Fear of football

I don’t plan on watching the Super Bowl. I try to keep my distance from football.

As a kid I thought the idea was for guys to run towards each other and jump all together onto a big pile. Later on I learned the rules. Sort of. But I knew a boy who died playing football and I developed a pathological fear of the game. I considered football a dangerous and dumb sport. Just like I considered the guys who played it.

Okay–so my sister married the quarterback of the high school team. I gave Paul an exemption from being considered a dumb jock—but not until he graduated from law school and became a highly regarded attorney. LOL.

And then….I was forced to make one more exception. When I married my second husband. V played high school AND college football —thus forcing me to revise my opionion about football players and the value of the game.

I did NOT revise my opinion about my son PLAYING the game.

Since the day he was born, I whispered my mantra into the ear of my only son and assumed the fact that he was Jewish would do the rest. “No football, no motorcycles.” I drilled this into Daniel so repeatedly that I have video of him promising he would play baskeball– repeating in his cute baby voice “I promise, Mommy. No football. No motorcycles.”

Then the hormones kicked in and the cute baby voice changed. And changed its tune.

I never signed up for this…

For 4 years of high school, my son played in every single football game.