Football

In general, I dislike the phrase 'slippery slope', because it is an obnoxious catch phrase that politicians use to defend inequality and promote their own agendas.  And if politicians are allowed to use expressions like 'slippery slope', and 'Wall Street Vs. Main Street', and 'vaccines give you disabilities', then where do we draw the line between personal opinion and politics?  It's such a...slippery slope...oh no.  Perhaps I will use the visual image of a domino effect instead.  I need some kind of metaphor to describe how my love of football has developed and grown over the past few years, with little personal control or choice.

Throughout the first 18 years of my life, I don't remember ever seeing a professional football game.  I saw high school games, but Friday nights were mostly about band.  College games would be on at home sometimes on Saturdays, but not something I really paid attention to.  Sundays were for church work or woman's work.  But this all changed when I came to college.  Can anyone describe the rush of a first home college game?  I was in love.  As time passed, I progressed from following just Mizzou to the Big XII and beyond.  I realized that because I'd missed some critical years hating kansas, I had to hate them extra hard now.  And my first bowl season...oh my.  I never realized how much fun the holidays could be with some friendly smack talk. 

When Matt and I first started dating, I still hadn't moved on to professional football.  He just thought I was so darn cute he didn't even mind that I knew very little about one of his great loves.  When he took me home to a Chiefs game and I met his family and loved ones for the first time, I figured out that if I was going to be serious about Matt, I would have to be serious about football.  But my beginnings as a good-intentioned girlfriend morphed as I started to love the sport for the love of the game, not just for the love of Matt.  I do draw the line at Madden, though.  Never will I love Madden.

Now, many of my fall weekends are devoted to football.  I don't watch all the games.  I nap, I read, I grade, I nap, but I'm also spending time with family and following the scoring.  While I initially got involved in fantasy football because I liked the challenge of coming up with a clever team name, now I am an active researcher/drafter/participant.  (Thanks Wes Welker, and I hate you Jamaal Charles.)  I can even follow along on the Red Zone channel.  I have opinions, and after a few years, I vocalized them.  Sometimes I even watch a game when Matt isn't home.  I get excited for drafts. 

It's been quite a transformation.  The downside is I get to experience the heartache of being a Chiefs fan, and knowing that they have to lose today if I am going to carry on another week in my survival league.  Is it worth it?  Yep.  Maybe.  I will have slipped too far if I get a team tattoo, but I think the slope has bottomed out at a good place.