Football, Fervor and a Truce?

Every September my husband turns into a man I don't quite understand nor recognize. And this man hangs out at my house every Sunday until February. It coincides with the entire NFL season. Each Sunday this man take over our family room, and television for the day. He even made sure we ordered a satellite television package that enables his viewing pleasure of every NFL game possible each week. This man drools, eats, breaths, and sleeps football for five months. 

I used to dread the time period much in the way one might anticipate a root canal. Oh sure, I'd profess to guys I dated (including my husband) how much I loved football   How I was just another "one of the guys" on Football Sunday.  But secretly, or not so secretly, I couldn't stand it. After all, it took away from the "us time". Which in the end, probably contributed the ending of all "us time" in an number of relationships.  However a curious thing happened with my husband. There was a shift in the football milieu for me. I starting asking questions. I'd go his own football games. I began to understand how the game was played. Gasp!  I had an actual appreciation for the game. Double gasp! The big turning point came during our first football season together when I joined a Fantasy Football league to have a reason to watch football on Sundays versus sit and complain about it. Suddenly I found myself with a team to keep track of, players to follow. I started to root for actual live NFL team of my own. (Go Pats! Thankyouverymuch.) I even won Fantasy that year.

Year two found me attending games with as much fervor as a 20 year veteran. My husband chuckled when I sniffed my nose up at Redskins club level as smelling of fried dough and deemed it unworthy of our presence, but oh did I find those Diamond seats his company gave us one weekend delightful. 2 rows up in the end zone and all the free food we could handle with an usher at the ready to get it for us. That's gaming, baby. I took second place in Fantasy that year.  I really started to enjoy the social aspect of football as well.  Year three found me pregnant with our twins and feeling punky most of the time and not caring what happened on Sundays as long as I had ice water and my feet propped up, for we were  on bedrest by Superbowl. 

And here we are in our 4th season together. Throwing football parties on Sundays. Running a test kitchen of  game day delights. Screaming at the TV together that particular players are dead to us when our Fantasy team does poorly. Arguing over which  game to watch. Corrupting the language of our two year old during a tense moment of a close game. I even went so far as to request that the usual jewelry Christmas present be foregone and instead picked out a stylish array of sports-related items to suit up on game day on from Lucy's League.  Perhaps instead of asking where my husband went; the proper question to ask is where did my wife go?  But now I no longer want to strangle my husband on Sundays. I no longer cringe for those five months come fall and winter. Though I do occasionally put my foot down come 8 pm for a channel change. After all, I haven't become wholly unrecognizable. 

While I may recognize my husband now, I still can't say I fully understand his fervor quite yet. I have to save something for year five.