Last off-season, we had some fun talking about the earliest developments of gridiron football in China.

It looked unclear if they would have success with the game or not.

This off season, I did not know what to expect when I looked again, because sometimes huge movements in China can disappear overnight, but this did not happen. Football in China appears to be growing at a healthy pace!

I am glad, because the life-lessons of the game have a lot to offer, and with such a large population, I think China will be better off with football, than without football. Right now, Chinese new year is on - the big holiday, and families are gathering. Maybe a few of them will relax and talk some football like we do over the holidays?

What I find most interesting is that it is still very early for them, so the football looks cleaner and more pure without some of the silliness we sometimes see. It must be like football was like here in earlier times. That's actually refreshing. They also look like they having fun with it and understand most of the meaning behind it also.

Last year it was interesting to point out that, in Chinese game-film, the Chinese were playing at a higher level of intensity and passion, and did not look uncomfortable with themselves compared to the new football starting to grow in England.

I made a quick check of game film available on YouTube and found that, this year, the Chinese appear to have held their ground and perhaps grown it, but it is worth recognizing that some of the British teams have made improvements, while others have not. The sport appears to have grown significantly there, also, but sometimes they look like high-school teams, and they do not appear to be as comfortable with the sport as the Chinese yet overall.

It appears that they have everything in place to be successful with this game, and good for them.

There are new videos to watch on YouTube, the Beijing guardians have a new website that looks fairly good.

Even the NFL, or a Chinese version of it- is there now.

http://www.nflchina.com/eng/

Footage from the founders bowl, that took place on Nov 27th of 2011 is below. Shanghai won against Beijing 35-7, and there were some amazing passes during the game, so don't miss those in the highlights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuqN2WpzJn4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQjq2I9dLVk

And here is a press release on the bowl game:

http://gamedaychina.com/founders-bowl-i

Beijing guardians website, with a video section where you can watch them struggle against Shanghai from a QB helmut-cam. It may look ungraceful to us, but this is a brand new sport to them, so they do well considering the circumstances. Seems that the teams have a handful of western players on each side, and I bet this will change as they get more experience:

http://www.beijingguardians.com/

I am not sure if I can find the official Shanghai team website.