Father's Day 2011: My football memories with dad

If there is one memory I have of my dad, it's that he was always being the quintessential armchair quarterback. During the football season starting in early August until the time of the Super Bowl he would watch, whether it was collegiate or professional football. He practically camped out in the TV room every weekend in the late summer until the winter. Forget about watching television when there was a game. Luckily for my dad this was at a time when there wasn't cable TV or DVRs. It's not like we had a whole lot of choices to pick from on TV anyways. My, how times have changed, or have they on TV during the weekend afternoons?

On the rare occasion they broadcast Canadian football during the summer season. My dad would watch that, because it was at least football. He was in withdrawal from the time the Pro Bowl ended until the first weekend in August when the preseason started for the NFL. Then he came to life and got involved with football pools. There were a number of football magazines he subscribed to that had college and pro football pools. You could win cash, trips to college bowl games or to the Super Bowl. He would fill in these forms, mail them off and watch all the games he could to see if his teams would win.

There were times he did win some cash, but he never got to go to the Super Bowl, not even when it came to Tampa in 1984 and 1991 when he was alive. Since there wasn't anything to watch on TV when I was growing up, on occasion I would watch a game or two. Rarely did I watch the Saturday games, because I was always out and about. It was the Sunday pro games that were fascinating for me. At first it was hard to figure out. I would ask my dad questions about what happened, but he was too engrossed to give me an answer. Eventually I learned on my own the football jargon, what a first down was, penalties, etc.

My dad never played football in school, but he loved watching the games religiously. They seemed to make him happy, even when his team was losing by making him miss out on winning a big cash prize. He was always faithful in this yearly ritual. Growing up in a sports town you learned a lot about sports on local television, newspapers, radio and residents. However, I learned about football from my dad while watching a Sunday game, the Orange Bowl and the Super Bowl with him.

SOURCES:

Personal Experience