This simple recipe was created in one of those oops-I-forgot-we-had-that moments. I had bought a red onion at the farmer's market (good onions are really hard to come by in our grocery stores), and needed to use it before it turned on me. Having just bought yellow squash, not one of my husband's favorites, I figured I couldn't lose by mixing the two.
Ingredients:
1 cup squash (1 medium squash)
1/2 of one red onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning blend
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Slice the squash into 1/4-inch slices. Slice the red onion half thickly, then cut into approx. 1-inch pieces. Heat oil in large pan. Add squash, onion and seasonings. Saute about 12-14 minutes, until all vegetables are tender.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Referee and Umpire
Today, you get your first lesson on the different positions and responsibilities of the officials that police a football game. First, though, note that I call them “officials,” not “referees.” In football, the referee is actually the boss of the officiating crew. Therefore, it would be incorrect (and bad form) to use that term to refer to any official that doesn’t fill that role.
Here’s the low-down on the referee and the umpire, two of the several officials that you will see on the field during a football game:
The Referee
As mentioned above, the referee is the boss of the crew. While all of the other officials on the field will be wearing black hats, the referee can easily be identified by his white hat (thus, you may also hear the referee being called the “white hat”).
1. Position*: The referee is positioned behind and to the side of the quarterback (roughly 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage). He will typically stand on the side of the quarterback’s dominant hand; if the quarterback throws right-handed, the referee will stand to the right of the quarterback.
2. Responsibilities: As the head official, the referee has several jobs:
a. Before the game starts, the referee conducts the coin toss to determine who receives the ball first.
b. Throughout the game, the referee has responsibility for the administration of the game as a whole. For example, he makes sure that the game and play clocks are functioning properly. He will also be the official who will settle disputes between the other officials concerning the outcome of a play or a penalty, and will address coaches’ concerns (or complaints) as needed.
c. During play, the referee’s primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of the quarterback. Therefore, he will focus on the quarterback during the play, watching for illegal hits against the quarterback. For example, a late hit occurs when a defensive player tackles the quarterback after the quarterback has gotten rid of the football, and the defensive player had the opportunity to stop his own momentum before making the tackle (these calls are often controversial because it seems so difficult for a defender barreling toward the quarterback to “pull up” in time). He may also call penalties for illegal holding and other blocking penalties. If the runner progresses down the field, the referee will follow him, looking for the runner to step out of bounds, and for illegal blocks behind the runner, among other things.
d. Before the play begins, the referee will also be watching for procedure penalties, such as the false start penalty, which I described in my previous post, and illegal motion.
e. When the play is over, the referee may double-check the location of the ball and the new line of scrimmage with the other officials on the sidelines. If a penalty is called, he meets with the official who saw the penalty and makes a final decision on whether to uphold the penalty. If the penalty is upheld, he turns to the sideline where the press box is located and makes the hand signal for that penalty. He will then verbally announce the penalty, the jersey number of the player that committed the penalty, and the resulting consequence, such as loss of yardage.
f. If a call on the field is challenged or the officials in the press box call for an instant replay (click here for the post on challenges and instant replay), the referee is the one that reviews the video of the play and makes a final determination on the call.
The Umpire**
1. Position: The umpire used to be positioned behind the defensive linemen (so, about 5-7 yards behind the line of scrimmage). Citing safety concerns, the NFL changed the position of the umpire in 2010. Now, the umpire stands in the offense, adjacent to the running back, so about 12 yards behind the line of scrimmage. However, the umpire will be in his old position in the middle of the defense in these situations: (1) the final two minutes of the first half; (2) the final five minutes of the game; and (3) when the offense is inside its opponent's 5-yard line. There has also been talk of having umpires wear helmets, but this hasn't materialized yet. Umpires do get run over quite often, but they can hand out the punishment, too:
2. Responsibilities:
a. The umpire watches the offensive linemen for holding or illegal blocks, and illegal contact by the defensive linemen attempting to ward off blocks. During pass plays, he will advance toward the line of scrimmage to watch for offensive linemen moving illegally down-field.
b. On short passes, he helps rule on whether the pass is incomplete or trapped by the receiver (i.e., the ball is caught at ground level by the receiver after the ball hits the ground).
c. The umpire is also the fashion police on the field. He makes sure that the players’ uniforms and equipment are in compliance with the rules.
Even though these are only two of the officials on the crew, it’s important that you understand their roles in the game first. They are the officials that call probably the most-committed penalties (many people argue that you could probably call holding on every play). They are also the most visible given their positions on the field, and therefore the most likely to be yelled at by the crowd, the coaches, and your friends at home when you’re watching the game on TV.
*Only the positions during regular plays are described. Each official also has a specific position for special kinds of plays such as punts, kickoffs and extra point attempts.
**As I mentioned in my inaugural post, in 2009 I spent the football season as an official for youth football. Umpire is the position I worked most and is near and dear to my heart.
Monday, August 15, 2011
The Quarterback, Offensive Linemen and Holding
Today, I’d like to introduce some of the players on the field; specifically, the quarterback and offensive linemen. It is with these guys that every play starts, so it’s important to understand what they do.
As I described in my post about the basics, the object of the game is to advance the ball toward the opponent’s end zone in an effort to score touchdowns and field goals. The player in charge of getting the ball down the field on a play-by-play basis is the quarterback (QB). You can think of the quarterback as the general, captain, foreman, manager, all-around boss of the offense. On each play, he will throw the ball to a receiver, hand it to a runner, or keep the ball himself and run with it. Before each play, the quarterback receives a signal from the head coach (via headphones in his helmet) on which play to run. However, each play includes options that the quarterback can choose based on how the opponent is positioned or reacts to the actions of the offense. For example, on a passing play, each receiver on the field will run a different route. The quarterback can decide who to throw the ball to based on which receiver has the best chance of catching the ball, or scoring. Therefore, a quarterback must not only be athletic and accurate with his throwing, but he also needs to be intelligent and able to process what he sees within a few seconds.
Since the quarterback is so important, it seems like a good strategy for the defense would be to chase him around, pressure him, or even tackle him so he can’t throw or might even drop the ball. Right? Right! That’s why the quarterback is protected on each and every play by the offensive line. The offensive line consists of: the center; right and left guards; and right and left tackles. These athletes are typically very large in stature (tall AND weighty) and very strong.
The center is where you’d expect him to be: in the middle of the five players. The quarterback stands behind the center at the beginning of every play, and the center’s primary job is to deliver the ball to the quarterback to start the play. This delivery is called the snap. The center will standing in a squat with one hand on the football, which is resting on the ground just in front of him. At a predetermined signal given by the quarterback, the center brings the ball behind him, through his legs, and gives it to the quarterback. The quarterback can either be right behind the center with his hands palms-open between the center’s legs (no giggling, please), or he will be standing a few yards behind the center (called the shotgun formation), where he will catch the ball from the air.
The rest of the offensive line will line up shoulder-to-shoulder with the center along an imaginary line behind the football (called the line of scrimmage). Next to the center are the right and left guards, with the right and left tackles at the ends of the line. All five will stay in a squatting position, typically in a “three-point stance” (i.e., with two feet and one hand on the ground) until the snap. If they move at all before the snap, a penalty called a false start will be called, and the offense will be moved back five yards.*
At the snap, the offensive line will lunge forward and make contact with the players on the other team whose job it is to “rush” the quarterback by breaking through the offensive line and attempt to tackle the quarterback (or, failing that, give chase). The offensive line wants to prevent this and will attempt to push those players back away from the quarterback (called blocking). You’re probably wondering why they don’t just grab hold of the players on defense and throw them to the ground. If they do, they commit a penalty called, appropriately, holding. In football, it is illegal for a player on offense (other than the player with the ball) to grab and hold an opponent in an attempt to impede his progress. To minimize the risk of committing this penalty, an offensive lineman should keep his hands inside the frame of his opponent (in other words, not grabbing him by the shoulders, wrapping his arms around his waist, etc.). A holding penalty costs the offense ten yards, which are marked off from the point where the holding occurred (the line of scrimmage when committed by an offensive lineman).
So, this is what happens within the first few seconds of each play, and the players critical to these precious moments. There are several other key actors, and potential penalties, related to the offense, but all in good time…
*Remember the discussion about downs? If it’s first and ten and the offense commits a false start penalty, they will be moved back five yards and it will then be first and fifteen.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Audible Alert: The James Bond Novels
Though it’s clear that I love football, or else I wouldn’t have started this blog, there will be times that I need to spit out some random thoughts about a completely different topic so I can return to instruction fresh and enthusiastic. This is just how my mind works; a bit like defragging a computer. I will call these posts “Audible Alerts.” Why? An “audible” is when the quarterback makes a last second change before the play, based on what he sees in the defense. (So, even when we are off-topic, we can’t escape football learning entirely!)
Our first Audible Alert topic: Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.
My husband and I are both lifelong fans of the James Bond movies, and have seen every movie at least twice. A little over a year ago, I decided to read all the novels, in order of publication (which is different from the order of the movies; Casino Royale was the first novel). That I hadn’t read any seemed a bit lazy, but I was also curious about how much the movies followed the books. I’ve read seven so far (my reading pace took a hit after my son was born), and here are some of my thoughts so far:
· Ian Fleming was a cool guy. He was a war correspondent before World War II, and during WWII he served as Personal Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, ultimately achieving the rank of Commander. After the war he got back into the newspaper business in Jamaica, where he built a home he named “Goldeneye.” There he started writing the James Bond novels at the age of 43. He also wrote the children’s book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Who knew!?!
· Some of the movies followed their novels exactly; From Russia With Love and Goldfinger* are two good examples;
· Some of the movies bear little or no resemblance to their novels; Moonraker and Diamonds Are Forever being two examples;
· There’s no Q! Sure, James has plenty of gadgets that are only useful for the precise set of circumstances he finds himself in, but there’s no quirky, nutty-professor character to explain how they work and get exasperated with Bond’s immature jokes and short attention span;
· Some movies changed plot details to coincide with the times. In Casino Royale, for example, the bad guy in the novel is not an investment banker for terrorists. Instead, he is the Soviet officer in charge of the pension plan for the KGB. He has embezzled money from the pension fund and must win it back to avoid detection and elimination by SMERSH, the Soviet agency in charge of assassinating its own maverick spies and other undesirables within the Soviet Union. SMERSH appears in other novels as well.
The only disappointment so far (aside from the missing Q) is the way Bond seems to become hopelessly attached to the female leads at the end of each book. Though James loves the ladies, he is not the womanizer with the teenage libido depicted in the films; there hasn’t been much hanky-panky in the books so far. Since he is a first-class spy, and a bit of a chauvinist, he maintains a professional coolness with the woman he’s become saddled with. Over the course of the story, he does manage to develop a protective, almost paternal attitude toward the female lead, but that is generally the only emotion you feel from him. However, from nowhere, the final chapter reveals a love-struck school boy that has become completely emotionally attached.
At the beginning of From Russia With Love, we learn that Bond actually lived with the woman he met in Diamonds Are Forever, Tiffany Case. Huh?!? Fortunately they had separated, because his mission in From Russia With Love is to meet a Soviet bureaucrat, Tatiana Romanova, who claims to have fallen in love with Bond from reading his file and wants to provide the British with a secret decoding device in exchange for a meeting with Bond. As M describes the mission to Bond, he has to ask Bond about the status of his love affair with the Diamonds Are Forever woman. Very awkward for everyone involved, including the reader.
At the end of Thunderball, Bond wakes up recovering in the hospital after the female lead, Domino, rescues him in the throngs of an underwater hand-to-hand sea battle. Dazed with pain killers, Bond runs through the hospital until he finds her room and collapses at her bedside. Only two chapters earlier, James had coolly accepted the fact that he may have sent Domino to her death by convincing her to return to Largo, the villain, to spy for him!
Today I checked out the next novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, from the library. As the title suggests, I may once again be disappointed by the sappiness of my favorite protagonist, but I know I’ll keep coming back for more.
*Warning: Goldfinger is a great book. It is definitely one of my favorites so far. However, there is one chapter that was painful to read. You may recall from the movie that Bond and Goldfinger play a “friendly” round of golf for money. Bond shocks Goldfinger by producing a bar of gold to sweeten the stakes. In this chapter, Fleming describes the play of nearly every hole in excruciating detail.
Recipe Time Out: Nicky's Naughty Hot Wing Dip
Today's recipe is sure to become a game day favorite in your house and comes from my niece, Nicky. She also suggests it as a filling for fried won ton wrappers. She lives in Houston, and somehow for me that gives her opinion for hot wing sauce uses more credibility.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Making Plays
Now that you’ve got the basics down, today’s lesson explains how the offense advances the ball down the field to its opponent’s end zone.
The game of football is measured in yards. Yards are marked on the field in 10-yard intervals on the field, in ascending order from one end zone to the 50-yard line, the midpoint of the playing field. From the 50-yard line, the yardage is marked in descending order to the opposite end zone (check out the image in my last post). When a team gains possession of the ball, it goes on offense and begins its drive toward the opponent’s end zone, where it will attempt to score. Wherever the team begins its drive, it has four opportunities (plays) to gain ten yards. Each such opportunity is called a down.
This is where you'll hear the term “first and 10.” The offense starts its drive with a first down. If the offense doesn’t gain ten yards on its first play, it will then have a second down; then, a third down; finally, if it hasn’t gained ten yards after running three plays, it becomes fourth down. A simple way to remember this is to think of “first and 10” as “first down with 10 yards to gain.” The number of yards to gain typically changes with each play. For example, if the team gains four yards on first down, it becomes “second and six”, or “second down and six yards to gain.” Once the offense gains the yardage needed, it gets a new set of downs.* At that point, it will once again be first and 10, and the sequence starts over. Of course, if a team scores a touchdown or field goal, it will kick off the ball to the other team, who then goes on offense.
If the offense fails to earn a first down (or score), after four plays, the ball goes to the other team. This is called “turning the ball over on downs.” However, after three plays, the offense has the option to punt the ball instead of trying a fourth play. This is what happens about 95% of the time. When a team punts, it kicks the ball to the other team, and when a player on that team recovers the ball, that team then goes on offense (and, of course, will have a first and 10 where they recover the kicked ball).
One more wrinkle: if a new set of downs begins within the 10-yard line of the opponent's end zone, it's not "first and 10." Instead, it is "first and goal." This is because there aren't ten yards to gain, only the goal line; so, think of it as "first down and goal to go." Within the next four plays the offense has to score a touchdown or field goal. If it doesn't, it will turn the ball over on downs to the other team.
One more wrinkle: if a new set of downs begins within the 10-yard line of the opponent's end zone, it's not "first and 10." Instead, it is "first and goal." This is because there aren't ten yards to gain, only the goal line; so, think of it as "first down and goal to go." Within the next four plays the offense has to score a touchdown or field goal. If it doesn't, it will turn the ball over on downs to the other team.
Clear as mud? Concept of downs was the hardest thing I could get a handle on when I was learning the game as a kid. I remember my dad having to explain what "first and 10" meant every week for a whole season before I got it.
Enjoying the preseason so far? If so, just wait until the regular season starts! If not, just wait until the regular season starts!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The Field, Scoring, Timing and Starting the Game
HEY THERE, FOOTBALL FANS IN TRAINING! THE NFL’S PRESEASON STARTS TONIGHT!!! SO…
Today’s lesson is the first effort to give you basic facts about how football is played. I will get into more detail into all of the topics discuss below in later posts. However, after reading this, you should be able to watch a game and at least understand what is happening.
First, a word of encouragement. Please don’t be discouraged if the workings of football aren’t easy to grasp in the beginning. It’s not as straight-forward as other sports like basketball, tennis, golf. There are a lot of things happening at once, strange terms being thrown out by the announcers, and penalties that are sometimes hard to see.
Tangent: After graduating college, I went backpacking with friends through Europe for a few weeks. We were able to get tickets for a preseason game between the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin.* When we arrived in the middle of the second quarter, we were surprised to see that people were already leaving. Compared to soccer and hurling, two fast-moving sports popular in the UK, football seemed very slow. But they were also confused. For example, the people sitting around us couldn’t understand why every once in a while all of the players on the field would leave and be replaced by other players (“Aye, where are they getting’ to? Are they winded?”). (As I will explain, this will occur when possession changes.) No, the only thing the Dubliners liked about football were doing the wave and the cheerleaders (who weren’t even NFL cheerleaders but local stand-ins). SO, don’t feel alone. There are lots of nice, intelligent Irishmen who are in the same boat.
OK, now to the basics of football…
The Field. The game is played on a rectangular field that measures 120 yards long by 53 yards wide. “Wait!” you might say, “What is she talking about? I thought a football field was 100 yards long!?!” Well, smarty pants, the 120 yards includes the two end zones, one at each end of the field, which each measure 10 yards long. The playing field is the 100 yards between the goal lines, which are the lines that separate the end zones from the rest of the field. It looks roughly like this:
END ZONE | 1 | 0 2 | 0 3 | 0 4 | 0 5 | 0 4 | 0 3 | 0 2 | 0 1 | 0 | END ZONE |
Scoring. The object of the game, naturally, is to score more points than your opponent in the allotted time. There are three ways to score points: (1) touchdown; (2) field goal; and (3) safety.
A touchdown is scored when the team that has the ball, the offense, gets the ball into the other team’s end zone. This can be done by running the ball into the end zone, or throwing the ball to a teammate who is already in the end zone or subsequently runs into the end zone. A touchdown gives a team six points. Then, the team can collect either one or two extra points. It will get one extra point if its kicker can kick the ball through a set of uprights positioned at the back and center of the end zone (they look like a big block “Y”). A team will earn two points if it manages to get the ball into the end zone again, by running or throwing, from a few yards outside of the end zone.
A field goal is scored when the team's kicker manages to kick the ball from the playing field through the uprights at the back of the end zone. A field goal nets a team three points; there is no extra point attempt after a field goal.
A safety is one way a defense can score during the game, and is worth two points. This a bit complicated--click here for my post on safeties.
Duration and Timing. At the professional level, each game consists of four 15-minute quarters, with a halftime break after the end of the second quarter. If the game ends in a tie, an overtime period begins (more on overtime in a future post). At the start of each quarter, the game clock will count down from 15:00. There are several events that will stop the game clock, such as: a time out called by either team; an incomplete pass; the player with the ball running out of bounds; and an injury. In the NFL, the officials will call stop the clock when there are two minutes left in the second and fourth quarter (or, if a play starts at, say, 2:01, the clock will stop after that play ends). This is called the two-minute warning.
Start of Game Play. The game begins with the captains on each team meeting for a coin toss. The winner of the coin toss decides either (1) whether his team will receive or kick the opening kickoff; or (2) which end zone his team will defend. The loser makes the other election. In that case, the winner’s choices are given to the loser.
Why would the winner decide not to make the choice at the start of the game? There are many reasons and theories about this. For one thing, the team may decide that it’s better to have control over the start of the second half, when they have had an opportunity to adjust its game strategy during half time. Also, since the loser of the coin toss will likely decide to receive the kickoff, a team with a strong defense may want to defer if it thinks they can stymie the opponent’s offense and set the tone for the rest of the game.
Once the coin toss decisions are made, the game begins with the kickoff. The team kicking off will place the ball on a kicking tee at its 35-yard line (35 yards outside the end zone it is defending). The team’s place kicker will then kick the ball toward the other team. A player on the other team will either catch it as it returns to earth, or pick it up after it has hit the ground, and run toward the opponent’s end zone. Once a player has the ball, he is called the “runner”. If the runner is stopped before reaching the opponent’s end zone, the place where he is stopped is called the line of scrimmage and the offense can now begin its drive to the opponent’s end zone. Kickoffs occur at the beginning of the first and third quarters, and after each score.
Whew. I think that’s enough to get you started for now. Next time, a little more about how to advance the ball on offense, including the meaning of that vague term “First and 10.”
*The NFL has been staging preseason games in foreign countries for years in an effort to promote the sport internationally. Now, there is a commitment to have at least one regular season game held abroad each year.
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