wannabe
kelly | 20 September 2007 - 6:55pm
Oddly enough, the past few weeks I've found myself wishing I were a football fan. I don't know the first thing about football, and don't care a lick about the sport. But growing up, the game was always on. It was in the background, a muffled soundtrack to our family life. It's still that way when we visit - during the season, the game is always on. It's that way in Rob's family, too. His uncle and cousins will gather for a game, settling onto the sofa with chips and drinks. And for the duration of the game, real life doesn't enter in. Thoughts of work don't interfere. Talk is centered around the plays. It seems so protected from everything, so relaxed. In a world in which conflict is real and scary and so often the good guys are indistinguishable from the bad, it seems to me that football must provide a welcome reprieve - it's easy to choose teams, and safe to cheer for just one side, knowing that in the end it doesn't really matter who wins. Not really. And in a world in which we so often feel isolated, it seems comforting to know that even if you're rooting for different teams, you are united in your football focus with the other people in the room. And, in fact, the reason they are there with you in the first place is because they are friends. They are family.
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IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO WINS??!!
Haha. Kidding, I'm not into it either. I am the same as you, though and wish I could get into (Australian) footy. It is such a culture of it's own and I would love to be a part of that, but tv sports in general just don't do well with keeping my attention.
Lord knows I need some friends. But you are right, if I ever see someone with a Cardinals (the baseball team, NOT football...) shirt on, I instantly think, "Oh, they're one of my kind."
The hubby is an avid football fan. I just can't do it. His day is ruined if his team (the Rams, for Pete's sake) loses.
Have a great day, Kalki.
That is the first cogent argument I've ever read for watching football. :)
I am a football (it is the only sport I really follow) fan and although I root for the Eagles, you are right in the sense of it does not matter who wins..just so there is a game on.
E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!!
I mean, ob-vious-ly, because I'm from Redneck Valley, GO PACKERS!!! (love those guys!), but I am now (by default) an Eagles fan.
It hasn't been pretty around here (especially the first week when the Packers won over the Eagles...but hey, when we've got it, we've got it...for now!)
Kelly, I too was not a football fan. Heck, it wasn't even ON in the background in our house. But now--got the fever, baby!
Woman? Snap out of it!
No, seriously.
I feel that way when Brennen is watching football, very excited about 'his' team, and I'm just looking at the t.v. like its a foreign movie without subtitles.
Ok, after reading Doreen's comment she's my best friend too. Gotta love the Eagles :)
I'll admit, part of my love for football comes from the act of watching the game, not the game itself. It's fun to gather a bunch of fans, eat some junk food and talk some trash, or just curl up with a blanket on a cool fall afternoon to watch the game. What's not to love about that?
But it's not quite as relaxed as it might seem. I'm usually on pins and needles the entire 3 hours (because with the Eagles you just KNOW they're going to screw up, it's only a matter of when), and towards the end of the season when the games really start to matter? (In regards to playoffs anyway...) A loss can ruin the day for me, and sometimes for my husband too, depending on how grumpy I get. Or maybe that's just us bitter Philly fans :)
I learned the rules of football watching my (little) brother play Tecmo Superbowl on the original Nintendo.
I did not really get in to football until I was living in China and pretty homesick. I came home for a few weeks in January and the Pats won the first of their string of Superbowls. It was after September 11th and it is my Dad's team. I returned to China two days later feeling so Patriotic and glad that the Patriots' win was what I left the country with. I've loved football ever since...I still don't rearrange my schedule or plans to watch it if there is other stuff to do though. It is nice to have those few hours once a week throughout football season to sit on the couch and forget about everything else going on in the world!
Sounds like a good reason to have a party to me! Come over and I will teach you about football, and while we watch and learn we can have cranberry and vodkas, since that is the closest color of a drink that I can think of that matches the Redskins colors. Because of course you can only come over if you are cheering for the Redskins.
Doreen - the Eagles? Really? So sad.
Kalki,
It makes me so happy to read all the EAGLES-lovin comments on this page!!! I am going to assume that since you described Rob's family's football-watching routine as "relaxed", you obviously don't have Eagles fans in your circle. That's a shame. We are NOT relaxed fans, (am I right, geeky?), and I think that's why I personally love the football season so much.
I was then going to add, at the risk of pissing off HFD, that I fully support your becoming a football fan- as long as you don't succumb to area pressure to be a Redskins fan. Then we would have to fight. Seriously, if I find out you drank cranberry & vodka drinks on a game day, I'm not sure we could still be friends.
E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!!!!
~N
Hi Nicole!
It takes much more than that to piss me off. I was just trying to give her some added incentive to join the football loving ranks.
HFD
It worked, HFD. Because while I'm not currently a football-follower, I am (as you know) a HUGE fan of alcohol. :) So I would of course love to game-day party with you! I have a feeling some spirits will put me in the team (really, any team) spirit. Cheers!
(Um, when are game days?)
Kelly,
I love the game as much as any farm-boy out there, but I must say that the best part of football is that it is easy to sleep to. Not as easy as NASCAR or the PGA mind you, but their is something about it that helps the nap along.
Dad wanted a boy. So, I learned a lot about football from him. It was a really great way to bond with the family. I haven't kept up with it as much since he died but I still love to tune in.
No Kalki No! Don't go over to the dark (or shall I say "maroon") side!!!
Sigh... Okay, fine, (I say with a big pout), as long as you are enjoying the game and having fun with good fans, route for whomever you like.
But could you at least sneak in an apple martini or something green just for my sake? Better yet, enjoy a good Philadelphia-(or close to it)-brewed beer, like a Victory or Sly Fox.
But I'd just like to say, had you been routing for the Eagles, you would have enjoyed an amazing landslide victory today, which would have totally pumped you up for your beginning of football fandom.
Way back in the day I finally crossed to the dark side with hockey. It was either watch the game with the guys along with good food and beers or sit in the kitchen with the other "hockey widows" and listen to them bitch about their husbands and kids. I was only 22 at the time and bored out of my mind so hockey won.
However, I simply don't know what might get me interested in football. It would probably have to be an NFL or death situation.