I’m what some guys would call a ‘lucky guy.’ I not only am married to my very best friend, but Deb knows as much about football as most of my other friends, in fact, she knows more if you ask me an unbiased opinion.
The past Saturday the SEC started its 2020 season and I can attest at the McLelland homestead we consumed almost every snap of every game that we could watch. It was something we have grown very fond of over the years and after the last six months, we have been starving to really get football up and going.
I hear stories from friends who say their wife doesn’t care for football and they find it hard to take in a whole game at times. Nope, that’s not me, Deb and I yelled, screamed and to be honest, cussed pretty much all day Saturday as we watched teams we love and hate finally get started. Hate is usually a word I don’t use very often, but I think good old fashioned hate for the teams you, well, hate, is a good thing.
We have made it a point over the years to always talk with neighbors when we moved into a new home to let them know when football season starts our house looks like the circus has come to town.
Yes, we fly team flags, have wall decorations, parking signs for fans of our favorite teams, blow up mascots, lights, the whole show. Unlike a lot of folks, who lean towards either college or the NFL, we have our favorite college team, Alabama, but we are also die-hard New Orleans Saints fans so the whole house undergoes another transformation on Sundays for the NFL.
Neighbors have asked us more than once, why all the work for football after watching us takedown the college decorations and replacing them with Saints paraphernalia. Our answer is always no. The decorations just give us a feeling of spirit and in a time when most everything has been different, putting all the flags up this past weekend sure made it almost normal. Cars honked horns driving past the house and with the boiled peanuts and our game day snacks it sure brought us to a sense of normality.
Of course the bigger winners this past weekend were our dogs. They are trained to get snacks every time the Saints or Tide score, make a great play or win. The Saints are off to a rough start and the dogs certainly want things to get better, but they love the attention and certainly know Deb’s scream means a treat is heading their way.
It’s also been nice to have local high school teams on the field again and I think as we continue to put one foot ahead of the other during this Covid-19 time, the more normal we can feel will lead us to have the ability to talk out our challenges and try to make the progress we most desperately need.
Simple things like flying team flags and yelling and screaming for a football game don’t sound like a lot, but when we saw our neighbors putting up their team’s flag up and down the street it gave us a sense that things were trying to become normal again. Maybe we helped.
A neighbor asked me months ago if I thought football would be played and if so, would we decorate like usual.
I said yes to both questions. I thought it was needed for the majority of American sports fans. Like it or not, football is a big part of our culture, especially in the South. I also know that it’s a special time when Deb and I can enjoy yelling and screaming and picking apart coaching decisions and player’s efforts.
It was a great start for the SEC and we enjoyed every minute. Like I said, I’m a lucky guy.