Denver Bronco game
There’s something about actually being “at the game” that makes it more exciting. The swell of sound in the crowd, stomping on metal tiers that reverberate under your feet, rising to your feet with a yell in your throat as your team scores a touchdown. And those greasy, absolutely delicious Bronco Brats (bratwurst on a bun with mustard and catsup) that you eat only at the game. And, of course, you’re wearing the same colors as everyone else in a crowd of around 70,000 people, most of you rooting for the same team.
When I taught theatre at Soutwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, Texas, way back in 1973, I was first exposed to the “Friday Night Lights” phenomenon. Everyone went to Uvalde High School Coyotes football games on Friday nights because there wasn’t much else to do in a small, Southwest Texas town. I didn’t understand the game, but I soon learned.
I commuted to the University of Texas at Austin School of law each week for the first year and did it with a five-hour-long Greyhound bus ride. Texas has two great professional football teams, the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans (formerly Houston Oilers) always scheduled sequentially on Sunday, so I could listen to the first game and half of the second on a transistor radio. I’d end up at Mr. Gatti’s Pizza in Austin, which had a large screen TV, and watch the end of the game, while I ate pepperoni pizza and read torts or constitutional law for my classes on Monday.
I was frustrated when I took a job out of law school in Richmond, Virginia, and everyone was a fan of the Washington Redskins–mortal enemies of the Dallas Cowboys. For two-and-a-half years I gritted my teeth. Then I transferred to a firm in Miami, Florida, and my love affair with the Miami Dolphins began.
The first Dolphin games I saw were played in the Orange Bowl. Then Joe Robbie built a new stadium close to where I lived in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and I became a season ticket holder for the first time. I watched every game Dan Marino played through the end of his football career.
When I moved to Denver, it was just after John Elway retired. It’s fun to be a Broncos fan, because their symbol is a white horse. They’re the “good guys.” It was tough attending the Monday night game where the Dolphins played the Broncos. I was still new to Denver, so I rooted for the Dolphins, who won.
One of the interesting things about football is that people rarely change their affiliation from one team to another. If you’re a Dolphins fan, you’re a fan for the rest of your life. It took a couple of years, but I managed to become a Broncos fan.
And now I’m in Florida, in the home territory of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This time, I haven’t been able to make the switch from being a Broncos/Dolphins fan. And I’ve tried. I’ve attended games all season, but in the end, I’d rather be in a sports bar somewhere watching “my” teams play.
If you like football, you understand what I’m feeling. And if you don’t, maybe this will help you understand what inspires your brother or sister or husband or father to be such a fan of the game.
I love football. After the Super Bowl, I’m in mourning until the football season begins again in the fall. I’m not sure why I like football so much–maybe because football players are the last vestiges we have of knights on horseback trying to unhorse each other. It’s combat that’s safe, because the combattants come out alive. And there are all those great, athletic, physically powerful men performing graceful feats as they catch that uncatchable ball.
Martina on July 31, 2009
I also love football and being from Louisana you are first a LSU Tiger and a New Orleans Saint. But in the mist of all Louisanans I love the Tigers and I love the Green Bay Packers along with the Pittsburg Steelers. Cannot say why I have always followed the Pack maybe because of Bart Starr and then Bret Favre. As for as the Steelers there was Mr Bradshaw and also lived in the Pittsburg area for 6 years. Now living in Boulder I too have become a Bronoc fan watching the games each week with my friends and we do go to the games. As stated nothing replaces being at the game being caught up in the all the activity taking place.
I just love the end of August each year to be able again have football weekends first on Saturday my Tigers and Sunday the Pro games. Living away from Lousiana it is truly a blessing that LSU is frequently on one of the sports channel.
So now we are just a few short weeks until the games being thank goodness I have ran out of things on tv to keep me entertained and have read just about all the books planned for the summer.