Football Time of the Year

One quiet evening two years ago my husband came home from a busy day filled with tailgating and football watching with a heavy heart.  It seemed that the Chargers had suffered a heartbreaking loss to New England in the playoffs.  I felt bad for my husband; I really thought the Chargers had a shot.  It was a quiet week in our house, very little ESPN, or newspaper reading.  Little by little he became his old self, and we settled into a nice winter, spring, and summer of watching television and movies together.  We had a great run with the Soprano’s and caught up on all of our movies we hadn’t yet seen.  But I knew it was only a matter of time, just as surely as summer ends and kids go back to school, football season starts.

So now October is here, and to many it means back to school, but to me it means football.  It means Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, Saturday all day college Football, and of course Sunday Football.  September also means football on ESPN 24/7.  There are pre-game shows and post-game shows, there is even a show where five guys in suits and ties stand around re-enacting plays, or imagining plays that ought to be made...I guess.  The best is the show which high-lights a football coach or player who maybe lost a leg or had a family member who suffered a debilitating disease, and yet they still keep coaching, or playing and showing their courage.  That one always gets me.  Football seasons means the start of random phone calls filled with whooping or hollering from a certain friend of ours who shall remain nameless.  Football season means the smell of cigar smoke, and team flags hanging and yards, and for many, many, many women….widowhood.

I have lived with this phenomenon for over a decade, and now I understand that the holiday season does not end until the last of the bowl games are over, so by now I am used to it.  In fact, it would be a strange not to have a football game and occasional yelling as the soundtrack to my Sundays.  I have grown used to Saturday afternoons and evenings with the kids because my husband has a pre-game tradition before San Diego State games.  I look at Football season as a great opportunity to spend some extra time doing the things I like; going to Barnes and Nobel, walking the mall, and eating things my husband is not fond of like sushi or salad.  It is also a good time to connect with other football widows who have sent their husbands out to the garage to watch the game…chances are your husbands are together anyway.  Eventually, because marriage is all about adapting and simply getting used to each other, I find that I catch the fever a bit as the season progresses.  Last season infact, my visiting family caught me briefly yelling at the t.v., it was a play-off game after all!!!