The Sports View

By Sun Advocate

Well the time has finally come. Football season is officially underway, and not a moment too soon.
For the past seven months football fans have had withdrawls from their favorite sport. Sure there have been various sports gracing the highlight reels throughout these seven months, but for a football fan, they are just not the same.
There is just something about the physical contact of football that gets fans adrenialine flowing. I would like to see baseball players tackle the runners and take them to the ground with a thud. Or even the defense of a basketball team form a line and blitz the unstopable Michael Jordan as he rushes down the court. This sure could make sporting events interesting, not to mention fun.
The best part of the football season beginning is lazy Sundays. For the past seven months I have been saving my laundry and house cleaning for Sunday afternoon. Now that football season has begun, I guess that we’re back to the weekly marital fights regarding who gets the big screen t.v. to watch their team and the main question of what do I have to wear? Well honey, with football on, probably not much.
At least my four year old daughter is sympathetic to the fact that cartoons are off limits on Sunday. After all, she is a Brett Favre fan which leads to a third party in the fight of who’s team is worth watching on the big t.v.
I guess that now that the season is officially underway, I have to make my annual prediction as to who I think will win the SuperBowl this year. And as every year that has gone by, I will step out on a ledge and predict that the Oakland Raiders will take home the championship this season. After making this prediction for the past 18 years, I feel that possibly one day this statement will be fullfilled. I think that it will be this year however.
This brings me to my amazing observation. Football fans are a dedicated group of sports-aholics. After all, each football fan will make the same predicition I make every year regarding their favorite team.
It doesn’t matter how bad a fans team is. The fan will stick by this team through thick and thin and never give up on the chance that the team may actually finish the season as champs. Call it naive, but I call it dedication.
Fan devotion begins at a young age. Take my daughter for example. She was only two months old when she started watching football. At this time she would look up at the televison and smile and coo each time Favre would step out on the field. Even at this young age, she knew that Favre played for the team in green.
Each year since, she has become more interested in the sport of football. This is more than likely because both of her parents are avid football fans. Regardless, she still to this day enjoys watching Brett and the boys. In fact, each Sunday she asks “Mommy when is Brett going to be on?”
And mom says, “after the Raiders dear.” She just laughs and goes about her business.
My husband on the other hand throws a bit of a fight when I answer him that the Niners are on after the Raiders. He knows that this is just a ploy to get the big t.v on game day.
Oh how I have missed the battles on the homefront and the sound of helmets crashing into one another. It sure feels good to watch the NFL.