Things Every Girl Can Learn About Sports: Introduction

I am by no means an expert on sports. I love my teams and know a lot about them as teams, but a sports fanatic I am not.

For instance, a co-worker of mine is a fellow Longhorn fan and Adventures of a Football Girl enthusiast. We'll call him "Cabbage Patch." While helping me promote the blog for the CBS/DFW Most Valuable Blogger Contest, Cabbage Patch emailed some of his old fraternity brothers along with the comment that I could put them all to shame with my University of Texas Football historical and statistical knowledge. Flattering, yes. And it may or may not be true, but it does emphasize the point that I know a lot about the team I love. That doesn't mean I can tell you anything about the Dallas Cowboys. My football knowledge doesn't transfer. It's all about the Horns.

In another instance, while watching a Mavs playoff game last year at Twin Peaks, the bar sponsored a five question trivia contest during halftime. The group I was sitting with divvied up the questions ahead of time for quick googling, in an effort to get that free pitcher of beer. All the questions were about the Mavs, and I was able to answer all of them using only the filing cabinet in my noggin. As someone at the table called out "okay, I've got the first one" I was already on my feet to turn in the completed survey. They all eyeballed me skeptically as I yelled "I got this!" over my shoulder, halfway to the emcee. Wouldn't you know...this girl beat out every man in that bar in Mavs trivia - I'd be damned before I let someone else claim that pitcher! But! Had the trivia been about any other team or the league in general, I'd have been googling with the rest of them.

I have often been told that Adventures of a Football Girl is not what people were expecting. As in...it's not really about the technicalities of football.

Even more often than that, though, I have heard women IN PUBLIC say things about sports that have made me laugh, cry and cringe...all at the same time. I'm talking basics.

These two factors have inspired me to write a series within Adventures of a Football Girl called "Things Every Girl Can Learn About Sports" where I will write mini-lessons on basic sports facts. Each post will focus on a few handy sports points of interest, hopefully presented in a rememberable format for women to commit to memory for future conversations...say...at a sports bar.

I know you've got some thoughts & questions right now. Let's address:

You: I'm a girl. I am awesome and know everything about sports. I don't need you!
Me: Yes. You most definitely are awesomer than me. Nothing to learn here...

You: How can I get my girlfriend to read this without tipping her off that I think she's sports-dumb?
Me: Point her to a nice post about...me falling down or some other such personal humiliation. I suggest "New Boots" or "Chicken Nugget". Once on the site, she's going to see the post title and secretly read it. And nor she or you will EVER bring it up....

You: I'm a dude. And I know everything about sports. I saw the Mavs score that home run last week!!
Me: Maybe you should just read them for...fact checking. Yeah...since I'm just a girl I don't know any better...so I'll need a fact checker!

On a final note...a lot of the things I'll be writing about are things that I had to learn for myself at some point...likely after saying some kind of sports gibberish in a bar....probably to make an impression on some guy.

Trust me. You don't want to make that kind of impression.