American Football in Cody Wyoming

I've said before that I have a problem with elements of the game of American football. My main gripe is that it is possible to throw the ball out, I believe this play is called an incomplete pass. Quite often when a forward pass is attempted the ball goes out, and the offensive team retains possession.

This conflicts with the term foot-ball. In either Rugby League football, or Rugby Union football, or Australian rules football for that matter, intentionally throwing the ball out is a penalty, and possession is lost. A kick is awarded to the opposing team. This makes perfect sense as a player should not receive a 'free pass' so to speak and should kick the damn ball somewhere, it is called foot-ball after all.

Rant over. I was lucky to actually witness an American football game when in the US recently. The game was on Friday night under lights in Cody, Wyoming. The Cody Broncs were hosting the Worland Warriors.

The Cody Broncs won quite easily, which was kind of strange as I thought the players on the Worland team looked better. It might be that Cody had more players. I don't know and don't pretend to know the game.

It was funny to see Cody miss a kick for the extra point, how could anyone miss a kick that easy? Oh wait, I remember Stacey Jones missing one like that in Wellington. It does happen but shouldn't.

The reaction of the crowd in Cody wasn't hostile. This was quite heartening I thought. Maybe it was because the kick didn't matter. It was good to see cheerleaders and a big brass band too. Bands have disappeared in New Zealand these days. The game was played on an artificial turf, not as good as grass I have to say.

Who was watching this game? There were men and women, and school children, the men often had a jacket on with Cody Broncs emblazoned across the back. Clearly this game was important to them. The cheering was good natured, they clearly wanted their team to win but not at all costs. Sportsmanship was clearly something they valued.

I have stopped going to Rugby games in New Zealand. The equivalent of the game in Cody would be a 1st XV encounter in NZ. The atmosphere at 1st XV games in NZ has become very threatening, the crowd starts out in the stands, but they move down to the sidelines as the game progresses and they start abusing the players on both sides, even their own team. It can be very unpleasant. There's no band, no cheerleaders, just ignorant parents and former students all getting on the players backs.

It was a relief to see a game at long last where everyone has things in context. Clearly competing and winning was important. But more important was comradeship and community. When the game concluded the fans ran onto the field and cheered their heroes. There were no fights, no drunkenness and everyone was behaving themselves in Cody, Wyoming.