In high school, the football games were my favorite part of our small-town school community. Everyone seemed to gather there, around the track, pep band playing, cheerleaders yelling and all cheering on our classmates. For our Senior year, my best friend and I drove to every away game, and in the rural areas of Minnesota, those are long drives. It was always fun to see everyone make the drive and come together.
The thing about coming together, though…I grew up in a house divided, and I’m raising my children in one. It’s not ideal, of course, but we make it work. I’m talking about football.
I’m a Packer fan. My husband is a Vikings fan. Y’all. I can’t even. Our poor children.
I grew up in a house divided as well. My mom grew up in the heart of Chicago and is a die-hard Bears fan, and my dad grew up in an area of northern Illinois where you simply don’t cheer for the Bears – he’s all green and gold.
While it might sound ideal for everyone to cheer for the same team, cheering against each other each football season has, in my opinion, actually brought us together. There are text threads going where simple gifs might be dropped. When a certain team loses, sometimes, no one says anything at all knowing it’s not worth cheering for a loss. Football season comes with its crisp air through the windows, soup on the stove and lazy Sundays on the couch and for me, those smells and sounds are how fall Sundays ought to be. The battles for whose team will win (almost) always end up as simply playful banter and for a competitive family, it’s far more fun to cheer for opposing teams than it is to be all on the same side.
Football was always a constant in our home. With a mom who loves sports, it was never a question of if we would watch it, it was merely finding out what time the games were on each week, and it’s similar in our home. We sometimes work our weekend around it, but we also use the DVR if needed. Regardless, every weekend in the fall, there is football. And every fall, I so regret how my girls, who are 10 and nearly 8, still don’t entirely understand how you get points in this game.
And even though it low-level infuriates me that my husband cheers for the Vikings, I mostly respect it. I think it’s really sweet how he truly, deep-in-his-heart believes that this is their year at the beginning of every season, even if the Packers did win this Sunday. *cough-4 Super Bowls-cough* I really do respect his love for his team, and belief in them, as misplaced as it might be.
Now that two of my kids are in elementary school, I love seeing how the football games can bring a sense of togetherness too. We can hear the high school games from our house if we open the windows and hope to get them to a game this year to start sharing in that community too, and even if my girls are only interested in the community part of it, I’m in for that. We have a little guy who may or may not play football, but even if he doesn’t, we’ll always be a football family, even if only to cheer on the players from the stands and at home.
Use out our printable Football “Bingo” card to keep your kids focused on the game. It’s one card, all the same, but I use cards like this to keep my kids paying attention and in the room with me!
Football “Bingo” Printable
To learn more about Football Matters, check out the links below:
