The Round Side of the Football

So, we went to our nephew's football game recently.

[Does it bother you when someone starts a conversation with the word SO? It's as if they've been preparing their part of the exchange in their own head, and therefore this is the point at which they'll bring you in. It's as if the communication had already commenced. But you could not hear what was in the silence of another brain, and their comments are all new to you. And that is why, dear reader, I am re-entering blogdom with this word SO. I have been thinking about our little conversations, missing them, but couldn't bring myself to decide how to catch you up on everything. It's too complicated, and you really wouldn't find it very interesting, so I'll just jump back in without catch-up. Or mustard.]

Anyway, this football game happened to take place in The City, in a stadium used in the 1962 World's Fair. This is one of the oldest stadiums I've ever visited -- it turns out, it was dedicated in 1947. (That's as old as my brother!) Despite the lack of modern design and accessibility features, I found the facility to be pretty darn usable. And totally quaint, too! Here are the officials leaving the field at halftime, going into their secret locker room under the scoreboard.

In addition to my architectural distraction (football game? oh... yes, our nephew's game, right...) we happened to sit next to a small crew of Internet broadcasters. It was SO COOL to watch them work! The Voice was a solo, and he prepared his notes by carefully taping them onto his portable table so they wouldn't blow away. He also had a manila file folder with various things written, highlighted, and taped to all sides. Methinks he's a visual learner. He used a lot of energy on gestures that (obviously) don't show up in an audio record, but I appreciated how he punctuated his statements and meant what he said. And yes, he said nice things about our nephew. Here's my view of The Voice:

When I got home, I looked up the broadcast and found it here. Listening to the first minutes was fun, as I had heard some of The Voice's intro in person.

In addition to The Voice, I saw a videographer, a statistician, and a production assistant. Amazing that that's all it takes to air a game, but also amazing the years of development which enabled the use of such compact technology.

So, as usual, I found much more to watch than the actual game itself. What an enriching experience! I love football!