30 Days of Thanks: Day 14

Today I am thankful for football. You knew it was coming.

When I was young, like under the age of five young, I had some generic football jersey. It was cotton. I think it was blue. I was sitting on my mom's bed and she was getting dressed/getting ready/doing some sort of primping, and I asked Mom, "Can girls be football players?" My mom replied, "You can be whatever you want to be." Granted I'm pretty sure I wanted to be a football player because I loved this shirt so much, although Mom also tells me I wanted to cut my long hair short because it got in my way when I played various sporty-things. I don't ever remember playing sporty things. I remember wanting to cut my hair because of Dorothy Hammill--because I was also obsessed with figure skating.

Anyway, this football conversation--and the fact that my mom told me I be whatever I wanted to be-stuck with me my entire life. Does my mom remember it? Nope.

I grew up in small-town midwest. High school football was king. My high school football team often won state. The football team in the little town where my dad lived was never that great, but they played outside, in the cold, and when I was young, I watched the games from the ambulance--my dad was a fireman/EMT. We'd sit in the ambulance to stay warm. My high school football team played in a dome (the dome of the local university football team). It was the same dome where all state football tournaments were played. We were one of those big schools with teams that almost always won.

Iowa doesn't have a pro-football team, but we had the Hawkeyes. I watched, I cheered. Somewhere along the line I stopped watching. I went to a university with a shitty football team. Then I moved to Wisconsin. I remember my first Packer football season in Wisconsin. These Packer fans wore foam pieces of cheese on their head and they were proud of it. I kinda liked it: Packers and Proud. Then I began to watch the games. And then I learned more about the team and their ownership. Within a year I began to watch all the games... And I fell back in love with the game--and with this team.

Football is often criticized of being a game of violence. What those critics don't understand is that football is a game of strength and strategy. It is a game that relies on teamwork. It is an incredibly complicated and intricate game. And it is so very awesome.

And I am incredibly thankful for it and for My Green Bay Packers.