My very first football game:)

Hi there, it’s Hayley again.

I think you already know what I’m going to tell you about today.

Yes, right!

I finally got to watch my very first football game!

As you know, there was the first BC Lion’s home game last Friday. BC Lions gave some tickets to Football BC so I could go with my friends.

On the game day, I was in downtown a few hours before the game started and I saw some people walked around downtown wearing football jerseys.

Once I got to BC Place many people waited to get in and there were a lot of kids participating in events outside such as face painting. My dream is also to bring my kids to stadiums make them wear jerseys one day.

I’m not a big fan of football but I feel a thrill whenever I go to any stadium so I was so excited when I finally got into BC Place.

When I got into the stadium and saw the field I thought ‘Yes, I finally came to see football!’ The field was bigger than I expected and 10 yards were father than I imagined.

As you know, I had some expectations of football and football fans before going to the game. (If you don’t know about it, you can read my previous blogs ▶ Football season is about to start!)

So now I’d like to compare what I had thought and what I saw.

1.     Are the quarterbacks really handsome?

Well, to be honest, I couldn’t see their faces clearly because of their helmet. But every sports player wearing a jersey is sexy. Isn’t it? Haha… One thing that I expected quarterbacks to be is very big and tall. Because I heard quarterback is the most important position so I just thought they would be the tallest guys. But they weren’t.

2.    Are the players tough just like hockey players?

I thought they would fight after every whistle but they didn’t fight at all. They were tough enough when they played but after every whistle they didn’t bump into each other. I also thought players would be seriously injured often but they weren’t. Even though they got knocked down they got up right away. Of course it looked painful but they played game continuously. One of my friends who went with me to the game told me she expected ‘real’ fighting like hockey but she was disappointed because there were no actual fights.

3.     Is scoring hard in football?

I think the answer is yes. It’s difficult to go from one end of the field to the other and avoid being blocked. However, the score goes up rapidly because teams can get big score one time. (Touchdown scores 6 and field goal scores 3 points) So when we see the result of the game we might think it’s easy to get score because their scores are over 20 or something like that. But actually scoring was hard. (It can be easy for the strong teams like Lions though)

4.     Do fans drink beer a lot in the stadium?

I couldn’t figure it out well because I set with my friends and they didn’t drink. (Usually they drink a lot but they didn’t at that time…) But when I went to buy beer during break time, there were long waiting lines at the concessions to buy beer. Also there were booths to sell only beer so I guess they drink a lot. I should drink more next time!

5.     Are fans tough on the players?

Fans weren’t tough on the players at all. I thought they would jeer at the players or say bad words, but they didn’t. Even if the opposing team scored they just kept calm. It was quite polite and I was surprised a little bit about it. As I mentioned before in Korea if the performance of players is not good fans get upset, jeer and say bad words. It’s one of ways to cheer but sometimes it’s too much. So fans here were unusual for me. But it’s probably because Lions kept winning the whole game.

One of the biggest shows was the performance of cheerleaders. They performed every break. (My friend shouted it was too short but just for him) Their performance was totally different than cheerleaders in Korea. In Korea, cheerleaders perform like K-pop stars. They just mimic K-pop dance and fans can sing or dance together. However, the cheerleaders I saw on Friday were ‘real’ cheerleaders. By that, I mean they were like the cheerleaders that I saw on American dramas. Both are pretty and attractive but I think Korean cheerleaders are better. Just in terms of the performance! Because we can enjoy together singing and dancing but in here we just can clapping or shouting watching them. 

For cheering the players, fans usually whistled and shouted as I had thought. Some of them used drums or horns. In Korea we usually use sticks to make sound but in here they just clapped.

It was interesting that fans didn’t make a noise when home team was on offense. They shouted when it was the away team’s turn on offense. I heard that’s to disturb the offense from making plans. It was pretty cute.

Every time a player scored a touchdown, there were small fireworks and staff threw small footballs to fans going around the stadium.

My brother and his friends got that balls!

The day before the game, my supervisor explained some of the rules to me. I couldn’t understand all of them at the time but when I started actually watching the game it became clearer. (But I still have no idea about penalties)

To be honest, when I saw the football on TV without any knowledge about it I didn’t understand why people enjoy it. But when I saw it at the stadium and understood the rules, it was more interesting than I expected. Especially when TJ Lee intercepted the ball and touchdown, it was awesome! I want to choose my favorite football player and maybe he’s going to be one…:)

However, the game didn’t flow smoothly. It was stopped often. After every down there was a pause and when the players changed places it also paused. In baseball there are many pauses as well but it was different. I thought it was unusual and a little bit complicated.

Also players weren’t in a designated place like a dugout but they were just standing close to field so it didn’t seem like a real game. It seemed like a practice or training.

But overall, everything was interesting because everything was new for me.

I was lucky enough to bring my classmates who had less football background than me (means they don’t have football background at all!). So during the game I explained to them what was going on with my little knowledge. Even though they didn’t understand everything they told me it was fun to watch in person and I agree with them.

BC Lions beat the Calgary Stampeders by 37-13 that day. Because Lions won the game, I could enjoy it more. Watching football was a very unique and interesting experience for me. I couldn’t understand all of the game but I think my perspective of sports widened. I really appreciate the BC Lions for giving me this great opportunity:) and if I have a chance I will go see it again before I go back to Korea!

But I will definitely be watching online when Football BC’s under 16 teams are compete at the 2014 Red River Cup. I hope we win the gold medal again this year!

Red River Cup goes from July 5 to 12 and you can get more information here.

▶ 2014 U16 Team BC and the Red River Cup