It's Gridiron in July

Today I drove down to Canton to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and when I arrived it was perfect football weather, meaning it was overcast and rainy. The best football games are always played in either the mud or the snow. There's something about fair weather and domes that just deadens the game for me.

I spent a few hours wandering the exhibits and taking a few photos (coming when I get home with the rest of the trip photos) and was surprised when I came out of the Hall to find out that it was after 3 p.m. I spent at least four hours in there and hadn't planned on spending that long. I enjoyed it, but K would have been miserable. Not only is it pretty much just a museum of professional football, but K has no real interest in the sport. For me, there's just something special about the game. No other sports requires quite the same level of teamwork. On every play, every player has an important job to do. You can't say that of baseball. On most of the plays, most of the players are just there just in case or sitting on the bench waiting their turn. If a tackle or cornerback slacks on a play the guy they're responsible for is making a play. Offensive linemen may be the least glamorous position to play in any sport since they pretty much don't ever touch the ball or stop any scoring attempts, but they're still the most important players on the field every play. A superstar can carry an average basketball team or hockey team pretty far, but Tom Brady would just be another starting quarterback if not for his stellar supporting cast. Baseball is more of a individual sport played by teams and even rugby with its lack of blocking by rule make players on the far side of the field more or less irrelevant at times. There's never an irrelevant player on any football play. The only problem is the breaking of the flow of the game by the wasted time between downs and commercial breaks. DVR fixes some of that, but it still doesn't match the flow of rugby.