Believe it or not, other sports do exist.

For the first time, I willingly sat down and watched a football game. Yes, I do recognize that there are sports other than hockey that exist. Believe it or not, I do have outside interests. However, football is not one of them. I don’t understand football. I don’t understand the penalties. (How can interference be a penalty? Aren’t you supposed to interfere during a pass?) If you asked me to name five current football players, I would be unable to answer. I only know that Tom Brady is a football player because he is dating Gisele Bundchen, who is a former Victoria’s Secret model, and because he is featured on TMZ.com quite often. Anyway, I watched the entire second half of the Giants-Packers game and listened intently to the commentary in an effort to better educate myself on this popular sport. To my surprise, I actually began to understand what was happening in front of me. It was truly a monumental day.

Even though I got somewhat sucked into the game, I remain a casual observer and nowhere near a football fan. I will still choose a hockey game any day. Football is too slow for me. There is an over-abundance of the stop-and-go and it gives me ADD. The hitting is a thrill, though, I must admit. That is also one of the high points of hockey. Call me a sadist if you must, but a little friendly violence between opposing sports teams brightens my day.

Similar to the NHL’s Winter Classic, it was pretty cool to see the players freezing their asses off in an outdoor game while retaining their physical prowess and skill. Unlike the Winter Classic, though, some of the football players kept their arms bare, which I thought was a stupid move since the temperatures were below freezing. Maybe they were flaunting how tough they were, but if it was me, I would have been out there Brett Favre-style with a hood and face-mask on in between playing time. Either way, I expanded my horizons and learned a little something. Now I might even be able to hold my own in a conversation centralized around football. At least until the Superbowl, anyway.