Why I don’t like American Football

I have a lot of friends who like this sport, so I may get myself into trouble for sharing this, but American football (which I distinguish as such from the version where you actually use your feet) to me is a lot of standing around doing nothing.  Case in point, in a recent Steelers vs. 49er’s game that lasted 60 minutes, only 13:08 of those minutes was actually game time, with 52:57 minutes of advertisements! Are you kidding me?! The Steelers offense only played 5:01! Here are some more statistics.  No wonder over half the players in the NFL are clinically obese. Don’t believe me? See this article. If I am going to watch a sport on tv I want to see action on the field not commercials, referees throwing flags, coaches holding clipboards talking into headsets and, of course, more commercials. About the only time I do like American football is when it is an excuse to hang out with family and friends. But this is about the socialization not the game itself.  I just don’t get it.

“I don’t know french, but I kiss that way”

I visited Cafe Presse in Seattle tonight before going to the ballet. I am dissapointed. I was expecting a french neighborhood cafe. What I got was another capitol hill-ish hangout. I have nothing against nose-rings, tight jeans and tattoos, but when every server in there has them it starts to look like it’s a required uniform.  Doesn’t exaclty scream french. In fact, there is not much that’s french about it, except the menu and what I had was not that good. Perhaps I chose wrong, which I often do. I had the rilletes of fish with aioli and capers. It was mediocre and in need of salt. I had pomme frites. These also needed salt and were nothing special. The two glasses of wine I had were obviously poured from bottles opened a few days ago. The wi-fi didn’t work half the time or I would have stuck around and ordered more food and perhaps stumbled upon something worth ordering again. 

One of the draws of this place was they show football matches. In fact there were jerseys of Pauletta, Cisse and other notable french footballers on the wall. Funny, because these are mediocre players, matching the food (I would have chosen Henry, Platini and Zidane). However, I got the feeling that apart from the owner, they didn’t know anything about it. No football match was scheduled when I was there but an England Rugby World Cup match was on their blackboard as being something they would show. Since the wi-fi didn’t work I though I would watch that. I had to ask to have their tv turned on. After an anemic response from the staff it took them some time to figure out how to get it working. Now, this is not a big deal, many people are not technical this way, but it did show that the staff weren’t enthusiastic about the sport or even know anything about it. I was hoping for a cafe that had a bit of football (or in this case, Rubgy) culture and it just wasn’t there.  I am afraid all I am left with is another Seattle cafe serving okay food. Not exactly worth going out of your way for. That’s too bad, because the folks at Le Pichet are the owners and I was excited about it. Se la vie. 

 By the way, the headline of this post is a Leslie Nielsen quote. I am not sure what movie, but I am sure he was up for an oscar for his role in it.