JB: Despite some obvious parallels with our national sport of rugby, the first thing that struck me about American football was just how different it felt to play than most sports I’m familiar with.
With my experience of American football comprising the odd NFL match and having completed NFL Street 2 on the GameCube, I felt I had a passable grasp of the game. Nevertheless, I realised it would be naive to suspect the sport wouldn’t take some getting used to. Naturally, the first port of call was to don the distinctive shoulder pads and helmet before getting going, however, thanks to some wretchedly recalcitrant hair, I was forced to wear the largest and heaviest helmet available. Personally, the oversized pads served to make me feel more apprehensive, if anything, and I found myself thinking thoughts like “we never had to wear anything like this for rugby, how much worse must this be that all this protection is necessary?” Or – “my ribs feel awfully exposed.”
AF: As a college rugby player for the mighty Alcuin, I actually felt far more comfortable about the contact side of American football than I did about the skills or tactics involved. I should explain that I’m a flanker, meaning my job is to run around tackling anything in sight and have rarely pulled off as flamboyant as a mere side-step.
We wouldn’t be going into contact just yet though, and, with York Sport President and Centurions coach Sam Asfahani as our guide, we went over to try some wide-receiver-style catching. Things started surprisingly well as I smothered the quarterback’s inch-perfect first pass in my arms, and I couldn’t help but chuckle, far too smugly, when Jonathan’s first attempt cannoned back off his own face.
JB: After my slightly embarrassing first ‘catch’, the next time I took better care to follow the ball and tried to take the catch into my stomach. It winded me, but I was buoyed and felt I was getting the hang of it. By the end I had got my technique down, but was still only catching about one in four; the ball stung painfully in the cold and it was more a case of training myself not to recoil as the ball sped towards me.
AF: By contrast I barely caught another ball after my initial success, but found it interesting to learn about all the different routes that wide receivers run to fool the opposition. It was already clear to me that this was an extremely tactical game, one that is often won in the preparation as much as on the field itself.
JB: Next came the offensive drills, where coach Sam talked us through various running plays, and I found myself desperately confused as the quarterback screamed an indecipherable series of numbers and words, until Sam exclaimed that I should “just do the same as last time!” I found it a real struggle having to keep focused on my technique and what I was supposed to be doing in the game while simultaneously running through the various steps of the move in my head, and I frequently found myself losing track of either one or both.
AF: The particular moves being played out on Wednesday were specifically tailored with the weekend game against Lancaster in mind. Sam told me that they were a strong, but not particularly intelligent team, therefore many of the plays were being set up to take advantage of this. We tried one which required me to take the ball from the quarterback and look like I was going to run left, before gut-passing it to the onrushing wide receiver, who in fact took it the other way.
JB: We finished with some defensive covering and tackling, and in a society in which health and safety has become a pretty bad joke, it was honestly an absolute privilege to see how much force the human body can sustain and exert as the players hurtled into each other! I partook in a couple of drills, but the players were only gunning at half-pace, since to be honest, I do not weigh a lot and am weak and puny.
AF: With contact finally upon us I felt a bit more within my comfort zone, although the tackling technique is very different to that used in rugby, where aiming low around the legs is the key. We were taught to keep our heads up and smash our helmets into the opponent’s arm before forcing them up and back, hopefully to the point that they end up winded on the hard, cold ground. After trying this out against a few of the team themselves, Sam was keen to pit John and myself against each other, and I take full macho pride in saying that I came out on top.
We learnt a lot about the sheer amount of thought and skill that goes into American football, but what really stuck with me was this: smashing into another person feels even better with pads on.