Football Basics

Ahhhhh, Fall! What a pure delight to wake up this morning and turn on ESPN College Game Day. That's right, most Saturdays we bear the annoyance of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse several times in a row for the sake of content kids, but today the season opener of Game Day took precedence. We watched all of College Game Day amid cleaning the bathroom and folding laundry. Then there was kick off...

The first televised game of the day was Michigan vs. Vanderbilt. I loved just having the game on even as background noise (being that I don't have a particular interest in either team...except maybe Michigan for the sake of the Big Ten). I found it entertaining that Andrew-3 showed some level of interest this year.

I was trying to remember how I ever learned about football... or any sport for that matter. I don't have any memories of my mom or dad or even my brother sitting down with me and teaching me about the whole point of each sport. Perhaps I learned the same way that Andrew is starting to learn. This morning as he and Anna sat together in our green upholstered rocker and I sat on the couch, all of us watching the game or at least pointed toward it (the watching of it is debatable for a 1 1/2 year old and a 3 year old), Andrew asked me, "Mom, why do those boys have helmets on?" I said, "Cause they like to tackle each other." Then he said, "Why do they tackle each other?" "Wow" I thought, "he really wants to know." So, then I figured I should come up with an answer that was more than just words to get him to stop asking.

"The blue team wants to run with the ball to make a touch down and the white team is trying to stop them, so they tackle them." I said. Andrew said, "Why the blue team runs with the ball?" My response was just a repeat of what I said before. "So then the white team tackles them?" He said. Ahhh, he got it. Most of my conversations with Andrew these days include about 20 "why's" and my attempt to truthfully answer each question so that it's understandable to him and he STOPS ASKING WHY!!!

Hopefully, if this is how Andrew learns about sports and all other things for that matter, then we will teach him well and he will learn quickly. Whether he is ever an athlete himself, we want him to have an appreciation of the sports we love and look forward to with each new season.
Of course we'll raise kids who love the big ten! GO BOILERS!!!