Michael loves sports. He would watch ESPN all day if he could and he does on NFL Sundays. Aside from watching sports he also loves playing sports. This is a huge perk in the military! There are lots of opportunities to play on your Squadron's sports teams. Michael plays year round alternating between volleyball, softball, basketball, and flag football. So it was no surprise that he was eager to join a team at Yongsan.
The opportunity presented itself a few Saturdays ago when we went to an Air Force Squadron function at the bowling alley on base. This gave us both an opportunity to meet the folks in his AF Squadron as well as their spouses and kids. As I was lacing up my super sexy rental bowling shoes, Michael shares with me that he's just been recruited for a mixed military rugby team (all branches of military). They practice three times a week and their first game was approaching. Michael has never played rugby but he went to the practices and was chosen to be a kicker. I'm not exactly sure if that's the actual position, but basically he stands at the end of the field and kicks the ball towards the other side of the field and is the last defense if the other team tries to score. Their first game was Saturday. I've never been to a rugby game so I wasn't sure what to expect. I show up and see my husband...in THIS.
I couldn't control my laughter! Thank goodness he had on biker shorts under his teensy weensy rugby shorts! Contrary to what you're thinking right now, the team's name does not involve the word bumble or honey bee anywhere in it. I confess, after seeing the outfits I kind of hoped it would. This team is called the All Yanks and their sponsor is Hooters Korea (notice the logo on the back of the jerseys). Appropriate for a bunch of American military dudes who play other rugby leagues in South Korea! The not so fun part of being in Korea is that only 20% of the military folks here can bring their families. So this means there aren't a lot of spouses to sit with at the game. Luckily there was one Army wife there who came to support her husband. I told her this was my first rugby game and my husband was the kicker. She smiled back and said, "Oh good! He'll likely avoid all of the hard hits and injuries." Come again? I thought this was like any intramural sport! Tame..no tackling...flag belts......I mean, up to this point the warm ups looked tame! What could she mean?
Then the whistle blew...WHAM! My head filled with visions of the battle scene sound effects from the 1960s Batman and Robin episodes. BIFF! BAM! CLASH! THWOP! CRUNCH! This is possibly the most violent sport I have ever seen in my entire life! There are no pads. And there's tackling. Lots of it. Cleats in the head, scratches, men's heads in other men's butts (see pictures below), and odd lifting of one's teammates. I thanked my lucky stars that Michael was the kicker away from the action. A goalie of sorts you could say. It didn't take long for the guys on the field to start dropping like flies. Busted heads that required stitches, possible fractured bones, concussions...soon there were no extras on the sidelines and Michael was taken out of the kicker position and thrown to the wolves. I was a hot mess. Michael, however, loved every minute of it. At one point I'm pretty sure I watched him jump on a pile of dudes that were already tackled to the ground just because.
Unfortunately the Seoul Survivors won the game. At the end of the day, the entire team suffered at least one injury. Michael came home with a swollen knee and a bloody thigh from someone's cleats. The poor guy can't even ice it down since we have no ice in our freezer (someone didn't think about freezers needing to be hooked up to a water line during the remodeling process). And yet he can't wait to get out there and do it again! I on the other hand will require a drink or two before the next game. :)
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