[American] Football games on 2/26/06

Factual Questions
1

I’ll put my question first, and then the background - the question itself doesn’t need background, but I’m providing it so I don’t appear to be a moron or a weirdo. :slight_smile:

How do I find out what football games were playing on Sunday Februrary 26, 2006? I’ve used Google to no avail; I think the NFL season is over by then (I don’t know much about football) - are there college games going on? High school games? Something?

So the background:
First, yes I’m an American, and I don’t follow football whatsoever. My loss I suppose, but there it is.

Why do I want to know this?
One of my courses I’m taking is Trial Practice, and in one of our exercises I’m playing the role of a criminal defendant, who is testifying on his own behalf. I have no alibi, only that I was “watching a football game at the time of the robbery” - which was 8:00pm on Sunday, Februrary 26, 2006.

So I’m thinking to myself: on cross-examination the prosecution will surely quiz me on such questions as “who was playing? what was the score?” etc etc, so to prepare myself, I go looking to see if I can find answers to those questions. And that’s when I ran into my sub-par-google-fu-snafu.

So - any suggestions on how I can find out what, if any, football games were televised at that time? Live would be better than a rerun, and pro better than amateur, but I’m worried I may be out of luck here. Worst case scenario I guess I was watching a TIVOed version of last year’s superbowl, but…that’s not much of an alibi.

I apologize if this belongs is Cafe Society - and hopefully this doesn’t violate the “homework assistance” rule, because, as I said, the background isn’t all that important, and I could have just as well left that out.

–KidScruffy

2

The Super Bowl was held on Feb. 5, which is the last game of the NFL season. The college football season ended in early January, with the BCS bowls, so there would be no professional or college level football games being played on Feb. 28.

Arena football is played indoors during the off-season, but I’m not sure if their games would start that early or not.

3

The Super Bowl is the last NFL game of the season that counts for anything. The NFL Pro Bowl is held the week after the Super Bowl (2/12/06). This is an “all-star” game in Hawaii that counts for nothing but fun. However, this does not help your case.

4

Judging by last year’s AFL schedule there’s a chance that might be a game playing at that time since the games started last year on January 29. Even if it’s not live, you could be watching a Tivo’d game from the weekend. That sounds a bit better.

5

It appears NFL Europe doesn’t start until mid-March.

6

Ah, good call - I hadn’t thought of arena football.
I suppose soccer is another possibility, but pretty unlikely to find a random american who calls soccer football, and I’m not sure when that seasons starts either. I like the AFL idea.

Thanks for the replies so far, and helping me fight my ignorance of football. :slight_smile:

7

In the Arena Football League, the San Jose Sabercats played at the Chicago Rush on 2/26/06 at 1:00 pm EST. A typical football game is about 3 hours. That would mean the game was on from about 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Pacific, assuming (1) they televised the game in your market; and (2) the broadcast was live.

8

Also in the AFL, the Colorado Crush played at the Nashville Kats (yes, with a “K” :rolleyes: ) at 1:00 pm EST on 2/26/06.

Also, Orlando Predators @ New York Dragons at 1pm EST

9

Thanks Bearflag70 - Since they’re all at 1pm Eastern, that San Jose game seems best, being a California team. I found the score, and hopefully that’ll be enough. If they ask for a play-by-play, I may just break down and confess. :slight_smile:

10

Don’t forget about ESPN Classic or one of the Fox Regional affiliates. They often broadcast old football games during the off season.

11

Yeah, but ESPN Classic tends to keep the games seasonal. So, in late February, it’s more likely that ESPN Classic would be showing old NCAA Tournament games or maybe hockey or pro basketball.

I have to say, that is a really lousy alibi.

12

That was the first thing I thought! I mean, Kid Scruffy, do you have any room to ad lib on this? It would be an awful lot more plausible to say a basketball game, and we could easily supply you with some scores.

13

Another possibility: Your alibi, as stated, doesn’t specify that the game was televised. It could also have been an amateur pickup game a few of your friends threw together: That could have been played at any time, any place, with any score and other details.

On the other hand, it also brings with it the risk that the prosecutor will call some of those other guys as witnesses.

14

Does it have to be American football? What about describing a soccer game?

I loved trial practice.

15

I agree with you and Asterion - part of me thinks that whoever came up with the facts in this case didn’t think everything through; or alternatively, it’s a crappy alibi intentionally.

At some point I made a statement that I was “watching a football game on tv…”.
So unfortunately, no; I wouldn’t feel comfortable ad libbing something to contradict that statement.

Chronos - Sorry, I forgot to include the “on television” part in my OP. Otherwise, I’d go with your suggestion. And of course, my team would have won in a blow-out, 70-3. :slight_smile:

–KidScruffy