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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Is this contest of ignorance open only to USns? I'm sure I know less about USn football than anyone. I'm not even sure I could name any of the teams. Detroit Rangers? Looville Dodgers? New Yorkers?
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
open only to USns?
I think we could open it up if we work out some kind of handicap system.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Dears hev and wwh, The math term* is indeed intercept (as a noun), which is the place where one line crosses another. Don't confuse that with the verb intersect which is what the lines are doing at the intercept!  * once again I have only ever heard this one term to describe this concept but God knows there must be some bizarre math book out there which has decided to call intercepts, say, lemmings. Or something equally ludicrous.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
I challenge you two (and Dr Bill) to a contest. I say I know less than anyone else.
Hang on! Before any contest starts, I need to be clear on one thing. Is this basketball, football or baseball that you're on about?
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Flung, kicked or hit?
I guess it would be kicked in the prolate spheroids, huh?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Now, hold on a second here! I will venture to say that I do "know" about football--up to a point. I know things such as: there are 11 people per team (or used to be) on the field at once; I know that touchdowns are scored by running and/or passing the ball until someone gets it legally into the end zone--and I believe if an opponent gets an interception there, it is called a touchback--worth 3(?) points to the opponent, as opposed to 6 for a touchdown; after a touchdown, the team that scored gets to try for a field goal, worth 3(?) points, for which they bring a special player out onto the field to try and kick the ball over the bar and between the uprights of the goalpost (how high over the bar doesn't matter) as the opponents try to rush him and prevent him from kicking, or by blocking the ball if he doesn't get it in the air high enough fast enough; each team has 4 "downs" in which they try and advance the ball toward the end zone; a down occurs when any particular play is over, either by the ball carrier being tackled, or by the pass being incomplete (not being caught, or thrown out of bounds), or some other reason such as the ball carrier stepping out of bounds. If the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage (when the 2 teams face each other at the beginning of a play), then he has been "sacked"--meaning that instead of gaining ground, he has lost ground--the next play must begin even further from the end zone; if a team advances as much as ten yards (a football field is 100 yards in length between the end zones), then they get a "first down"--thus, if they get enough first downs, they can get close enough to the end zone that, when the quarterback receives the ball, he may just be able to jump over the line of scrimmage and land in the end zone (not that this is an easy maneuver, mind); however--if they have NOT gained ten yards after the third down, most of the time their next play will be to kick the ball downfield as far toward their end zone as possible; this means that they are acknowledging that they had to turn the ball over to the opponents, but they want to make sure the opponents have to start as far away as possible from their end zone, which is behind the team that just gave up the ball. Occasionally, a team will do a regular play on a 4th down; usually in extenuating circumstances such as being only a short distance from scoring a touchdown. I do not know the names of all the positions. Nor do I know exactly what all the infractions are called; one of them is "offsides", but I am not sure exactly what that is. I do know that no player is to cross the line of scrimmage too early--before the ball has been passed to the quarterback, I think. They are not allowed to grab each others' face masks. If the referee sees an infraction, he will toss a little "red flag" into the air. This usually has the effect of nullifying whatever happened on that play, though I believe it counts as a down. So--I can watch football and have a pretty good idea of what's going on. Same with basketball and baseball. It's just that I have no interest in it unless I know someone who is playing. I am so thankful that my son has never wanted to play! He says, "If I have a ball that a bunch of 250-pound players are willing to tackle me to get, they can HAVE it!" 
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Joined: Dec 2000
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member
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member
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130 |
Jackie:
Love the quote about your son.
My Mother-in-Law tells the story of her son being tossed a football for the first time, he looks at it quizzically for a moment, then sits down on it in an attempt to hatch it. I'd be proud of a son like that!
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