Football on Thanksgiving

I loved playing football as a kid in elementary school. On Saturdays, my friends and I would head off to Avery Park for a game that would last all afternoon. No uniforms or pads, just tennis shoes, and jeans,

Choose your team and play. You scored a touchdown if you got the ball past the big tree. Going the other direction, a touchdown was scored if you reached the asphalt on the basketball court. We played two-hand touch, (The ball carrier is considered down when touched with two hands below the waist) but sometimes it escalated to full tackle. Oh sure, we all played organized JAA or Pop Warner, but honestly, at least for me, that was never as fun.

My love for football was never extended to watching football. I guess I should be honest and admit that I fantasized about playing for the Green Bay Packers as a pre-teen. It was apparent after high-school football, that fantasy was going nowhere. I will always have an interest in the Packers, but I do not claim them as my team, or any other team for that matter. No team is "us" to me, I don't play for any team. I don't own any team. They are not "us" to me.

Now we need to talk about Elaine, or at least her mother, Elaine's parents watched football, mostly her mom but her dad watched also. There might not have been a more knowledgeable, rabid football fan than Elaine's mom, Fern. At the start of every football season, Fern would arm herself with a book and magazines providing the rosters of every team in the league. She had every stat on every player. To Fern, football was "us". She loved her Denver Broncos and Colorado State Rams. It pleases me that she lived in a time to see both of her teams enjoy success.

Neither Fern nor Dave passed their love for watching football to Elaine. I will always be grateful for that. In our forty-some years of marriage, I would guess we have watched less than fifty games on television We have been to Bronco Stadium once. I scored a couple of free tickets. It was raining that day, and we were headed home fifteen minutes after the game started. There was another time I had free tickets to a Bronco-Pittsburgh Steeler game. I gave those tickets to Elaine's dad and brother-in-law.

I don't know how it happened, but somehow last year when I was having health problems, Fern channeled Elaine into watching football. Elaine has become Fern without the book or magazines. Elaine has a tablet (not a Big Chief tablet, which might be racist today). She has a little black battery-operated tablet. She can look up every player, and she does.

Time to tie this to Thanksgiving.

Elaine does not have favorite teams, she has favorite players. Her favorite player(s) were playing on Thanksgiving. Her all-time favorite player played in the first game on Thanksgiving day. I don't use names but this kid played for the University of Wyoming. Elaine feels his play would benefit from either growing a more substantial mustache or shaving it all together. She does not like when this player runs the ball through the center of the line, and she will tell the television how this upsets her.

Fortunately, the Green Bay Packers were not playing on Thanksgiving. Elaine feels the Green Bay quarterback's hairstyle needs to be longer and unkempt. A quick change would result in better play.

The second Thanksgiving Day game had a player from Colorado State University. Elaine is an alumn of that university. She has never been to a Colorado State game but she has added this player to her list of favorites.

We didn't watch the third game. We were enjoying our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

Ivy and the twins prepared the meal, which usually falls to me. Just threaten to change the sweet potato recipe and you might not ever need to cook again.

Let me ask you this. Is that dinner worth it? All that work. Hours of cooking, the meal and then cleaning up. Elaine (and I) have run five loads of dishes and we are still not finished. Let me put that in perspective. It takes our dishwasher two hours and fifty-three minutes per load. That's almost fifteen hours of dishes.

I like the family thing, but I'm pretty sure I do not like the dishes. Elaine and I could use those fifteen hours watching football.

I hope your Thanksgiving was as nice as ours. God Bless you guys. Stay healthy (or you might be watching more football).

Thanks for the yarn and stuff orders.

Our crazy lives!

Monner