Football

First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the JBLM soldier who was killed a few miles from my house today. May the Lord comfort you and bring you peace during this time of sorrow and grief.

Today, my husband and I spent most of the day watching football. While watching, I thought a lot about the things I like to see when watching football, and the things I don't like. I was also doing some crocheting, but that's a story for another time...

Here are some of the things I like most in football...

• I like watching someone sack a quarterback, and then help him back to his feet.
• I like players who take a knee for the entire time an injured player is on the ground. Bonus points if they are obviously praying.
• I like touchdown dances...I especially like them when they are done after a defensive line touchdown - you know, the big guy up front somehow gets the ball and runs like mad to reach the end-zone...there is always so much joy in their dances.

And some of the things I dislike most in football...

• I dislike fans who turn on their teams just because of a loss, especially to the point of burning a quarterback's jersey after a hard fought game. Highly uncalled for.
• I dislike no-calls and/or bad calls by officials who always seem to be against the Hawks.
• I dislike how commentators tend to focus on what a team did wrong during a play, rather than what the other team did right during that same play.

If Elijah follows in his dad's footsteps and wants to play football, I hope he learns kindness and respect in spite of competitiveness. I hope he learns to separate his feelings of competitiveness from his feelings about the players on the other team. I hope he learns to support his team through both wins and losses, and most importantly, I hope he learns to love the game and have fun.

As a mom, I'm not particularly looking forward to the day that my kid comes up to me and asks if he can play football. I've seen too many injuries from the sidelines to not be worried, but if and when that day comes, he will have my blessing. Of course, if that day never comes, I will do my own little internal touchdown dance.

The games I cared about today did not turn out the way I would have liked - I'm proud of the way the Hawks played, and it was a great game, but a win would have been awesome. A nice 49er stomping by the Texans would also have been appreciated, but it wasn't meant to be tonight. However, there's always next week...see you soon at the Clink, Titans...don't forget your earplugs :)