Watching American football normally brings out my cynical side.
Like most people who grew up believing that a sport called “football” should mainly involve ones feet, I generally find gridiron games to be overly long, complicated and the passage of play maddeningly fractured.
Out of professional and patriotic duty, however, I chose to watch the NFL’s regular-season game between Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers in London. And I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It probably helped that it was a fantastic sporting contest, featuring a Hollywood-style touchdown from Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson and some ridiculously long throwing by Steelers quarterback “Big” Ben Roethlisberger.
But it was more than that. There was also the context in which the game was played.
Namely, while the English football establishment was stamping its feet and gnashing its teeth at the notion of a one-off month-long winter break to facilitate the 2022 World Cup, here was the NFL, happily sharing its game with the wider world, as it has done every season since 2007. We Brits, who like to think ourselves so worldly and cosmopolitan compared to our American cousins, are more conservative than any Appalachian hillbilly when it comes to tinkering with our national game.
Of course, I realise that support for the London games was not universal among the NFL family.
Nonetheless, the idea became a reality and it is delivered each year with gusto and conviction. From the articulate and media-friendly players to the idea of encouraging all NFL fans to attend in their own colours, regardless of which “franchise” (yuck) they support, it felt like a breath of fresh air – even to a hardened cynic like me.
Yes, they use their hands. But at least they also use their heads.
sports@thenational.ae
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Tenet
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
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Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
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Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
MATCH INFO
Qalandars 112-4 (10 ovs)
Banton 53 no
Northern Warriors 46 all out (9 ovs)
Kumara 3-10, Garton 3-10, Jordan 2-2, Prasanna 2-7
Qalandars win by six wickets
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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)