Usually we take advantage of Super Bowl Sunday by doing things like hiking or shopping or other things that are so much more pleasant when hordes of people stay away. We did just that during the brief window of sun, yesterday, and hiked Baltimore Canyon with Eve, Deena, and four kids.

Coming back to Eve's for a birthday sushi feed, we noted that the game was still on, and Deena cared about the score, so we tuned in for the second half. What was interested to me was that Jeremy and Aidan (now aged 5 and a half) really cared about learning the game. And Deena and I cared about teaching it to them. It's harder than I thought to explain the rules of football. Instant replay really helps.. you can explain something, and then the network conveniently shows it again and again, to really highlight the fine points.

Here's a funny thing I never really thought about until I tried to explain it.. why do they call the achievement of yardage a "first down," when all the action ENDS when the ball goes down? And I discovered that I really don't know what "offsides" means. But I do know the gesture for it.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 27, 2003 at 11:43 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.