When foreigners cover American football...

I don't know why this cracked me up so much. I was scrolling through my RSS feeds and saw the headline "NFL great picks Giants for upset" on the BBC headlines. So I click through and he lede is that Rod Woodson thinks the Giants will win.

Here is the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/american_football/7219923.stm

Is that like the British humor that cracks a lot of people up, but always flies right over my head?

 

Rod Woodson was a great football player. He played until his late 30s at speed positions and made a great transition from corner to safety... Wasn't trying to say he wasn't a really good player. Just that when I saw that headline I was expecting a current player of a Peyton Manning stature, or a Joe Montana or Barry Sanders kind of player from the past. Not Rod Woodson. I couldn't see him meriting a whole story with his prediction, or that headline, anywhere in the U.S.

 

You're getting way too offended.

It's your first statement that was exactly the point for me. Usually it is a QB or a RB. Paul Hornung or Frank Gifford get quoted in stories like that here, not Joe DeLamielleure or Jack Ham, let alone someone who is so recently retired. They're all great players but some positions--and some players because of their personalities--have a higher profile.

I didn't read far enough to realize the BCC was trying to create hype because Woodson is going to be an analyst for them. To me it just came off as really random (his link to the BBC makes it a little less so, but still...). I clicked on the link because of that headline and I was expecting Roger Staubach. And I got Rod Woodson. It has nothing to do with how good a football player Rod Woodson was. He was. It has everything to do with the fact that he doesn't have the name recognition of Terry Bradshaw or even Deion Sanders. Those are the guys who get national stories like that devoted to their predictions here.

I shouldn't have been so flip with my remark... But it still cracked me up because it wasn't the kind of former player I usually see get a headline like that here.

 

1) I typed out a quick post and reread it and corrected Deion's name (and other things in my post) before you posted. I would have corrected it more quickly if they site hadn't frozen on me. Jeez. Sorry that offended you, too. Does it help my "cause" that I reread and caught it before you got in your dig? 2) How many different ways do I need to say that Rod Woodson was a great player. I know Rod, actually, and know the respect he engenders from players who played against him. He STILL is not a football name that gets stories like that written here. 3) I didn't read very far into the story because the lede said, "Rod Woodson thinks the Giants are going to win." There was no need for me to read farther than that. Sorry. 4) I said in my post I shouldn't have made the flip remark. I'm sorry. You are still getting WAY too offended. That is not a story you would see nationally in the U.S. because he was not a household name in a place where it is not a boutique sport. I should have phrased it that way, instead. It cracked me up. Rod Woodson doesn't get headlines like that in the U.S. It surprised me.