That's Me - at My First Football Game

I have never been a big fan of football. In fact, until yesterday, I had attended a whole 15 minutes of a game in high school and watched maybe a combined 30 minutes on television in my life. It's a game that I have never understood and can't remember the rules. I will start to watch a game, ask someone to explain what is going on and then promptly forget what I was told (part of it is getting confused by the idea that there are consecutive first downs - why are they all first?). I also have a very, very hard time with cheerleaders. I don't really understand them, their purpose nor the mindset of someone who wants to be one (at least a professional football cheerleader who seems to be a tamed down - or maybe not so tame - version of a burlesque performer. I have come to realized some cheerleaders are quite athletic but there such an objectification/anti-feminist version of women . . . ). At my high school, we did not have cheerleaders but a group of students, mostly boys, who were the "Knightmares" (our mascot was a Knight), and once got in trouble for throwing dog biscuits at an opposing teams' cheerleaders (my kind of cheerleading squad!).

So, of course, when my friend, Shari, asked me on Friday to join her at a Broncos game on Sunday, I agreed to go. If nothing else, I wanted to witness what all the hub bub is about - get a taste of why people like football (and to get out of the house with Shari). And it was fun! It was really fun - watching all the 74,000 fans in their gear, funny hats, pom pom outifts and couples in matching outfits, slapping high fives when the Broncos scored, stomping my feet and yelling so the other team's offense can't hear plays (that was extreme fun - to be part of the game), chatting with the fans, screaming when the Broncos got close to a touchdown, watching people reconnect who have been sitting in the same seats for years and seeing each other at each home game, walking the halls in a large crowd of orange and blue, and starting to understand what the game was all about. I finally got a glimpse of the athleticism in the sport, which I'd taken to thinking was just a game of large, grunting men (though there are those, and I was kind of happy to see a place for them in an American sport).

I have to admit, though I've watched and understood so little, that I love the absolute Americanism of football. I remember soon after 9/11 watching some football awards and crying because it was so good to see America celebrated through the awards. I teared up at the beginning of the Broncos game, which was dedicated to the U.S. armed forces and had servicemen from the Army, Navy, Airforce, and Marines march during the opening ceremonies and a live feed from an Army unit in Iraq (followed by the cheerleaders performance and 600 junior cheerleaders - you know, we all have our dreams). Being at the game was like eating a huge piece of apple pie.

It will take something big to make me a die hard fan of any one team. I really do feel bad when the other team gets boo'd. So sad! Asher asked me what took me so long in getting back, but he has enjoyed making the orange pom poms I brought back for him and Harper into a weapon.