pieces and ponderings

I love football…the American kind, with an oval-shaped ball wrapped in leather and players who begin each game in bright uniforms which take on tinges of grass-stain green and mud-brown by the end of the fourth quarter.

I have loved football for as long as I can remember.  I loved it when I was a preschooler and some really cool high-school guys (friends of my family) would allow a little girl like me run around carrying a football in one of their backyard games.

I loved it when my parents took me to watch one of those guys play high-school ball and then when he played in college.

I love watching college ball on TV.  I love watching professional football on TV.  I love watching it in person.  I just love football.

I love best of all to watch my son play football…it’s really cool.  Love it, love it, love it.

My kids do laugh at me sometimes though (well, they laugh at me a lot, but that’s for other stories).  They laugh at me when we’re watching a game and one of the players rises back to his feet after a tough play and he is all disheveled and his shoulder  pads are no longer covered by his jersey and he isn’t even aware of it…but I am very aware of it.

I call out, “Fix your shoulder pad,” to the television screen.  The player usually remains unaware of  his dilemma and often moves on to the huddle and the next play…WITHOUT adjusting the shoulder pad/jersey.

Ok…so maybe I’m a little obsessive/compulsive about this one little thing…but it drives me a bit crazy.  That’s when my kids begin to giggle and snicker.

Because of this pet peeve of mine, my kids began doing something in the last couple of years…just to make fun of me…and drive me a little crazy.  They will each roll up one of the short sleeves on whatever shirts they are wearing…not completely roll up into a cuff…no that is fine…I do that all the time.  No…they just turn up a portion of their shirt sleeves and don’t say a word.  All of them will have turn-up portions of shirt sleeves on their persons and just sit quietly or walk around quietly…until I notice and say loudly, “Fix your shoulder pads!”

If the child is in my reach, I will try to smooth out the partial cuff myself.

They love to torture me in this way.  They think it is funny.

Yesterday, my football-playing son had his team pictures made.  Afterward, I asked him how the picture-taking went.

“It went well,” he said.

And then he mentioned that he had just happened to roll up a part of his jersey for his individual picture.

“NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” I cried.  “You DIDN’T!”  “You WOULDN’T!”

“But I ordered one of those photo buttons so I can wear it to all of the games,” I told him.

He just grinned.

I never did get the truth of the matter out of him.  I guess I’ll have to wait for the pictures to come in.  And if his shoulder pad needs fixing…well…I will just have to grin and bear it.