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Times – and football – have changed

While many of you are dialed in on August 24 (the official start of the 2019 college football season) and/or September 5 (NFL opening night), my wait for a new gridiron campaign ends today.

**Scott Adamson’s sports column appears pretty much whenever he feels like writing it.**

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats host the Saskatchewan Roughriders at 7 p.m., marking the official kickoff of the 2019 Canadian Football League regular season.

That means from now through the Grey Cup on November 24, I’ll be spreading the CFL gospel on a street corner near you.

Many of you will ignore me, while some might hurl rotten fruit and vegetables in an effort to make me shut up. If you go that route, though, I’ll merely double down on the league that features three downs to make 10 yards, onside punts, and the chance to score a single point even if you miss a field goal.

But, I’m not necessarily seeking converts today; I’ve got five months to evangelize. However, for those of you who’ll tune into ESPN+ tonight and babble on about the CFL’s “unique” rules, I do feel the need to clear some things up.

While both Canadian and American football share a common ancestor in rugby and followed a similar evolution, it’s actually the game played north of the border that more closely follows the original gridiron game.

All you have to do is put a quarter in the ol’ Google Machine and you can learn all sorts of cool stuff.

For example, in its earliest stages the sport was a violent mess and barely recognizable as what we now think of as football. At one point in the 1880s a touchdown was worth two points, the point after kick was worth four points, and a field goal earned five points. There were, in fact, several scoring changes over the next couple of decades.

By 1906 though, the sport was altered dramatically when the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee was formed and charged with setting up a system of game play that promoted both safety and cleaner game play.

And guess what?

Teams had three downs to make 10 yards and the field was 110 yards long – two elements of the CFL that remain today.

Those 1906 rules also included five point touchdowns and four point field goals – as well as kickoffs from midfield – but the point is, CFL rules that are seen by some as off the wall are actually more traditional than you might’ve thought.

The 1906 regulations came three years after Canadians adopted the “Burnside Rules,” which championed the “three-to-make-10” cause. They also reduced a team’s number of players allowed on the field at one time from 15 to 12, and CFL games continue to feature 12 to a side.

American football finally went to the four downs to make a first down format in 1912, and also reduced the length of the field to 100 yards.

That was also the year touchdowns became worth six points and field goals were downgraded to three.

Not to humblebrag (OK, it is to humblebrag), but I already knew most of this stuff anyway.

Almost from the time I could read I was fascinated with football, and I remember combing through those old, red World Book encyclopedias and reading about players clad in leather helmets and canvas pants. The Robert Leckie classic “The Story of Football” is still proudly displayed in my bookcase.

By the time I discovered libraries I was able to soak in as much gridiron history as I could handle, and rule changes was one of my favorite topics.

Any time a new pro league comes along I get weirdly excited at the thought of how it might tweak the game.

To the CFL’s credit, it’s always had rules that I found different enough from the NFL and American college football to make watching a game a familiar yet special (and highly enjoyable) experience.

So whether you prefer one style over another – or if, like me, you can get behind both – football is upon us once again.

It really doesn’t matter how it started … I’m just glad it did.

Me, Mia Hamm, and playing like a girl

**Memorabilia from the 1996 Olympic Games reminds me of a story that I’ll be more than happy to tell …**

So, have you ever played soccer against Mia Hamm?

I have.

Yessir … she and I shared Berylson Soccer Park (now Preston Goldfarb Field at Berylson Soccer Park) on a hot July day in Birmingham, Alabama, and she even blocked one of my shots from her goalkeeper spot.

“Wait a minute,” you say. “Mia Hamm (now Mia Hamm-Garciaparra) played forward for the United States Women’s National Team. She was a two-time World Cup winner, two-time Olympic gold medalist and one of the most famous women’s soccer players of all time.

“And you’re … you. What could possibly put you two on the same field at the same time?”

Glad you asked.

Back in 1995 – a year before Atlanta hosted the Olympic Games where Birmingham’s Legion Field was a designated venue for men’s and women’s soccer competition – Birmingham-Southern College hosted a “One Year Out” extravaganza.

Aside from a news conference featuring Hamm and Hank Steinbrecher (former secretary-general of the United States Soccer Federation), there was a soccer match between media members and Birmingham’s Olympic organizers.

During warm ups, Hamm (who hung around to watch but didn’t actually play in the game) invited anyone who was interested to grab a ball and take a few shots at her.

I was anyone and I was interested, so I did.

Best I recall, I sent a slow worm-burner straight at her feet … the ball might’ve even stopped before it reached her.

I was a tad nervous, and although I played high school soccer it had been many, many years since I “suited up.” Plus, my skill level was always closer to George Worst than George Best.

Still, if I want to claim I played soccer against one of the sport’s greatest stars, I can.

And just did.

It’s a huge exaggeration that could easily be classified as a lie, of course. However, when you get to interact with one of your sports idols, you take liberties.

The women’s teams that have represented the United States in the World Cup and Olympics have been dear to me since the first WWC in 1991.

It wasn’t just that they showed Americans were capable of being elite soccer players – although they most certainly did – it was because I already had great respect for the women’s game.

See, back in 1978 when I played for the Huffman High School boys, we scrimmaged the girls team.

I’d love to tell you that before then I was already a strong proponent of sports equality, but I’d be lying.

I doubt I gave it much thought at all because I was too busy working twice as hard just to be half as good as the other guys on my team.

And before our scrimmage, I’m sure I assumed we’d have a relatively easy time, especially since both teams were told to treat it like an actual match and play as hard as we could.

Details from 41 years ago are a bit sketchy, but the one thing I remember is the final score was 2-2.

I don’t recall who scored for either side – I have no memory how many times I was beaten to a ball – but a draw in a game seen by no one other than the coaches and participants forever altered my view of sports.

The phrase “you play like a girl” suddenly became a compliment.

By the time women’s soccer became a “thing” I was already a fan, so when Hamm showed up in Birmingham it was hard not to be a fan boy.

And my appreciation for women’s soccer has only grown over the years, extending far beyond my borders. I love seeing the different teams, different stars and different styles from across the globe. When the world comes together for the Beautiful Game, it makes things seem even more beautiful.

Covering Olympic soccer in Birmingham in 1996 allowed me to watch Japan, Brazil and Germany play, and I was introduced to Brazilian star Pretinha, who scored four goals in the tourney and became one of my favorite athletes.

And although the U.S. team never made a stop at Legion Field during those Games, I still saw players such as Hamm, Briana Scurry and Brandi Chastain when they came to town to play friendlies.

By the time the 1999 WWC came along, I felt like I knew the American squad.

After Chastain’s spot kick – and Scurry’s brilliant performance in goal – lifted the U.S. to a 0-0 (5-4) victory over China in the final, everybody knew the “99ers.”

The WWC has taken up a great deal of my viewing time over the last month, and I hope today’s final between the United States and the Netherlands is a classic.

Regardless of how it plays out, it gave me a great excuse to talk about the time I played against Mia Hamm.

Have I told you that story before?

Playing lacrosse as a kid required creativity

With the Premier Lacrosse League starting its inaugural season today (the first regular season match in the circuit’s history will be Archers LC vs. Chrome LC at Gillette Stadium at 1 p.m.), it’s as good a time as any to revisit the roots of my fascination with the sport.

Turns out, I stumbled upon it by accident.

I was a nerdy Alabama kid (although I did walk and play among the non-nerds when it came to athletics), and I went through a stage where I did a deep dive into Native American history.

My mother had told me that my maternal grandfather – who died before I was born — was a “full-blooded” Cherokee, so I wanted to know more about my heritage.

(In the interest of accuracy, let’s just say mom had an extremely active imagination and a genealogy search last year proved her story was fiction. My maternal roots are deep in England – with a dash of Wales thrown in – while paternally I’m Scottish down the line).

Anyway, history was a big early interest of mine, and one day I happened upon a book that had a chapter concerning lacrosse.

I learned that early versions of the game were played more than 900 years ago, and in some cases it was used as a training exercise for war. Lacrosse, in fact, translates to “little brother of war” in the Mohawk language.

I had zero interest in going to war, but I did want to learn the game – even though I didn’t know a soul who played or had any knowledge of it.

To me, however, it was like football with a stick – and I loved football.

So I got together with some of my friends and told them about what I’d read, and how cool it’d be to learn how to play it.

Of course in the days before the Internet you couldn’t go just online and order equipment.

And if I’d visited the nearest sporting goods store and asked if they had any gear for lacrosse I would’ve probably been asked to la-leave.

Fortunately, I was an innovative little guy.

Turns out all it took to make a lacrosse stick was a broom handle and fishing net. Throw in a little electrical tape, and you had yourself a serviceable game piece.

None of us had any problem finding what we needed, although standard fishing nets are much larger than a regulation lacrosse stick scoop.

Coming up with all the other makeshift equipment was easy.

Tennis balls worked fine, and I actually had some street hockey goals that easily served the same purpose for lacrosse.

And all of my friends had football helmets.

Thus, my buds and I became lacrosse players. Over time, we got even more elaborate (once we got hold of some lime and marked off a field), although our sporting weapons remained homemade.

To this day, I’ve yet to use a manufactured lacrosse stick to scoop up a manufactured lacrosse ball and fire it at a manufactured lacrosse net – a streak not likely to be broken.

However, the arrival of the PLL has me excited, especially coming on the heels of a terrific NCAA tournament.

The rules of field lacrosse have been tweaked to include a 100-yard field and 52 second shot clock, and considering it has signed many of the world’s best players, this could be the beginning of a bright new era for the sport.

This season features six clubs, runs for 14 weeks and makes stops in 12 different cities.

They won’t be playing with fishing nets attached to broom handles, but I still think it might bring back some cool memories.

(related content: https://adamsonmedia.com/out-of-left-field/premier-lacrosse-league-out-to-change-the-game/)