football game, they often televise clips of the coaches, and they are normally screaming their heads off. Personally, being screamed at does not help me do any better. The coaches for football appear hotheaded and harsh to the players. It is odd to yell at people who make you millions.

According to the New York Times, Andy Reid is the highest paid coach in the NFL. He earns $20 million every year. Meanwhile, the average annual salary for teachers is $39,339. A person who is paid to essentially yell at people is paid more than the people teaching the future of our nation. Teachers are the ones who help us learn how to multiply and talk in front of crowds, yet they are paid less than someone who tells people how to throw a ball across a field.

Football is a very weird sport, but it also brings lots of people together. According to NFL.com, 127.7 million people watch the Super Bowl. Families watch at home from their couches, people crowd around bar televisions to watch the game with their friends, and over 70,000 people buy tickets to watch the football game in person. Football brings schools and towns together to support their local teams. Imagine if every country put together a football team and that was how they settled arguments instead of wars.

And why is it called the Super Bowl? What is ‘super’ about a bunch of sweaty guys tackling each other? And a bowl? What does football have to do with bowls? All the other huge sports events start with ‘World,’ like the World Cup and the World Series. But none of those start with ‘super.’

Oh well. Maybe I am the outsider in all of this. Maybe it makes sense to everyone else watching. For me, however, I will just do what I did last year. I will sit in the room with a blanket on my head and queue my own show on my iPad while everyone around me yells and cheers for two teams of grown men battling over a pointy ball, but that does not have much of a point to me. 

Football is a sport that fascinates millions every year, maybe one day I will figure out what everyone else sees in it.