Football: It's Complicated

Let me tell you a complex history of my relationship with football. With the Broncos.

When I was young, football was something I really didn't like, because it took up all my dad's attention for three to four hours, for a good third of the Sunday afternoons of my life.

And when I was a kid, the Broncos were, for lack of a better word, unreliable. They'd win, then they'd lose, and just when you thought they might make the playoffs, they'd blow it. Or they'd get to the Super Bowl, and blow it. Despite John Elway's excellent leadership, it took them until I was in high school to win a Super Bowl, and this kept my dad in a constant state of excitement, anxiety, concern, and stress.

So all my growing up years, I learned to dread those Sunday afternoons, the rollercoaster it would put my Dad on, and how our entire weekend schedule was dictated around a tv show that could go on for hours past its supposed limit.

However, as a young woman, I had a plan to teach myself to like football, so that boys would like me. I would be a fun, football-wise woman who knew what she was talking about and liked BOTH watching football and making yummy snacks. Right? It should have worked! Many men would have loved that particular combination!

Here was the problem; it worked, in that I became a big fan. It didn't work, in that I fell in love with a man who had exactly no interest in football, Broncos or otherwise. At least he wasn't a Raiders fan.

And of course I have ambivalence about the violence inherent in the game, all the players with life-changing multiple concussions, the culture of violence surrounding the players...

So now I try to enjoy watching some of the games, when they fit in to our schedule or happen after bedtime. I try not to let them stress me out, I try to tell Maeve that winning isn't the most important thing. And Maeve has picked up my fandom just because I like it, so she will sometimes cheer for the Broncos with me, and even wear the shirt. Although after this picture yesterday, she requested a "more beautiful" outfit, so she's not exactly what you'd call die hard.

It was still fun to beat the stuffing out of the Raiders yesterday...