When jumping between sports it’s always funny to deal with the tricks your brain tries to play on you.
Much like the crusty sea dog who hops onto shore and promptly falls over and vomits on himself, when you’re switching between the NRL and NFL the old grey matter can sometimes suffer from serious lag time.
Whether it’s dropping the term lateral or inquiring about a fair catch in the early rounds of the rugby league season, it’s easy to be the bloke who end-zoned when you should have in-goaled.
This whole process is accentuated by the fact that while the intricacies of each game may differ, there are many more basic mechanisms the two football codes share.
Take yesterday’s playoff match between Green Bay and Minnesota for example.
Even if your hobbies revolved around collecting Napoleonic era grandfather clocks and only came across the game because you were looking for a documentary on the mating habits of the giant cuttlefish, you would still have been able to tell that the Vikings number 28, Adrian Peterson, was the man.
The only time the men in purple looked vaguely threatening was when the ball was being shovelled (repeatedly) into his arms by panicky second string quarterback Joe Webb, and one has to wonder how the man they call ‘All Day’ injured his knee as opposed to his shoulder last season, such is the amount of time he spends carrying the side.
He just ran. And ran. And ran.
Peterson is undoubtedly the team’s franchise player. Their marquee. Their superstar.
If management ever let him go, angry fans with beards would be burning down the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome and moving to Green Bay before the ink on the deal was dry.
Back in NRL land however, and the only footy news to speak of on a sultry summer’s day is that of the Penrith Panthers star centre, Michael Jennings, linking up with the Sydney Roosters.
The outrage? Probably not so much.
For it seems aside from the people who would boo Penrith boss Phil Gould even if he discovered the cure for turf toe, not too many tears are going to be shed for Jennings.
Which should be a bit strange. I mean it’s not as if Jennings didn’t play good last year. He had some great games.
They just happened to be for NSW.
In what must be eternally frustrating for Penrith fans, over the last couple of years, Jennings has seemingly gone from shining light to irritating X-Factor.
You know the type.
He’s injured. Or not getting along with the coach. Or wanting to change positions. Or making a goose of himself in public.
As a fan you’re constantly worried about them, fearing he’s just going to turn up to training one day, look at his surroundings and decide to take his talents to South Wollongong beach.
Essentially Michael Jennings and Adrian Peterson should be the same bloke. If AP had been born in Blacktown and MJ in Texas, then there’s a good chance they’d be doing each other’s job.
They’re both fast, explosive and head and clearly the brightest attacking spark for their respective teams.
It just appears as though that right now, one of them is revelling in the power of running his team. And the other is just running from it.
Follow Chris on Twitter @Vic_Arious
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