Monday, October 10, 2011

Football Funk

I love football, especially college football, as I've written before.
Saturday night, instead of meeting friends and going to antoher friend's stage production, I stayed home to watch football. I felt a little sheepish admitting to my friend Linda that I was obsessed with watching college-age men run the football up and down the field. Of course, I also had papers to grade, so I could fall back on that, but the real reason was that I wanted to watch.
What I am learning is that football is not nearly as much fun if my favorite team is losing. So that's been a double whammy for me this year.
Living in Columbus, I root for Ohio State, and that has served me well the entire 13 years we've been here. They've been a good team. A top 25 team.
Not this year.
Saturday night, I felt my mood rising as a totally new Ohio State team took a commanding lead. Where were these guys the previous 5 weeks, I wondered. I was happy. I texted Spencer to update him on the score since he was working.
Then halfway through the third quarter, with a 27 to 6 lead, the quarterback got hurt and suddenly the entire team fell apart. They ended up losing.
Zoom. My mood plummeted.
The second whammy is that my favorite professional team, the Pittsburgh Steelers have also been off to a slow start. I didn't even bother to watch them on Sunday. I was surprised to find they won!
So, what I learned is that I love football, but mostly, I love winning football.
Guess I'm the fair weather fan after all.

5 comments:

Delana@dujour said...

Ah yes, you're one of THOSE fans. The truth comes out. I am too. I'm usually rooting for the Packers when they're getting close to the end of the season and in a good year. Both my grandparents graduated from Ohio State. I root for 'em too. It was always simply...required.

judi said...

parenting a high school senior and rooting for the buckeyes is simply TOO much. i'd switch to hockey for the year if i were you.
or.... come see me in CT

BF; said...

LOL. One of the things I love about you. Go steelers

Unknown said...

I love football, too, though more the professional boys than the college ones. I remember when my husband first got me hooked on the New York Jets, in the first game of the playoffs the year I became a fan the Jets suffered the same fate as your Ohio State tead Saturday night when the Jets QB got hurt and everything fell apart...so much for the Superbowl that year :o(

There is a huge difference when your team wins...I never woulod have guessed the impact a Jets win could have on my mood but the difference between a win &a loss is palpable. I think all football fans are, to some degree, fair weather fans! Hang in there! Good luck!

Karen and Gerard said...

We are very disappointed OSU fans too. The Steelers rolled, you missed a good game. Even with Rothenberger's hurt ankle, he was still solid. I just wish our Browns would become a contender soon.

Cockadoodle Doo or Cocorico?

 We stood in the middle of the road, having walked together 13 miles that day and Claudine grasped my forearm. "Mais non! It doesn'...