Bowl Games

We do have ESPN Star Asia here in our apartment. Generally, when we turn it on, we see golf, soccer, tennis, ping pong, and occasionally - very occasionally - some American football. Unfortunately these football games are usually live, so the 3pm EST games are on at 4am. Not so useful.

This week though, Michael was able to enjoy 2 games, one Sunday and one Monday. He was very excited. And today Cara is watching Penn State's bowl game while typing this post. Wheeeee

There are a few things that are different when watching football in China, though:

1) The "ESPN live" in the corner of the screen is always on, even when they are showing clips from ESPN Classic.

2) During the breaks in the game, there are explanations called ESPN Live Rules! These include things like
'A quarterback's job is to...'
'The line of scrimmage is...'
'The difference between a passing play and a running play is...'
Clearly ESPN Asia has little faith in the football accumen of its viewers.

3) There are no beer commercials.

Come to think of it, there are no commercials at all, but the lack of beer commercials is what really stands out. In place of commercials, ESPN throws in supplementary filler, primarily ads for ESPN's other programming (whoever thought the drama of Premier League "Football," shown over and over and over and over - not unlike beer ads in other parts of the world - could be so captivating?).