Once again, football season is upon us. Soon, the temperature will fall, leaves will begin to change color, and fans will huddle under blankets and drink hot chocolate while cheering on the home team from the stands. Homecoming will be celebrated at every high school and on every college campus across this nation, and grown men with paunches and jowls will fondly reminisce about their glory days in uniform while little boys dream of throwing footballs and scoring touchdowns, and little girls aspire to being cheerleaders or members of pom pom squads.
Make no mistake, we are a polytheistic society in America and our true religion is football. We worship an entire pantheon of football gods and demigods, from peewee to pro.We celebrate their victories and revile their defeats. The hiring and firing of football coaches is more important than the election of a new president or pope. And only in America can a man quit his job in order to play fantasy football full-time.
Recently, we took Darling Daughter to Blue and Gold night at her school. Boys from fifth to twelfth grade wore football jerseys and were introduced to the crowd as this year's line-up of gridiron heroes. I was struck anew by the swagger those boys possess while proudly wearing their football jerseys, even the youngest of them. They move with the confidence of warriors, sure of victory and its spoils.
Darling Daughter and three of her BFFs were walking in front of me, Darling Husband and two other moms. As the girls made their way past a group of fifth grade football players, I noticed the openly appraising looks a number of them gave my daughter and her friends. The girls were completely oblivious to the boys, not even sparing them the most fleeting of glances - they are still at that magical age when boys' opinions of their looks do not matter and boys' romantic attentions are not sought. I was stunned and torn. Stunned because it was the first time I saw my daughter looked at in a boy-likes-girl kind of way. Torn because I can remember wanting to be the object of those same kinds of appraising glances from the football gods of my day, but I'm not sure I want DD to be the object of those glances even when she's older. I worry that today's boys are more reckless, insensitive and narcissistic than they were thirty years ago. Or perhaps today's football gods are no more reckless, insensitive and narcissistic than the ones of yore, perhaps the difference is that my perspective has changed. I am no longer a young girl yearning to win the attention of a football player; instead, I am the mother of a young girl.
That changes everything.
2 comments:
Nothing changes. I didn't go to football games until high school -- no middle school teams - and have fond memories of those weekends. Enjoyed them in college. But, have been accused of being 'unpatriotic' b/c I haven't followed the Razorbacks since leaving UA. Don't care to watch professional games on TV. Don't follow sports of any kind, actually.
Nice post. I think many of today's children are less sensitive and more narcissistic than a generation ago. Football players are no different, and having played for years I can tell you that the boys run the gamut. These are the moments that remind me why I didn't have children.
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