When it comes to sports, I am a pretty big fan. That is as measured by the traditional idea that women could take or leave a fall Sunday afternoon spent in front of the flat screen. In fact, in my house, we are pretty catty-wompus when it comes to traditional roles; my husband would much rather be watching HGTV or an old movie than any baseball/football/basketball contest. I swear during the days when we’d go to my kids’ soccer or basketball games, you could catch the dude snoozing or reading People magazine. And since I have all daughters, they are generally not sitting next to me on the couch while I’m screaming my lungs out and jumping up and down. But I’m hopeful—I wasn’t always this way either. There is still time to mold them into epithet-screaming, fist-pumping, nacho-eating enthusiasts.
My favorite sports are football—professional—and hoops—college. Naturally, since I went to Duke, I am completely indoctrinated in the ways of March Madness and luckily, Duke usually is a contender. But unless I’m with my Duke friends, it’s a little lonely rooting for the Blue Devils. Does anyone who isn’t an alum really want to see them win? They’re the Yankees of college basketball—I’d say 98% of the country probably delights when Duke is knocked out of the NCAA tournament. Last year I think we were eliminated in the first round—horrifying!! But in some ways, that’s better. It’s much more painful to make it all the way and then lose that National Championship game. My husband can attest to the mood-altering impact of those occasions—didn’t Coach K hear me screaming to stay with man-to-man instead of zone??? And, I’m afraid, I have broadened my children’s vocabulary in very unintentional ways during these moments of extreme stress.
Which brings me to the main topic of discussion for today: the Super Bowl. As I mentioned above, the NFL is my other main sports obsession and I have been an ardent fan of several teams throughout the years. When I graduated from college, I lived in Dallas—my years of following “America’s Team” were richly rewarded with at least one or two Super Bowls. Then I moved to St. Louis and was living there when we got the Rams franchise. I’m ashamed to admit I basically tossed the Cowboys aside like a used Kleenex when the Rams started to click on all cylinders. And who couldn’t love the rags-to-riches story of Kurt Warner and the domination of the “Greatest Show on Turf”? Again, Super Bowl glory!! (I’m beginning to think I’m a good luck charm, so great are my fan delusions…) Then five years ago we moved back to my home state, New Jersey, where fans don’t know who to commit to—Jets? Giants? Yankees? Mets? As dense a sports lineup as you’ll find anywhere else. But I live in THE OTHER Jersey, South Jersey, not to be confused with North Jersey. So that makes me a Philadelphia Eagles fan, part of a group that encourages the kind of behavior normally only seen in maximum security prison riots. And though the Eagles were just a whisker away from this year’s Super Bowl, I’m compensating by telling myself that at least I won’t have to suffer deep doldrums of despair had they actually played and lost the Big One.
The problem now, though, is who to pull for when I don’t really have a horse in the race? I like to be invested in one team or another—it just makes the space between the commercials all the more compelling. So this year, I’ve developed a more cerebral, scientific approach to team selection that I think will be my standard going forward. I will be lending my support to the team…(drumroll, please)…with the foxiest quarterback. And as I’m sure you will agree, there is a clear choice here—sorry Ben Roethlisberger. I mean, come on! Kurt Warner has got this choice nailed! Unless the Steelers are making a surprise substitution with Tom Brady, they are hosed in this face-off. Of course, as mentioned earlier, I do have a (imagined!) connection with Kurt thanks to my years of worshiping him in St. Louis, so I will admit there was some bias from the start. And please, Pittsburgh, enough with the over-the-top fan devotion and the annoying Terrible Towels. We know the interiors of your homes are painted black and gold and every other baby boy in Pittsburgh is named Hines. Maybe you should be paying a little more attention to how GQ cover-worthy your players are and you might just garner a little more national—and/or feminine--support!
It really would have been so fun to have an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl. I saw Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on the Today Show this morning. He was lamenting that same thing, but also assuring Tampa that the city was much better off with the Steelers/Cardinals matchup. An Eagles/Steelers contest would have visited on Tampa the equivalent of one of those high school parties that starts out with just a few friends over and turns into a Police Blotter lollapalooza. So this Steelers/Cardinals pairing diffuses that dynamic, which is a good thing for the promoters. That and the fact that 49 other states would be watching HGTV or old movies with my husband.
In a few minutes, I’ll be firing up the crockpot, melting some Velveeta, throwing in the sausage and Rotel and popping open that fresh bag of tortilla chips. Will I have a brewski? You bet your Terrible Towel I will!!! And I’ll be glued to the TV, now that I am a newly-minted Cardinals fan (for a day). But tomorrow, when the dust settles, the chips are eaten and we can all go back to the lives that do exist beyond Super Bowl-world, I hope I’ll have invested my energies in the winners. May the best—and foxiest-- team win.
My favorite sports are football—professional—and hoops—college. Naturally, since I went to Duke, I am completely indoctrinated in the ways of March Madness and luckily, Duke usually is a contender. But unless I’m with my Duke friends, it’s a little lonely rooting for the Blue Devils. Does anyone who isn’t an alum really want to see them win? They’re the Yankees of college basketball—I’d say 98% of the country probably delights when Duke is knocked out of the NCAA tournament. Last year I think we were eliminated in the first round—horrifying!! But in some ways, that’s better. It’s much more painful to make it all the way and then lose that National Championship game. My husband can attest to the mood-altering impact of those occasions—didn’t Coach K hear me screaming to stay with man-to-man instead of zone??? And, I’m afraid, I have broadened my children’s vocabulary in very unintentional ways during these moments of extreme stress.
Which brings me to the main topic of discussion for today: the Super Bowl. As I mentioned above, the NFL is my other main sports obsession and I have been an ardent fan of several teams throughout the years. When I graduated from college, I lived in Dallas—my years of following “America’s Team” were richly rewarded with at least one or two Super Bowls. Then I moved to St. Louis and was living there when we got the Rams franchise. I’m ashamed to admit I basically tossed the Cowboys aside like a used Kleenex when the Rams started to click on all cylinders. And who couldn’t love the rags-to-riches story of Kurt Warner and the domination of the “Greatest Show on Turf”? Again, Super Bowl glory!! (I’m beginning to think I’m a good luck charm, so great are my fan delusions…) Then five years ago we moved back to my home state, New Jersey, where fans don’t know who to commit to—Jets? Giants? Yankees? Mets? As dense a sports lineup as you’ll find anywhere else. But I live in THE OTHER Jersey, South Jersey, not to be confused with North Jersey. So that makes me a Philadelphia Eagles fan, part of a group that encourages the kind of behavior normally only seen in maximum security prison riots. And though the Eagles were just a whisker away from this year’s Super Bowl, I’m compensating by telling myself that at least I won’t have to suffer deep doldrums of despair had they actually played and lost the Big One.
The problem now, though, is who to pull for when I don’t really have a horse in the race? I like to be invested in one team or another—it just makes the space between the commercials all the more compelling. So this year, I’ve developed a more cerebral, scientific approach to team selection that I think will be my standard going forward. I will be lending my support to the team…(drumroll, please)…with the foxiest quarterback. And as I’m sure you will agree, there is a clear choice here—sorry Ben Roethlisberger. I mean, come on! Kurt Warner has got this choice nailed! Unless the Steelers are making a surprise substitution with Tom Brady, they are hosed in this face-off. Of course, as mentioned earlier, I do have a (imagined!) connection with Kurt thanks to my years of worshiping him in St. Louis, so I will admit there was some bias from the start. And please, Pittsburgh, enough with the over-the-top fan devotion and the annoying Terrible Towels. We know the interiors of your homes are painted black and gold and every other baby boy in Pittsburgh is named Hines. Maybe you should be paying a little more attention to how GQ cover-worthy your players are and you might just garner a little more national—and/or feminine--support!
It really would have been so fun to have an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl. I saw Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on the Today Show this morning. He was lamenting that same thing, but also assuring Tampa that the city was much better off with the Steelers/Cardinals matchup. An Eagles/Steelers contest would have visited on Tampa the equivalent of one of those high school parties that starts out with just a few friends over and turns into a Police Blotter lollapalooza. So this Steelers/Cardinals pairing diffuses that dynamic, which is a good thing for the promoters. That and the fact that 49 other states would be watching HGTV or old movies with my husband.
In a few minutes, I’ll be firing up the crockpot, melting some Velveeta, throwing in the sausage and Rotel and popping open that fresh bag of tortilla chips. Will I have a brewski? You bet your Terrible Towel I will!!! And I’ll be glued to the TV, now that I am a newly-minted Cardinals fan (for a day). But tomorrow, when the dust settles, the chips are eaten and we can all go back to the lives that do exist beyond Super Bowl-world, I hope I’ll have invested my energies in the winners. May the best—and foxiest-- team win.
No comments:
Post a Comment