It's true, I really do. I'm a football gal at heart, but give me anything with teams (or no) and competition and scoring and spirit, and I'm there. It's in my DNA, I think. My dad played football in high school and a little in college, and when he moved to Tennessee, he adopted his new team as if the air had been orange when he drew his first breath. It was orange when I drew my first breath (And I am perfectly happy to be patient this year, dear Vols.).

I grew up with the hum of t.v. stadium noise on weekend afternoons. It doesn't feel like fall to me without it. It tickles me to see that the NFL is finally starting to market to
female fans. I mean, hello? I've been a football fan all my life. And
despite the fact that one of Neel's favorite football stories to tell is
when the wife of a couple who are friends of ours said of my love of
football, "But Lauren, you're a girl..." quite a few of my women friends are fans too. More and more it seems. And I actually know a bit about football. Enough to be dangerous, I guess. What I always tell women, or anyone really, who is new to football, is that the good thing about it is you don't need to know a lot to enjoy the game. Four chances to go 10 yards. Run or pass. As many of those as you need to get down the field. Touchdown plus extra point is seven points, field goal is three. Basketball is similar in that capacity, I guess. Baskets score points. Baseball is trickier. With baseball, unless you have a more in-depth understanding of strategy it can feel really slow, and well let's face it, boring. I love baseball too, and used to follow the Cubs religiously. We had WGN as one of our early cable channels, and Ryne Sandberg heated things up on 2nd base. I really hope they hire him to manage next year. BUT, I digress. Really digress.

Back to football. Like I said, I do know a bit about the sport. I feel proud of that. Proud of all that my dad taught me and proud of what I've learned from watching on my own. We were at a game this weekend (more on that in a bit), and I was sitting with a friend of mine who falls more in the basketball camp than the football camp. She knows the basics of marching down the field, but that's about it. So I'm sort of explaining as we go. At the end of one play, on the opposite sideline there's clearly some pushy-shovey going on, and of course the flags go flying. In my house, we like to try to call the penalty (And here's where I perceive a real weakness in my football knowledge actually. I do have a couple. But I have trouble seeing a lot of penalties. I can see pass interference, obviously, and encroachment and false starts, but I still have trouble with holding, even. It makes me mad that I can't call holding. And clipping. Did you ever see the Big Chill, where they're watching the Michigan game and whoosie's girlfriend (the dead guy) says, "clipping" and then the ref confirms it was clipping, and I can never tell if all the friends are impressed or irritated or both...but I was SO impressed. I want to be able to call clipping.)...ANYHOO. In my house we like to call the penalty before the refs, so automatically, I just say, "Personal Foul, Unnecessary Roughness on the offense. Personal Foul, Unnecessary Roughness on the defense. Penalties offset." And the guy behind me says to his wife who has spent the whole evening wrestling their toddlers, "She knows the drill."

This happens to me all the time, and, let's face it, I get a thrill of pride every time it does. Turns out I was wrong. There was only a 15 yarder on the offense, but I didn't feel too bad because it was on the opposite side of the field and I was only going on the location and the fact that A) it was after the whistle and 2) about 20 flags flew at once.

I love sport.

So, like I said, we went to a game this weekend. I think I've mentioned before that we live a few blocks away from a smallish university. This is mostly a good thing. I like a collegial atmosphere. Last year, we had some parking issues to contend with, but we marched on city hall and won that round. Also last year our own local smallish university started a football team. College football! Just down the street! Mostly there was excitement, with only a small measure of trepidation (Let's face it, we're grown-ups, and we worried about beer bottles in the front yards and rowdy college kids encroaching on our quiet streets.). When they went 9-2 (can you believe it? a brand-new team?!) and there were no beer bottles in the front yard (except perhaps our own, a-hem), well, everybody was happy. Win-win. Nine wins. And here we are again. New season.

This past Saturday, our own smallish university played another local (under 50 miles away) storied college. It's the beginning of a rivalry. Lots of alumni from both floating around. An alum from one school to the left of me, another from the other school across the street. See what I mean? And early Saturday morning we were offered tickets. Callum nearly melted into a puddle of delight when he got the news. Let's face it, we all did. Tailgate at 4, kick off at 7, quick walk to the stadium in between. Really, it can't be beat. But here's the rub. Warning, expletives ahead. As we're walking along (And Neel and Callum sat apart from me and my friend, so they walked ahead. I can't speak to what they heard on the way.), we move through crowds of people, some young (college kids?), some not (not college kids?), and all I can hear is, beligerantly, "Oh yeah? Fuck you you fuckin' fuck." Really? And then things along the lines of, "Fuckin' losers. You just fuckin' wait." Nice.

In some ways this was the perfect game to see because I was not heavily
invested in either side, I could sit back and watch good, live football
and not bite my nails either way. It was fun to get caught up in that
palpable excitement that you feel among people heading into a live
venue. You can feel the pulse of that, no matter who you're pulling for,
you're here to see them play. Until that first "fuck you." Killed it
for me.

Really? This about sport I don't love and don't understand. Trust me, when it comes to cursing, although I am working on it, I am not a prude (thanks Mom!). But people, come on. Is there really the need to flip the fans of the opposing team the bird when your team makes a good play? At our local hockey games, our fans routinely chant, "YOU SUCK!" to the fans of the opposing team when WE SCORE. Seriously? Is this sportsmanship? Or is this how America is ruining sport?

Callum is a San Diego Chargers fan, and living on the East Coast, we have gone into "enemy territory" several times to take him to see his beloved team. For me the best experiences are when his Chargers jersey is welcomed. People get that he's a little kid doing anything to see his team. We went to a Ravens/Chargers game many years ago, and all the folks around him cheered for every good Chargers play. Ravens fans. They did that for my boy. Because they knew what sport meant to a little kid who never even gets to see his West Coast team play on t.v. And then on our way out of the stadium, once Callum had finally pulled it together after a last second Chargers loss, some drunk woman saw his jersey and yelled at him "Chargers SUCK." It was a long drive home. And this might be unfair, but the Ravens are dead to me now.

And yet I love sport. And I love live sport. In many ways, it can't be beat. I love how this community has embraced this team. And all I can do is go and be a good sport and teach my kid to be a good sport. I think we should consider season tickets next year, because seriously how often do you get a chance to get this close? The alternative is sitting at home with Faith Hill and her short skirts and Viagra commercials during the NFL games.

Now what I really want to know is if Mark paid attention through this whole post about football, and are you back from your break?

And what I really want to do is thank Rebecca and Evans SO much for the tickets to the game. We couldn't have asked for a better evening or a better game to go to. It was a delight. Thanks for reminding me how much I do love sport and giving us the chance to see it up close!