Sunday, October 26, 2014

Are You Ready for Some Football?

I don't usually post a whole lot about football around these parts, although in recent years, my Spartans have inspired me to wax rhapsodical from time to time.  But this weekend was a kind of football-ish harmonic convergence around here.  You would be very kind to indulge me. . .

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7M is a high-school junior, and a linebacker for his school's football team.  He's pretty darn good (if I may say so myself), and is usually among the leading tacklers for his team.  It never gets old, hearing your son's name called over the PA, I tell you.

His team has had a really good season so far, going undefeated, winning their league championship, and qualifying for the state playoffs, besides.  This Friday night past, they played another undefeated, highly-ranked team, and won, 27-22.  It was the only game all year that they won by less than 30 points.  It was actually kinda fun to watch a game that wasn't played with a running clock for most of the second half. . .

The team is sufficiently highly ranked that it wouldn't be a surprise for them to be playing in the domed stadium in Detroit over Thanksgiving weekend (ie, for the state championship).  There being four rounds of games to win before that comes to pass, I'll stop short of counting any unhatched chickens.  But it's been a fun ride so far. . .

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8M played football for the first time in his life this fall.  He hasn't been as athletically-inclined as his brothers, and I'm fine with that; he sure doesn't have to have athletic success in order to please me.  He has his own really unique personality, and his own set of unique skills and proclivities that make him a really interesting and fun person in his own very estimable right; we're glad to have him in our family, no matter how stunned we were to find ourselves expecting our eighth child deep into our 40s, all those years ago. . .

Anyway, it's been a lot of fun, watching him learn to play the game, progressing from "Where am I?  What am I supposed to be doing?  I have no clue. . ." to understanding his assignments, and making plays.  Last week, he got his name called over the PA for the first time (he made a tackle), and in today's game, he actually carried the ball a couple times.  Mind you, I'm not so much living vicariously through the success he's had (such as it is), as I am proud of him making the effort, and learning to do something that he started out utterly clueless of.  Very cool. . .

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And just for the sake of saying so, I have to mention the way my Spartans man-handled the hated Wolverines over the weekend, the sixth time we've beaten them in the last seven games.  Truth to tell, I didn't think that the Spartans played all that well, certainly far short of their best.  But even so, they dominated the blue-corn guys from start to finish.  It's a sign of how strong our team is, I suppose, that they can dominate their rival while still not playing their best.

I'm still getting used to this whole rivalry-dominance thing.  Our friends from down the road have had far more success against us, in my adult lifetime, than we've had against them (though we pretty much owned them in my childhood; just sayin').  I'm just glad (*shedding a small tear*) to have lived long enough to see the tables turned, at least for a while. . .

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And then this morning, the Lions played the Sunday Brunch Special from Wembley Stadium in London.  That's London, in the UK, not Ontario.  Five time zones to the east of here.  NFL marketing-types, gotta love 'em. . .

The Leos started out terrible, trailing 21-0 at halftime.  But they turned the tables in the second half and ended up pulling out a 22-21 victory on a last-second field goal (some real bizarre doings in those final seconds, which I'll decline to discuss in detail, but it did make things, um interesting).

I'm not quite ready to start calling them "MY Lions" just yet (6-2 and leading the division has gone down in flames too often, too recently, for me to jump on the bandwagon quite this soon).  But this could yet turn into one of the better years of my own personal memory. . .

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So, lots of football this weekend, all the way from middle-school, to high school, to major-college, to the pros.  And all of 'em went according to my own humble rooting interests, which was nice.

And the weather in these parts was spectacular this weekend - mid-60s, brilliant sunshine, cloudless azure skies. . . So I put another 32 miles on my bike, bringing me to 876 miles for the year.  Barring any nasty weather wiping out entire weekends, I should just sneak past 1000 before the snow flies.  But, we will see what we will see. . .

14 comments:

  1. Watching your kid play ball is great fun...sometimes nerve wracking, but great fun. My Pops filmed all my old games, and every Thanksgiving I watch us beat Plainfield in 1963!

    Good luck going to the states, that is quite an accomplishment.

    Watched the Lions this AM, Mrs. C is a Lions fan...great game!

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    1. With eight kids, you can imagine I've put in lots of time watching my kids play. 7M is the third of my kids to actually play a sport at the varsity level in high school, where they are actually playing at a level above the 'common folk'. 4M actually got a few calls from small colleges, and 7M might yet. . .

      But I am diligent to remind 'em that their chances of ever earning a paycheck for playing a sport are minuscule, so they should still work hard on their studies, you know, just in case. . .

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  2. Very exciting news for the chance to go to state!
    I rode on Thursday. Hoping it wasn't my last ride of the year.

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    1. Well round one of the playoffs is this coming weekend; four wins, and they'll play for the championship. So, lots of work yet to be done (and lots of other really good teams out there, that we'll run into eventually. . .)

      Good for you, for getting out on the bike! What will be your signal that the season is over?

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    2. That's pretty much the same as mine; so you should be good until at least Thanksgiving or so, depending on how cold you're willing to go out. Myself, I don't like it much below 40F or so, and below freezing, it's just too cold. . .

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  3. Good luck to 7M... go get 'em!

    And then there's this... "... no matter how stunned we were to find ourselves expecting our eighth child deep into our 40s, all those years ago. . ."

    Oh, boy... do I EVER hear ya! I was 52 when SN3 was born. To say that event was a game-changer is the understatement of all time.

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    1. 52?!? God bless you, my friend. . . That puts you at 70 just for HS graduation. . .

      Jenn was the one actually, you know, being pregnant and all when she was 45; the actual pregnancy itself was much less onerous for me. . .

      ;)

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  4. Oh... right!
    Football season has started.
    You'll have to excuse me... it's an even numbered year.

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    1. Of course. If my Tigers were where your Giants are (and would that they could ever be on an every-other-year rotation!), I'd be the same way. Altho, when MSU plays UM, I'll stop and pay attention no matter what else is going on.

      And of course, when my kid is in the playoffs. . . ;)

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    2. I think I may have lost my enthusiasm for football, particularly the pro game (and I include FBS College ball).
      I may get over it, but all the extra-curricular, off field activities have been a huge turn-off.
      There seems to be way, way too much "Look at me" going on.
      OTOH - I congratulate Sparty for how they handled UofM's stunt.

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    3. Meh. . . Stunt, schmunt; seemed kinda 'much ado about nothing' to me. But if it keeps the fire stoked, what the hell. . .

      ;)

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  5. My rooting interests are narrow in football. Since I don't have any kids, no high school ball much interests me. The Patriots have been a great team to watch for 15 years now. And I always root for BC (I didn't go there - I didn't go anywhere until broadcasting school in my thirties - but I admire the graduation rate and I've been a big fan since the Flutie years.) Since both won this weekend, it was fun.

    What a thrill it must be to have a son with a chance at going to the state championship if all goes well. Please keep us up-to-date on that.

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    1. Yeah, see, a Patriots fan just doesn't inhabit the same rooting universe as a Lions fan. I don't mean that as a criticism in the least; the world just looks different when your team has a long-term run of success.

      That Flutie-Miami game is still one of the greatest games I've ever watched. I think it was something like 17-14 after three quarters, and by the time it ended, both teams were in the 40s. Just incredible punch-counterpunch, back and forth. . .

      4M & 5M were good players on bad teams, so this is a whole new experience for us. I'll keep you posted as best I can. . .

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