For me it was easy: I was born into a family that lived and breathed the Green Bay Packers. My parents went to every home game and we as kids made a ritual to go to church on Sunday morning and cheer on the Packers at noon. My older brothers also were good football players on championship teams, so getting involved was a no-brainer.
Now I'm working in the sport and raising a child who just joined his first pee wee football team, and I REALLY see the true essence of our love of football. He is 8 years old, on a tackle football team (they start 'em young up here
) and learning the good and bad of this team sport. He's been practicing 2 1/2 hours a day for the last two weeks and he's learned how tough the kids a year older are. We had nutcracker drills at this young age (linebacker vs. RB head on in tackling drills) and he came home, bruised, battered and wondering about the game. The coaches tried to toughen these kids up at a young age and it was VERY tough for parents to watch.Then we went to their first scrimmage yesterday against a neighboring town. My boy's team is pretty big for this young age and after banging against each other for 8 days they lined up against an opponent for the first time. I was just shocked how good they looked. I mean, to see these kids learn the game in a short time and have nobody jump offsides or fumble the snaps or the handoffs, or miss many tackles was WAY COOL. They broke several big plays and they made sure every kid played a lot of different positions so that they learned each area of the game.
I literally had goosebumps watch this and I've been at every practice the last two weeks. To see the kids high-fiving each other after big plays and sweating like we all did back in the old days was something cool. To see the coaches pull the linemen aside and praise them for making their blocks when they thought they were "stuck" on the line instead of being QB was cool. I mean, they were playing the game for fun and because they loved it and in a way I've missed seeing that aspect of the game. I've been following the pros too long!!
My boy has a big bruise on his elbow. He's so worn out that he can barely move. He's lost a few pounds of water. And he has practice all this week in 85+ degree weather. The good news? He's loving every minute of it!!
Because he loves the game and now is a part of it. That's pretty cool for any parent to see and I know many of you have seen it with your own kids. I just had to tell you how neat it was for this parent to see it himself.