Old stones, Older Rocks and Scottish American Football

Be prepared, this one might be lengthy! It was a whirlwind weekend that must be expressed in detail in order to have the full effect.



I will start at the end of last week which was remarkably quite. And for that, I am grateful. I slept, finished a law paper, slept, wrote the majority of an archaeology paper, slept, watched an abundance of TV and films and slept some more. It was superb!



Saturday morning marked the abrupt end of my glorious sleep routine with a 7:30 wake-up (I realize that is not early for some of you but keep in mind I am rounding out my 6th year as a professional student). However, the early rise was rewarded with an educational tour of Central Scotland. More specifically, five sites between Glasgow and Edinburgh that included: The Glasgow Cathedral, The Antonine Wall and Rough Castle Roman Fort, Linlithgow Palace and Cairnpapple Hill. Without going into too much depth, I have to admit that this archaeology trip blew the last one out of the water. With the exception of Cairnpapple Hill, this trip was based on more recent structures and artifacts. I found it more interesting because it was easier to picture them as they were used rather than having to wonder who lived there or what certain objects might have been used for.



The Cathedral was magnificent and is in remarkable condition considering it was built in 1114. Not only did we tour the Cathedral but we also took a look at its underlying crypt. The tomb of St Mungo lies below the Church floors and is equally impressive.



For the record, The Antonine Wall is not a wall at all, it is a ditch. Non the less it is an impressive ditch that actually spans the whole of Scotland and for some time divided the Roman Empire from the Natives. Along part of the wall we studied, what was at one time, a Roman fort. However, for the last couple centuries it has been nothing more that a glorified field with sporadic holes and bumps on the earths surface. Still very interesting to imagine how it all worked but I was misled with the promises of Great Walls and Roman Forts!

Linlithgow Palace, on the other hand, was the highlight of the trip! Having been rebuilt and added onto countless times since its construction in the mid 12th century, this place was AMAZING! Although it had no roof and many of the floors had fallen through over the centuries, it was incredible to stand in the middle of the great hall or out in the court yard and see it as it would have been. It helps to have as wild an imagination as an 8 year old! The fireplaces were all intacted as were all 4 staircases and the wine cellar. The 4 level fountain that stands in the middle of the courtyard has been perfectly preserved since King James the 5th had it installed in the early 16th Century. This palace was the birth place of Mary Queen of Scots and was home to the majority of Scottish Royalty from 1300 to 1660. We were given time to roam through the building and I took full advantage by wandering through every doorway and down every passageway I could find. I got lost twice but both times ended up in the kitchen where I always feel at home!

The finally site was another Neolithic Cairn similar to those of our first field trip. However, this site was on one of the highest points in Central Scotland so the view was spectacular and we were actually able to go down into this Cairn and see the tombs. There was still a lot of speculation as to who the people buried there were, why they were buried there and in that fashion and so on, but because the site has not been affected by modern infrastructure, it was interesting to see tomb exactly as it was in 4000BC.


Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!! Having never lived in the US or been a large NFL fan I was never really hyped up about the weekly tradition of crappy beer, tailback BBQ's, Cheerleaders and a pig skin being thrown about. But I made up for years of missing it this Sunday! It was the Season Opener for the Glasgow University Tigers American Football Team as we took on the Paisley Pyros in Paisley. I was given a starting role as wide receiver on the left side with the warning that I "would be used as necessary" as the game progressed. Normally the home team has an advantage because of the deafening roar from the fans, but when a game averages 11 spectators, 2 of which happen to work at the field and are just waiting to cut the grass, the home vs away thing doesn't matter so much. I contemplated writing a play by play analysis of the game but to spare the agony I will skip to the final few minutes and just brief you on the first three and half quarters. One might say that our team had a slightly delayed learning curve after we went 3 quarters without a single positive yard. We did however manage approximately -165 yards in penalties and somewhere close to -60 yards rushing. I blame this on a combination weaker running backs, a rookie offensive line and their dominate defensive line. Our QB tried to throw the ball twice in those three quarters and once the receiver blew it and the other time the ball was rifled well over his head. So we back to the running game, the highlight of which was a 3rd down with 35 yards to go, and still he made the decision to run the ball. Pause - I apologise to anyone who has no idea what I am talking about and may or may not have ever seen a football game. Please bear with me. At the start of the 4th quarter Paisley had an 18-0 lead and I voiced my concern over our running game and convinced our offensive coordinator to air it out for us a few times. Worse case scenario they get the ball but that seemed to be happening already. So with 7 minutes remaining the decision is made to scrap the play book all together and just mess about for a while. We put up 16 points in 6 minutes completing 11 passes with 0 incompletions. I am happy to say that I counted for 3 of those but my highlight reel did not involve any catching on Sunday. No, instead it involved something that is relatively new to me, hitting while running at full tilt! I have hit and been hit while on skates since I was about 15 but never running like this. I played football once when I was small and never really had the size or power to do any damage. A few things have changed since then and it was a whole new world. I was put in as a gunner (man on the extreme outside) on kickoff due to an injury and took advantage of the opportunity. As my coach quickly pointed out "you hit like a hockey player." I broke 4 blocks, and left two kids wondering if the ringing in their ears was the ice cream truck, while on route down field and let me tell you, it felt Fantastic! The last thing I will mention about the game before I wrap this up is my TSN moment of the week. I play on the far left side of the field and run a pattern that had me ending in the middle of the field about 15 yards ahead of the line. The ball was ditched to the receiver on the far right side of the field just off the line of scrimmage. As John (receiver) tried to stay on his feet and worked his way up field, I decided to try and make it over and help out. This rarely happens as the play is normally dead by the time I get over there but John stayed standing just long enough to let me help out. I came sprinting across the field as their left tackle (a lineman who on the roster weighs in at 320lbs) was coming back to hit John. I drove my shoulder, head, and body through him as hard as I knew how to and watched in amazement as this ogre sized man stood up straight and fell backwards as stiff as a 2x8. I have only ever seen it on TV but this man was knocked clean out cold! John eventually got tackled and this guy rolled over and was helped off after about 20 or 30 seconds in his happy place. He was not injured and came back a few plays later so it all ended all right but boy did that ever feel good. In the end we lost 18-16 after they picked off the ball in the dying seconds but it was a great end to the game and for the first time we had played together I think we did alright. I had a blast!

Otherwise, the start of another week has come and gone and the end of term is closing in fast. I have started trying to finish off papers and get things in order to start studying for exams. Plans for this weekend are to try and take in Loch Ness or Loch Lomand, work and play Hockey. Bye week this week in Football so no more of those adventures for a while. Something interesting always occurs so I will do my best to update when it does.