#23 — Brown Goes Down

[dekedangle_rpf_mod]

This is the twenty-third post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

THE RULES

1. Mods retain the right to delete, freeze, and/or screen threads and comments.
2. Meme rules do not require warnings.
3. Respect flock. Do not repost or share information from private tumblrs, locked twitter accounts, flocked LJ posts, etc.
4. No linking fans to their real life identities.
5. No looks bashing or body shaming. This applies to players and people associated with those players and their clubs, as well as fellow fans.
6. No embedded music.
7. No embedded images.
8. No spamming the meme, whether through repeated comments or other means. 
9. No discussing trolling, individual trolls, or their efforts.





Meme rules do not require spoiler cuts. However, this layout does allow for them. Any of the following tags will create a spoiler cut when closed: <div cut>, <span cut>, <font cut>, <font color="white">

If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to The Mod Post. 

Threaded View
Flat View
Top-Level Comment View

Next post opens at 5,000 comments.

Comments

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but, nonnie, I have no clue how you even score. The purpose is to get more points than the other team, but how do you score points?! All those high school movies have been spectacularly unhelpful on this because they think everyone knows it, even people who don't care about American football.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

da

Haha, I know. And like... sometimes you kick the ball, but sometimes you don't, and there's throwing and running and sometimes there's points, but for what I'm not clear on. And all these position names, oh boy...

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Getting it over the line and then sometimes something involving kicking ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ , seriously couldn't even tell you how much points each thing is worth and why you get to kick it sometimes.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

You get to the end zone (the zone at each end of the field) with the ball, either through throwing or carrying (6 points plus either one or two more points depending on the follow up, but generally one more), or through kicking the ball through the field goal (big U-shaped goal) (3 points).

Offense and defense from the same team don't occupy the field at the same time, so generally one side is on attack while the other is on defense. There are a lot of position names, but generally you just need to know quarterback (guy generally throwing or carrying the ball on offense), running back (guy carrying the ball on offense) or wide receiver (guy catching the ball on offense).

The rest of the guys are mostly 'line' guys, so involved in hitting the other team, either on offense or on defense. There are other positions (tight end, kicker, strong safety, etc.) but mostly it's gonna be quarterbacks, running backs, or wide receivers handling the ball.

Like hockey and baseball (and most other sports), it gets complicated quickly, and American football isn't continuous play the way hockey and soccer are, but also not as modular as baseball.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

It amuses me that football is so complicated that no one can understand the rules, and yet has the reputation for being "dumb" and not intellectual and not a sport that smart, cultured people like.

(I say this as someone who was extremely loudmouthed in high school about my sports being ~superior to football, then later in life actually learned how football works and found it extremely rewarding, in the same way being able to see and understand hockey plays is rewarding.)

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

It's really really not any more confusing than hockey. I think it's just about observation and effort. Like, it gets complicated if you're talking about strategy, but the rules aren't that hard.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

In hockey, it's easy to understand that the object of the game is just to hit the puck into the net more times than the other team. The particulars are where it can get confusing. With football, even if you understand how scoring is achieved (which a lot of people don't), there's a lot more on the surface that can make it seem confusing. I agree that it's just observation and effort, but with hockey I feel that there's a little more you can enjoy without making much effort at all.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

Da

The object is to get the ball over the white goal line on the end of the field. Things can be simplified to that, even.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

Get ball to end zone. The rest is commentary. This thread is the kind of learned helplessness that I got into sports fandom to avoid.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

Not sure what part of "I watch these two sports but one was easier for me to understand before I had actually learned the rules" is learned helplessness, but ok.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

I like watching lots of sports and am the type to get over invested in random stuff I run across on TV (cricket all-stars is on sure I'll try it), but I just find American football kind of confusing despite that and repeat exposures.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

NA

Football is just getting the ball over a line (a long, long goal) by throwing and running (and the occasional kick) while the other team tries to get the ball back by hitting people to keep them from running or throwing. Like, I hate football, I'm not going to argue that it's enjoyable or how much energy is needed to find it enjoyable/understandable, but I don't think the basics are much harder to pick up for either sport. How much patience you have for the execution of plays, that's another matter.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

DA who doesn't know anything about American football wants to know what the kicking is about. I learned from Ace Ventura that there's a point in football where kicking the ball is really important.

Also I feel like there's got to be more about getting the ball past the line. Doesn't it have to go with a person? Like, you can't just hurl it from the other end of the field?

What does a quarterback do and why are they so important?

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

My stance is that I still think all sports are weird but I have a strange soft spot for hockey, like it's a particularly dumb cat that runs into walls a lot.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Thanks, nonny, but even that short explanation was confusing. I guess I'm destined not to know much about American football.

Maybe if they put them in skates and put them on ice, I'll be a bit more interested.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

I've tried to understand this comment, but it went right over my head. I would probably have to go to games with someone who understands it a few times to actually get it (if they're willing to explain things to me constantly).

Thank you though, nonny!

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

DA It's a lot easier to get if you're watching a game. I think that's the case with most sports. Easier to understand things like icing (although sometimes I doubt if even the refs truly understand icing...) or offside if you're actually watching them play.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I gotta say, people are confusing disinterest and lack of exposure with it being complicated. It's not - you just have to actually watch and have someone explain a few times.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

I would say that (at least to me) it is complicated than other popular sports. Like, I have been exposed to more football than pretty much any other sport aside from hockey, and my understanding of it is still fuzzier than my understanding of basketball or golf or baseball or soccer/football.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

sa

I will also freely admit that some of my ignorance is willful because of my aggressive not-giving-a-shit that sprung from growing up around people who fixated on it to an alarming degree. But the fact remains that if it were a simpler sport I would probably be able to explain it better just by osmosis, the way I can with the other sports mentioned above.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

I actually had the opposite experience! I played baseball and American football in high school (mandatory, PE) and I came away with a much greater understanding of football than baseball. Football, you have your peoples and one of you has to get the ball across the line. If you get tackled or drop the ball, you lose a chance. Lose all your chances and possession changes. If an opposing player gets the ball in his hands, possession changes.

Baseball is weirder. You need a conception of the strike zone and also when runners can and cannot advance without 'tagging up,' and also fouls, otherwise very common events don't make any sense. But I did kinda float through baseball by always sneaking to the end of the batting order whenever an inning changed, so.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Honestly it's kind of like hockey but much more discrete rather than continuous? It might be a thing where you need someone who understands it in the room with you introducing you to things as they're happening though.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

This I agree with. I could not understand american football at all when I tried teaching myself the rules. My ex was a huge football fan and NOW I LOVE IT.

But I am sports gal. :) I adore baseball too. And tennis. And soccer/ACTUAL FOOTBALL.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

I hate the "actual football" thing.

Soccer is association football. American/Canadian football is gridiron football. Rugby is technically rugby football. There's also Australian and Gaelic. They're all football.

Re: Fic Discussion - Deja vu

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Plus, I love that Victorian-era college kids slang is remnant in a name still used today.