“What are downs?”

Charlie and I are sitting in section 335 of Gillette Stadium, watching the first quarter of the preseason game against the Carolina Panthers last week.

The boy loves watching football live. I can’t wait until he’s old enough to take him to a regular season game. The degree of public drunkenness, endless vulgarity, and threats of violence hurled upon opponents and referees are too much for a ten-year-old boy, but there will come a day when he’s ready.

Until then, we have the preseason, when things are slightly more civilized.

We’re midway through the first quarter when the stadium announcer bellows, “First down!”

“What’s a down again?” Charlie asks.

He understood the concept of down and distance last year, but it’s apparently fallen out of his head in the months following the playoffs.

I explain the concept again, which isn’t easy given the multitude of decisions to be made on fourth down. But after a few minutes, he gets it, I think.

“Boy,” Charlie says. “This is going to make playing Madden so much easier.”

I laugh.

Understanding one of the fundamental principles of football will certainly make playing that game – in real life or on an iPad – a hell of a lot easier.