Tag: football

A modest proposal (for the complete overhaul of the legislative process)

Back in high school, I was a debater…kind of. I say kind of, because like football, debate was something I did for only one year. (What, you don’t think football players usually end up on the debate team? Then you didn’t go to a small enough school.) I don’t know that I was a very …

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The thrill of victory depends on the fear of the agony of defeat

[podcast]https://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/11/Sports-Emotions.mp3[/podcast] The Saskatchewan Roughriders play the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League’s Western Final this Sunday. That simple declarative sentence contains a novel’s worth of angst for fans of the Riders (and possibly for fans the Stampeders, too, but I can’t speak about that, not being one of those LOSERS!…oops, sorry, did I type …

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Acoustics

Acoustics have been on my mind recently, and not just because of (as some might suggest) the echoing empty space between my ears. First came the CFL Western semi-final game at Mosaic Stadium, where noise, reflected and focused by the stands, played at least some role in the Riders’ victory—and utterly failed to carry from …

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Photo of the Day: The Kickoff

Kick-off for tonight’s Canadian Football League game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and B.C. Lions, as captured by my cellphone camera: Unfortunately, this was as close to winning as the Riders were all night. More (and better) photos here.

Football physics

This Sunday in Vancouver, thousands of people will gather to watch an impressive demonstration of momentum, mass, drag and other basic physics provided by highly trained specialists from Hamilton and Calgary.  This scientific exposition is called “the Grey Cup.” One interesting demonstration will be the forward pass.  A football moving through the air has inertia–the universal tendency …

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Fatigue

The Grey Cup in Regina is over. You could tell the day after the game by the number of people wandering around with dazed expressions and bags under their eyes…which inspired me to write this week about two souvenirs of the festivities almost everyone picked up: fatigue and/or a hangover. Fatigue is characterized by an …

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Footballs in flight

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a little football game being played over at Taylor Field next Sunday between a team from Calgary and a team from Baltimore. Canadian football is known as a pass-happy game, so I thought I’d delve into the aerodynamics of a flying football. Football aerodynamics, however, isn’t something you just …

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