IT IS FOOTBALL SEASON ONCE AGAIN

And there are some things about football, college and professional, which I still don’t understand. Every year I ponder the same mysteries.

Why, on a pass play to the tight end, do the announcers always say the quarterback “completes a pass to the big tight end.” Have you ever seen a tight end in football who isn’t big? I checked statistics on tight ends in the pros. A sampling of five shows that the average weight is 250 lbs. and the average height is 6’ 4”. Do the announcers think we can’t tell that the tight end is big? Just once I would like to hear an announcer say, “The quarterback completes a pass to the little tight end.” That won’t happen, but the use of the phrase ‘big tight end’ is far better than “the quarterback completes a pass to his tight end.”

Another call by announcers that always intrigues me is the one about the running back who has broken through the line for a 20 or 30 yard run for a touch down. “And No. 22 scampers 30 yards for the touchdown!”

Only football players “scamper”. Baseball players don’t scamper as they run the bases. A basketball player doesn’t scamper after stealing the ball and running down the floor for a slam dunk.

And yet I cannot imagine telling a 6’, 210 lbs. running back named Bubba that he ran ‘nimbly and playfully about’ as he scored the touchdown.

Bambi scampers. Bubba barreled his way through to the end zone.