Good morning everyone!
Since I still have football on the brain, I wanted to talk to you about my football memories. FN.
My earliest football memories stem from my pre-school years, when my family lived in Annapolis, Maryland. I can remember my dad sitting in front of the television on Sunday afternoons sound asleep. Either myself or one of my sisters would try to sneak into the den and turn the channel to something more entertaining than a boring football game (remote controls had not yet been invented; you actually had to go to the TV set and turn a knob) only to have him announce, while still sound asleep, “Touch that dial and you will be called “Stubby” for the rest of your life.” Since my dad was a naval officer, and we were in Annapolis because he was stationed at the Naval Academy, we also could not help become aware of a rivalry between the Navy and the Army, although I’m not sure we really understood that it stemmed from football. I do know that I was in sixth grade before I realized that the Navy and the Army did not exist to fight each other, but rather to join in common cause to fight our nation’s enemies. I really think, given the choice, they would prefer to fight each other anyhow, but they have called a truce in the interest of national security that is only broken when the Army-Navy game is played each year.
Then, after several years, I started high school in the Washington D.C. area while Joe Theisman was the Redskins quarterback and Joe Gibbs was the coach. Dad made sure to instill in all three of his daughters a love for Redskins football, although we noticed that he was very conflicted when the biggest rivalry game of the season would roll around – the Redskins v. the Cowboys. Dad always wanted the Redskins to win, but the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback, Roger Staubach (who was a Naval Academy graduate like Dad) to look good. Either shortly before or after we left the D.C. area, the Fun Bunch began their antics, which just made a football game pure fun, and the Hogettes began their long attendance at Redskin games as well.
We moved from D.C. to Alabama. Over time, I learned that college football was even more important than professional football, at least in Alabama. I am ashamed to admit that during the first few years we were here, my Mom and sisters and I looked upon the Auburn-Alabama game as a great time to do Christmas shopping – no-one else was out during the game. It took about four years, but we too ceased to go out during the Auburn-Alabama game, and instead stayed glued to the television to see the outcome of the game. Even as transplants, we picked sides – myself and my youngest sister are Auburn fans, and my middle sister is an Alabama fan.
That passion for Auburn football only grew when I attended Auburn, met my future husband and began going to games as a college student. The one year we were both at Auburn together, we had student season tickets by the Auburn Yacht Club. They were a great group of students to sit beside. Every score or large gain led to high fives down the entire row whether you were a member of the Yacht Club or not, and that year, because a running back named Bo Jackson was playing for our team, there were a lot of high fives!
After I graduated from college and Mark and I got married, we watched both college and professional football. We have struck a nice balance now; we watch Auburn football with a great deal of emotional investment, but we watch NFL football simply to enjoy the game, although there are many teams that we like and we usually know who we want to win the game that we watch. (All right, I admit the year the Patriots went undefeated in the regular season, we got pretty involved in the New York Giants’ attempt to stop them from getting that record on the last game of the regular season. That was one of the best football games I have ever seen, and the funny thing was that it didn’t make a difference to either team in terms of where they would stand in the playoffs. Still, I don’t believe the Giants would have beaten the Patriots in the Super Bowl that same year had they not put in the extraordinary effort I saw that day, even though they ultimately lost that game. That effort taught the Giants that the Patriots were not unbeatable, and they believed that all the way through to the final game!)
We are now intent on passing along the football traditions of our family to Kayla, and she is taking to them quite well. She is already an avid Auburn fan, and the first question she asks at the beginning of any NFL game that we watch is “Who are we going for?” She likes Peyton Manning and Cam Newton as quarterbacks, and I can’t wait to see how far she goes in her love of the game!
Do you have any special football memories? Are there any teams you are particularly a fan of? If so, I would love to hear about them from you!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Nancy
FN. I suspect the Football-on-the-brain syndrome has a lot to do with getting my new website, The Football Novice, up and running as well as with the start of the NFL pre-season!
Tales from the Mom-Side 