Just Enough To Be Dangerous

OK, I admit it. I don't know nearly as much about football as I would like to think.

When it comes to my favorite sport, I know a lot more than some people and horrifyingly little compared to many others. Some of my friends say, using only rolled eyes and annoyed expressions, typically, "How do you know all this stuff? And more importantly, why?" Then I try to talk football with those who know their business and will often hear, "Are you an idiot? You need to LEAN football ASAHMFP." (Yes, I know it's misspelled. Long story.)

So I do try to learn more by reading and listening and watching, which is all great fun, but I'm still missing something and I've figured out what it is. I never played football, and that said, I don't think you can ever fully know and understand the game unless you have. It would be like reading a book on how some athlete trained for a marathon in comparison to actually training for one yourself. You can know a lot of facts but you can't really "feel" it.

I have seen in recent years that a growing number of girls are playing football. There are even womens flag football leagues in places around the country, and high school girls here and there will actually play on their school's team sometimes. But it's still extremely rare. So men, and more specifically, men who have played football, will always have the knowledge advantage here. It's OK. We who haven't been there just need to recognize this as fact and defer to the experts. Any dumbass can memorize and spout off a bunch of numbers, but if I want a true assessment of whether or not Jamal Lewis has "lost a step," I will ask someone who has made those kinds of steps themselves, and those are, by and large, men.

Of course, this also means that men need not offer their astute views on childbirth, menstruation or PMS. Fair is fair.