December 16, 2005

Snow football.

I hear shouting outside and imagine there must be a rally or a protest of some kind. I get up and look out my office window onto Bascom Hill and see these hardy guys playing football. It's a sunless, 20 degree day, and they've been out there for an hour now.

Snow Football

Snow Football

Snow Football

Snow Football

You remember the summer pictures of the hill, when it seemed as if nearly all the students were female?

Bascom Hill soap buttons duckies

That's not how it looks today!

IN THE COMMENTS: Some talk about playing football in the snow and the difference between men and women, and then chuckb notes that the tree seems to be dormant year round. That makes me check the date on the last photo and see that it's from April 18th, so the women are hardier than one might have thought! That photo, by the way, is my "most viewed" photo in Flickr. Why? Because it appeared in this post, with small versions of the photos and "click to enlarge" advice, the post got the Instapundit link that you see above, and the subject matter made people -- especially the people Glenn sent over? -- want to get a closer look. And when I refer to the subject matter, I mean the women, not the sprig of tree branch that caught chuckb's eye. And my heart goes out to any of my Civil Procedure students who are reading my blog on a hour before the exam starts and who just read the phrase "subject matter" twice -- now, three times -- and got a pang of anxiety thinking about subject matter jurisdiction. Good luck to all!

23 comments:

reader_iam said...

The Very Idea! Teasing and tantalizing us with pictures of summer!

And me here, barely able to type, because my hands are so cold after going to pick up my son.

(I did break down and turn the heat in our house up to 62 degrees the other day. Hmm ... I've have to look up that old post of yours about temperature in homes etc.)

reader_iam said...

The male/female thing is very interesting, though.

Maybe women really are smarter?

Or men just crazier?

Hazy Dave said...

Snow football makes a lot of sense, since Frisbees crack too easily at low temperatures.

Mark Daniels said...

I always have disliked snow and I never have been much for playing football. But back in my younger days, I loved playing football in the snow!

Even when we couldn't get a gang of people together, my cousin and I used to spend hours running pass patterns on nights when the snow fell, pretending we played for the Green Bay Packers...although neither of us were Packers fans.

I wish I were about thirty-five years younger and could play snow football without worrying about breaking anything, playing with the same abandon I knew back then. Sigh...

Mark

Laura Reynolds said...

I have some really great memories of football in the snow. Cold doesn't effect you when you are having fun and especially when you are too young to have any sense.

howzerdo said...

How wonderful to see those (what I assume are) young people enjoying the snow! Thanks. I like winter, which is a good thing since we have been having some very cold, crisp weather even for December - and we had a snow & ice storm today. But this year it makes me a little sad, as my wonderful dog, who adored snow, passed away in September. I look outside, and imagine him alternately dashing around, and rolling in the white stuff. What a joy he was, a reminder that every day is precious.
Gina

I'm Full of Soup said...

A pickup football game in the snow. Ain't nothing like it.

Great pictures Ann!Thanks for sharing.

Nancy said...

If they were tough enough, they'd be playing shirts and skins!

XWL said...

"Maybe women really are smarter?"

Well, which group of folk are risking early death due to skin cancers, and which group are improving their overall health through vigorous cardiovascular exercise?

Smart is in the mind of the beholder.

girlfriday said...

Color those of us with grey skies, freezing temperatures and dry roads green with envy. (Us. Not the roads.)

Icepick said...

RIA, yeah the pictures of summer are tantalizing. And it's been a brutal winter, too. Why, I almost had to put on a jacket today!

And XWL, excellent piece of analysis!

Nancy, at least one of those guys is wearing shorts. Another guy looks like he's wearing shorts over sweats, but one of them may be playing bare legged.

Icepick said...

Oh, and presumably a large portion of the people that live in Madison like winter weather. THerefore the fact that some of them are playing a game in the snow shouldn't surprise....

girlfriday said...

Don't misunderstand my comment. It's SNOW I'm pining after. Not green hills.

If it insists on being winter every year, it may as well snow.

Ann Althouse said...

I've never seen more life on the hill than I saw today. And I've been looking out this window for 20 years. A toast to the football guys!

reader_iam said...

XWL: Touche!

Icepick: You're messin' with me, Mr. Live-in-a-Warm-Climate. Be afraid.

reader_iam said...

Icepick & XWL: Besides, admit it: You only looked at the football picture to see if someone had, or was about to have, some freak accident resulting in some icky injury. That you could compare with your own.

; )

Wade Garrett said...

Interesting point about the men and women. Is it that women tend to care more about their tans than men do?

The nice thing about playing football in the snow is that the snow - especially 'packing' snow - really does break your fall. In many ways, its better to play football in the snow than it is to play it in the summer!

Still, I would think the safety advantages of playing football in the snow are outweighed by the dangers of playing on a relatively steep downhill slope!

XWL said...

Now that you mention it,....(you aren't gonna get me started on one of those tangents over here RIA)

I've never played football in the snow (actually have only seen snowfall once, and it was but a high desert dusting), but I have played football and basketball in mid 20 degree (fahrenheit needless to say, I guess sub zero celsius sounds more impressive, let's go with that instead) weather at night (at UC Riverside where I went to school you'd have been insane to play sports during the day in spring or summer, and by winter it becomes a habit, plus there are those silly classes to go to that get in the way of the real fun)

bill said...

Hmmm...hit the guy on a slant across the middle and he made some nice yardage before being brought down by the last man. However, looks like the quarterback missed a wide open receiver deep on the left whose coverage had fallen in the snow.

Analyzing the bottom photo - someone had a sale on black tanktops.

In high school, over 20 years ago, a bunch of us soccer players played snow football every Friday. Had a couple football players invite themselves over one day. They never came back, said we worked too hard. The only day in 4 years school was canceled - because of a blizzard - we all drove to school to play. I'm pretty sure that was my first case of frostbite.

Now I'm typing this in Atlanta where it hit 32 degrees this morning, schools were closed because of ice and we lost power for most of the day.

chuck b. said...

The tree's dormant in both summer and the fall? Geez!

edgaralgernon said...

As a one born and bred in WI who now lives in MN...
What? No broom ball? :-)

Ann Althouse said...

Chuckb: You're very observant! I checked the date of the photo and it's April 18th. Early spring for Madison.

Robert R. said...

The great thing about snow football is that it's a great equalizer of speed. Everyone's slow.

And, as was mentioned before, the snow really does cushion the impact. You can lay out for a catch, just like the pros, and not feel a thing.

As long as your feet stay dry, you'll stay warm too.

I feel 18 years younger, just looking at those pictures.