I’m a football beginner. In any sense of this word. Not so long ago, I thought that football meant only dudes like David Beckham kicking a small round ball here and there and sometimes scoring a point or 2 in the process. And yeah, I’m an Euro breed. Before I moved here I heard ‘American Football’ whispered by my younger brother and his friends (Arsenal fans), like it was some poor version of European kicking. Maybe they didn’t score points at all? Stupid me.

After moving here during the intermissions of my beloved basketball games I noticed a bunch of big fat guys pushing each other on a grass. I also overheard a word ‘Football’. After my questioning look, I got an explanation from my hubby: ‘Yes, this is football’. Although I finally noticed that they actually had a ball – funny melon shaped one – I commented typically: ‘I don’t see why you call it football, they don’t use their feet at all and how can you call this thing a ball?’

My second meeting with football was a result of my love of basketball. You can read every issue of SLAM only a specified amount of times and it only comes out once a month, so I decided to subscribe to Sports Illustrated. They offered a football jacket with it, and there is no Canadian team, so I asked for an advice and received an answer: ‘Check who was the champ previous year.’ Then I realized with a full power of my stubborn self, that I want an underdog! Possibly close to home and with colors I can show up wearing in public. Buffalo Bills seemed just perfect and after getting the jacket I decided to give them the courtesy of watching at least one game. And I got completely hooked up! Unnecessary to say, they lost that game and I felt that I wanted to cheer them even more in the next one.

As a computer programmer I usually have about 1% of chance of finding another sports fan in my work. And about 99% of chance of getting rewarded by overtime in the day of some important game. So I learned not to hint at all about my sports fixation to any of my bosses. Huge poster of Michael Jordan over my desk and coming to work in Raptors jersey isn’t too much of a hinting, is it?

But I had to find somebody to ‘talk ball’ to and here came Twitter. With Twitter came Nat, from her I received and invitation to participate in this website… And my adventure is starting. I won’t offer you full analysis of statistics and numbers – at least not in the beginning, but a journey from a complete football baby to a fully fledged veteran fan, which I expect to become. Enjoy!

You can follow me on Twitter @the_tigercub