Our Blood is Blue

Evidentially this phrase means that we are of royal blood! I have never heard that before, but to me it means that we are true blooded Blue Bulls fans!! For those of you that are confused because the only Bulls that you know are black and red and were made world famous by Michael Jordan; the Blue Bulls are the professional rugby team of Pretoria and Dustin, a friend of one of my roommates, and now a friend of mine, plays for them! Last night I went to the game to watch him play, as well as the rest of the team!

Sadly we lost but it was still great fun to go. I may later regret admitting this to all of the Americans reading this, but I think I enjoy watching rugby more than American football! Here is my reasoning behind this. The players have so much respect for each other. For example: before each scrum [that’s where they go shoulder to shoulder and the ball is thrown into the pack of players] the front line taps the other team’s front line on the shoulder. Why do they do this? They do it out of respect for the other players, to make sure that they are ready for what is coming so that they do not get hurt from the crashing of shoulders against shoulders with no pads. This is only one example of the respect amongst the players. Another reason is that the players do not pretend to get hurt [like in premiere league soccer] so that they can get a free kick. They are tough and they may fall and get stepped on but they get up as soon as they are able and continue with the game. Another reason rugby is winning me over is that in a good game there is always game action going on. In American football there may be a good run every now and then. But there are constantly tackles here and there. Every few yards, and after a guy is tackled that’s the end of that down and it takes them forever to set up again. When a rugby player is tackled they keep playing they just scoot the ball back to another one of their teammates so that they can get it moving again. There are a lot of tackles but it doesn’t stop the game play. It just makes it go a different way.
So to you, American football, I say gain some respect in the game [but at least you are not as bad as hockey with fights every game], stop being babies and man up. Don’t pretend that you are hurt, you have pads on and you are still crying like babies! And lastly, keep the game moving, don’t take you sweet time to set up. I paid to watch a football game, not to watch football players stand around and talk! But yes I do understand that there are reasons that football is played one way and rugby another, otherwise it would be the same game! But to this is say, “I have every right to prefer one game over the other, and at this point in my life I say that I am increasingly enjoying rugby more than American football, so shoot me!” But please don’t I have made it this long in South Africa without any disasters and I would like to make it a while longer, maybe even until the end!
Peace, Love and Jesus