The Things We Do for Love

I’ve always been a pretty big sports fan. I was born a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, and can still name the lineup of the 80′s glory days team; I’m a pretty big fan of tennis, and miss the brilliance of McEnroe, Sampras, Agassi, Martina, Steffi, and Monica, although I don’t mind watching Federer and Nadal, women’s tennis doesn’t rock my world these days; and although I don’t watch as many races as I used to, I previously enjoyed watching Champ Car races (CART before it merged into the IRL league) (no NASCAR for me – I like the cool cars). In fact, on our honeymoon cruise, we had a pit crew member for a CART driver at our dining table – poor Robert – I wasn’t good conversation for him when I was talking to the mechanic! I also get caught up in March Madness to a point (college basketball for my non-sports fan readers), enjoy the gymnastics and swimming events at the Olympics, and love to watch Tiger play golf in the majors.
You might notice that one major sport is missing from the above list. Football. I’ve never been a huge fan of football. In spite of the fact that my dad was a pretty hot player in high school, and, in his words, turned down a college scholarship to play to instead go to the “University of Korea” (where he served in the U.S. Navy), and in spite of the fact that Robert is a huge football fan, especially of the Dallas Cowboys. For most of my life, I was in the other camp. I found football to be boring; I didn’t really understand the ins and outs of the game; and I was the anti-Cowboy fan. I rooted for whoever the ‘Boys were playing. (I did appreciate the Joe Montana days with the 49er’s – especially the Hanes commercials that followed – but that was about it.)
Then Robert and I had a heart-to-heart about how my hatred of his beloved team was hurtful to him. I had to question my reasons for despising Dallas, and take a good, hard, honest look inside myself. I determined that my love for my husband was much, much greater than holding onto old prejudices about – of all things – a football team, and made a conscious effort to stop hating the ‘Boys. About 3 years ago, I started watching a couple of games a season with Robert, and he was very patient in explaining the game to me, along with strategies and player familiarity, which helped. I had to really try hard to maybe not root “for” the Cowboys, but at least I was not rooting against them. The next season I watched more games with Robert, and upon occasion cheered for a couple of plays they made – it doesn’t hurt that Tony Romo is kind of cute. Last year, watching at least one football game a week with Robert became the norm, and I continued to learn about the game and tried to get involved in discussions with him about his fantasy league.
This year? I’m in the league! We’re headed off to my first fantasy draft for my team – the Knit Wits. Robert’s team is, of course, Da Boys. I really don’t have high expectations for the success of my team since I’m still learning, but I can already see the payoff of investing in my marriage and sharing something with my husband that I otherwise would have disregarded.
And honey? If you’re reading this – How ’bout dem Cowboys?