Football

It's been a good year for football.

I won some money in the AFL tipping competition this year, and missed picking the grand final margin by a single point, despite the fact that it was my first year being involved in it, and that I have absolutely no idea about Aussie Rules. Beginner's luck can be a beautiful thing.

What's more, in proper football, Australia qualified for the World Cup for the first time in my lifetime. Which will make next year's event even more interesting than usual. Mark Schwarzer, you're a bloody legend. I'm not sure I've ever seen a city spontaneously erupt quite like it did when John Aloisi's penalty kick hit the back of the net. I shouted and had my hands in the air, without even meaning to - sort of like when you kick your leg after getting whacked on the knee with that little hammer thing.

And I've actually been able to watch an unprecedented amount of my favourite kind of football this year - the NFL. It's the first NFL season for which we've had cable, and between Fox Sports and ESPN, I can usually watch 3 or 4 games a week. Which isn't bad, really, considering that for the last few years, all I've been able to watch was the Superbowl and the occasional highlight.

I've been a big fan of the Eagles in the last few years, partly because I'm fan of some of their players (particularly Donovan McNabb), but also because they're the "local team" of my missus. It's always best to have even a tenuous geographical tie with a team you're going to support, I reckon. But, as is typical, since I've been able to actually watch them in action, I've seen them play five times (Superbowl XXXIX and four regular season games this year) - and they've lost every game I've watched. Boo. Last week's loss to the Cowboys was particularly heartbreaking. They dominated for 56 minutes or so, only to literally throw it away, getting McNabb injured in the process. I put a tape in this morning so that I could watch the Eagles/Giants game when I got home, but Google Sidebar has just spoiled the result for me. I guess it was just trying to be helpful. In fact, it's probably better that I didn't watch. In any case, they're still having a bad year, and are currently the worst team in the NFC East. I don't know if it's the "Madden Curse", but it's not real good. Still, I guess it could be worse.

At the start of the season, I said that I thought Superbowl XL would be Giants vs. Colts (i.e. Manning vs. Manning). I stand by that prediction, and it's a matchup I'd love to see, if the Eagles aren't going to be around in the post-season.