DAY 82
Week 12
AUSTIN (Texas, USA)
Sunday September 10th, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 0 miles or 0 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 9390 miles or 15112 kilometres
Sunday is footy day!!! 
This weekend is the opening of the 2006 NFL season. I have to confess that even after living here for 11 years, I simply do not get what all the excitement is about, that the locals have for their game. It's not that I don't understand the game, after all, I played two years at tight end on a very competitive team with the likes of Prycey, Riles, Pig Dog and Guru. It's just it seems like there's 10 minutes of standing around for 2 seconds of action and most of that action is scripted to the infinitesimal detail. Having played rugby all my life, I'm used to expecting the unexpected in the form of free flowing and off the cuff play.
According to the official rule book "Games are divided into four 15-minute quarters, separated by a 12-minute break at halftime. There are also 2-minute breaks at the end of the first and third quarters as teams change ends of the field after every 15 minutes of play" so why does it take 3½ to 4 hours to play the game??? To me NFL stands for Not Fucking Lively.
The other thing that seems to be missing is the characters of the sport. You just don't see it on or off the field with the NFL. National Rugby League (NRL) "legends & lunatics" like Alfie, Boxhead, Smelly Finger, Sparkles, The Axe, MG, Joey, Jacko, Sterlo, King Wally, Piggy, Big Artie, Adolf, Lozza, Cliffy Lyons, Blocker and Tommy Raundonikis. Even the guys I used to play with and against like Rocket, Bulldog, Neville the concrete aboriginal, Bails, Powelly, Napes, Ronzo, Mary, Rab, Skidders, Fluxy, Bugsy, Philthy, Hughsy, Roy the boy, Griffo, Archie "ten dollar" Tanner, Owen "Blackers" Blackwell, DJ, Gump, Smithy and Jungle were all good for beer, a yarn and a giggle.
Further along the sleep factor meter is Major League Baseball. The play a 160 game schedule and no one really gives a fig about the games until the play offs. The most hammered I've ever been was after a Texas Rangers game.