The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/7/08 Section: Opinions

DANIEL STREIFF

Football is strange. No, American football is strange. For me, as a student from Germany, football is still something you play with your, well, feet. Something in which 10 players kick the ball and only one gets to catch it (and not the other way around).

But, of course, there is more: football has mystical rules and strategies. Games last a long time, which makes me wonder how one can think "soccer" is boring after sweating in the heat for five hours.

But the strangest thing: this is college. It is amateurs supported by peers and playing for their alma mater. These games create a hype days before any given game. Do you have any idea how foreign this seems to a stranger?

At home, college pride and identification with our colors do not exist (Do we even have one color? If so, it must be gray). Until the summer of 2006, to Germans, even national pride seemed like something you should be ashamed and afraid of. This angst is rooted in the disastrous effects that nationalism had in my country during the first half of the 20th century.

But patriotism can have great effects, too. That is what we always saw in America. Now we finally experienced it during the World Cup. Everyone was friendly and enthusiastic - we even embraced our tacky motto, "A time to make friends."

You could see otherwise grumpy old Germans dance and drink with fans from the opposing teams. We discovered that one only can live in an open and friendly nation if you are proud of it. It is the confidence you put into your team, or nation, that enables you to respect others and be respected.

Even though we may take pride in our new respect, our soccer team and German engineering, Americans are unrivaled in their confidence and positivity toward the nation. It's a country in which one can go to college and play any kind of football.

- Daniel Streiff is a former international University student from Fuerth, Germany.

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