When my sons were younger, I tried to watch them play but now that they're older, well...
Growin' up, I can remember watching professional football on the couch next to my dad but somethin' must've happened over the years.
Oh, I remember, the professional football league began struggling under constant scrutiny. There were controversies left and right, players using drugs, players beating on their women, coaches encouraging their players to make bad decisions.
Then there was the money aspect, as in, the whole league is only ever all about taking fist fulls of dollars from the general public. They're a business and when the games are all over, the participants go home with big bank account numbers regardless of who wins.
So my heart left the professional scene but the one sport I'm still passionate about, is college football.
And while this sport has it's share of controversy also, it seems more "toned down" perhaps. The players are all college kids, none are paid (at least none can admit to being paid) and the passion that they show, for something they're not getting paid for, remains long after the games.
I lived in a place called Columbus Ohio in my younger years, before the wife and kids. I fell in love with it, I became an Ohio State Buckeye and my blood turned Scarlet.
I think I've watched every game since, I've screamed and cried, I've hung flags and posters on my walls, my wardrobe is full of logos. I enjoy the excitement, I dread the injuries and I teach my kids the tactics.
Not so much the, this guy goes "here" but the why they do things the way they do, the "how" mabes.
My family and I watched as our team struggled through adversity to win the national championship last year. We watched as they've struggled so far this season with a rather large quarterback conundrum.
My explanation to why we would start a quarterback who is clearly not as good as his counterpart is...
The smart coaches experiment with what they have. They play the card game "War" with cards that aren't their best to determine if those cards can be made better somehow, praps with some experience and repetitions.
And it's only when they "need" to, that the biggest, best cards are played. And in this way, I can illustrate to my kids, a facet of life that doesn't get noticed much.
The "improving" of skills that are mediocre, the working on our weaknesses instead of playing to our strengths.
Some have said that I am primitive, to encourage my kids to be fans of such a violent game but I believe there are lessons in life that are found in the strangest of places if we look a little.
Yesterday was a great example.
Our team has a rivalry that is quite famous in our parts of the world. The Ohio State Buckeyes hate the Michigan Wolverines so much that they refuse to acknowledge their name. We refer to them as "that team up north" because to call them by their name is to offer a spec of respect and that's something that just isn't done, hasn't been done since long before I knew how to type.
But I'll use their name, I'll offer some respect because I see that these are barely grown men, playing and sacrificing their bodies for a belief that is slightly larger than a paycheck.
Yesterday, Michigan faced a slightly less important rival, Michigan State and if you're confused already, I'll call them Team Blue versus Team Green.
Now it's important to understand that even though Team Blue used to be one of the best in the whole country, for a very, very long time, well they've had a bad decade or two you know.
This past year Team Blue brought in a very high profile, high dollar head coach to help "turn things around" and they've been a "whole new team" raising hopes and dreams of their fan bases for a couple of months now.
In front of a packed stadium, the home crowd's excitement grew enormous as Team Blue had a two point lead with ten precious seconds left.
Ten whole seconds separated them from another season of hopelessness to a day of much needed vengeance fulfilled.
The football rested on the grass, the eyes of "many" eagerly awaiting the celebration, holding their breaths.
Finally the ball was snapped, it flew through the air and arrived "low". Team Blue's punter bent low to retrieve, he bobbled it, the ball in slow motion, hanging in the air, waiting for resolution, waiting for it's destiny.
In one of the craziest plays ever, the punter scooped the ball, turned away from the onrushing wall of Green, and "attempted" to kick the ball out of bounds.
Only, the ball never quite made it. Somehow, it plopped right into the hands of a rushing Green and with the clock counting down in slow motion, the Green ran like they were on fire, across the line, touchdown Green.
Game won, Green. Agony, defeat, vengeance not fulfilled for Blue. Sad faces, unbelieving faces, twitterverse gone insane.
New high priced head coach close to tears at the following presser, no excuses, no explanations just a rare fluke, a mistake that happened in less than a second.
A decision that ruined the days of many fans everywhere.
And while this is a team that my team despises, my team "hates", well I can't help but feel a little sympathy for them, much like the Green fans huh.
To lose in such a way, it was reported that the game's trophy was actually delivered to the Blue's locker room only to be "removed" after the outcome was more "final" later.
I can't imagine how those kids feel. I can't imagine a coach that has to stand before them and try to make things "okay" again.
But what I really can't imagine is the criticism that was poured on this poor punter. It's been reported that he has received "lots" of death threats.
A twenty two year old kid who traveled all the way from Melbourne Australia to play football at Michigan, a punter who earlier in the game set a record for a monstrous kick (eighty yards)...
Is being heavily criticized by his own fan base. His own people, the ones who just moments earlier, were about to cheer the loudest they have in decades.
Nobody seems to be hating on the long snapper, the guy whose job it is, to get the ball to the punter so he can do his thing. Had his delivery been more perfect, mabes the outcome would've been different.
But alas, as humans, we must really like to hate.
We must look for opportunities to vent our hate onto others at every available instance.
When most of us couldn't kick the same ball twenty yards...
Or do three push ups.
Or even play in a violent contact sport.
In fact, if some of these people's lives were televised, on display for all to see, how many death threats would they receive..?
Would they crumble at the first "why don't you kill yourself" written?
What if the Blue's punter could criticize your life for a moment? Would he look down on you for not being able to quit smoking?
Not being able to quit drinking or find a job or spend thirty actual minutes with your kids without cell phones and "devices" in hands?
Would he tell you that you should be beaten to death in a cold alley for cheating on your significant other?
In fact, how many of us have made an error when we had time, when we really thought about it and weighed the decision.
This kid had nowhere near a full second to make his decision. When he did make it, his intentions were to do his best, to support his team and to sacrifice his body, his health for what?
Not money. Not lust. Not laziness or addiction or anger or envy...
I see these "rare" occasions that truly test people.
A few fans (even other team's fans) have stepped up, proven themselves and said hey, it's okay, we support you, we understand and don't let 'em get you down.
Bazillions of others have vomited their negativity, recording their failures for all to see and I have to wonder what it is exactly, they're trying to "prove".
I have to wonder, how they can call themselves a "fan" in the first place.
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