The Brownlow

Time and time again, Australia proves to me that it is a little different. Last night was another case in point.

I watched the 4 hour Brownlow Medal presentation show on TV. The show is a cross between the Oscars and the Espys. It is on prime time TV on a major network. Everyone seems to watch. The medal is essentially for the AFL MVP for the regular season, here called the Best and Fairest. Players are formally eliminated if they were suspended during the year for rules violations. After every match the game officials meet and come to unanimous agreement on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd best players on the ground in that game (from either team). Kind of like the NHL stars of the game award. (Do they only do that for the Capitals? anyway….) 3rd gets you one vote, 2nd gets you two votes and 1st gets you 3 votes toward the Brownlow. Big deal, that all seems pretty standard.

Where it gets a little wacky is in the presentation. The show to present this medal is the biggest TV night of the year. There is a lengthy red carpet process and thorough critique of all the wives and girlfriend gowns. Now remember, the whole show is to present just one award. How does that take all night? I’ll tell you how. By reading each vote, for every game, all season.

That’s right. It’s a bit like Bingo. “In round 1, Collingwood Magpies vs. the Hawthorne Hawks, with 1 vote Collingwood, Dale Thomas, with 2 votes Collingwood Leon Davis, with 3 votes for best on ground Collingwood Anthony Rocca…” There are 22 rounds, and 8 games per round. That’s 176 games, and 528 separate votes to read out. One. At. A. Time. This would be like a Cy Young show where every sportswriters vote was read out individually. In between all of this they show some highlights from the season and do some player interviews.

Obviously, they could tally the votes for us and just announce the winner, like every award show in the US, but where’s the fun in that?

Speaking of sports and voting, I’m not sure how long we can vote, but please consider voting for my Georgetown friend Dan Brody to be an Olympic torch bearer: vote

NFL Survival update: Steelers got me through week 3 and how. Take that San Francisco. Looking at week 4 now for a team I actually want to cheer for that might win. Easier said than done. My Eagles finally did win, but in the ugliest throwback jerseys I’ve seen in quite some time. Speaking of jerseys, thanks to Jesse for this link which is like a Vice Don’t Website tailored just for my interest: http://straightcashhomey.net/

Jesse also found provided this link to an important anthropological study so something tells me he’s been doing a little extra surfing of the net lately.

Barb and Mike touch down in my hemisphere this Thursday. Stay tuned.