And our preseason didn’t make us optimistic at all – we lost 4 out of 5 games, we even lost to Detroit Lions, who were 0-16 last year. Isn’t that pathetic? Terrell Owens who was supposed to make a huge difference was only nursing his toe for most of the time, and our offense looked poor… Falling in love with the game? Nobody promised that love would be easy.

Each team has 11 players on a field and way more of them in the roster. There are three unit on each roster – offense, defense and special team.

The role of the offense is to advance the ball as far as possible towards the opponent’s end zone. It consists of:

Center – the player in the middle, he starts the game by passing the ball to a quarterback. He also has blocking functions.

Quarterback – after taking the ball from center he’s the player you want to watch – it’s his decision to either pass the ball to a running back, throw it or run like mad towards the end zone.

Running back – usually the most small and fast dude on the field, he’s the one who runs the most, trying to find a hole in the (wall of screaming crazies) defensive line.

Wide receiver – runs fast towards the end line without the ball and catches the pass. (If the defense lets him).

Offensive line consists of guards and tackles – the big dudes usually without the ball. They’re supposed to (punch the hell out of) block the defense, clear the way and protect the passer.

Tight end – they can play like the wide receivers (catch the ball) or like offensive linemen (block).

Defense basically makes everything to stop the offense.

The defensive line tries to clear the way for linebackers and make the offensive linemen busy by (attempting to murder) blocking them. They also try to send the running back or quarterback (the one with the ball) to the ground, before he passes the ball or gains the yardage.

Linebackers defend against the offense by trying to catch the passer before he manages to pass or covering the receivers so they cannot get the ball.

Cornerback – his job is to prevent the receiver from getting the ball either by punching the ball away or grabbing it by himself.

Safety – the last line of defense, usually helping the cornerbacks against deep passes.

Special teams are used only in some circumstances – punter to handle the punts, kicker to kick off the ball or attempt the field goal, holder to hold the ball for the kicker, long snapper who gets the ball to the holder or kicker. On the other side there will be a kick returner who will try to catch the kicked ball and push it into other direction and a wedge buster who runs full force in his direction to stop him and disrupt (the horde of wild beasts) the offensive line. Ouch!

So it’s not just a bunch of fat guys running in one direction and other bunch of fat guys trying to stop them! Surprise, surprise!

There are three days left to the next Bills game and I sit with a pile of season preview magazines, to learn a little bit more about game. I also got something about Fantasy Football to catch up with the stats. After 2 games and some reading, I have my first impressions:

1. It’s so different from basketball. Seems to be much more a team sport than basketball ever will be. First, the number of players on the roster is huge. And the starting line-up includes 11 players on each side. Also, you don’t see one player doing all the action, while the other 10 just stare at him in awe (yeah, I’m hitting at you, LeBron).

2. You can score by a field goal which is worth 3 points or by a touchdown for 6 points. Field goal is scored by kicking the ball through the goal post. A touchdown is when you run the ball or catch it in the opposing end zone. You can also recognize a touchdown, by all these celebrations and chest bumping by the offensive team. There is also a 2 point safety, when you’re responsible for the ball becoming dead behind your own goal line.

3. You cannot just try to push the ball forever until somebody steals it from you. You have 4 attempts – they are called downs – to advance 10 yards. Yeah, they measure in yards. After growing up in metric system I have a new challenge of figuring out how long a yard is. Anyways, if you don’t manage to advance these 10 yards, the ball goes to the other team. It’s called turnover. Finally a familiar term for a basketball fan!

4. You can try to run with a ball or pass it to a teammate. Although, you can pass only once each down and only from behind the line of scrimmage (the line in the middle).

Update: From Nat – you can pass more than once in a play as long as the other passes are lateral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_pass) and the line of scrimmage being the position on the field that the players line up for that play rather than the line in the middle. See, I’m still learning.

5. Foul? No it’s not a foul, it’s a tackle! The defensive players piling on the poor dude with a ball, forced to the ground, are stopping the offense completely within the rules. Small wonder, they have this funny armor underneath their jersey and the helmets.

6. Which was my team, again? Well, if you still didn’t learn your colors, there should be a logo on the helmets.

7. The steals are called interceptions. It looks like Chris Paul in action, you catch a forward pass and run with the ball for your life. Warning – don’t try to dribble the ball!

8. If you have long hair, you will look like Uruk-hai in the helmet!

9. Where’s the ball? Oh yeah, it must be in the hands of the player who attracts the biggest attention from the opposing team.

10. The players are HUGE. Broad shoulders, heavily muscled legs and, I swear – I saw a beer belly or two!

11. You think, it’s hard to be constantly abused, pushed to the ground and laying underneath 5 other players? Well, ask Brett Favre – it must be some real fun, because he keeps coming back for more!

I know I must be stating obvious for the veteran fans, but I’m a complete beginner and, man, am I having fun with this! It’s like watching the world through the eyes of a child once again.