Football through the years

I love football. As a very young child, I used to play football with the older kids-- I did not have a lot of friends, so I played with my brother and his friends, who were at least two years older and much bigger than I was--and they would let me play because I was fearless, and unafraid to tackle someone twice my size. They were always amazed that someone as small as I was, was able to bring down the guy with the ball... I was too small to play much offense, so I always seemed to play defence. As long as I could tackle, it didn't seem to matter what size or age I was.
Anyway, over time I have developed affinity for a number of football teams. And this year, almost all of my favorite teams have done well!

My first love, and still my favorite team, is the University of Utah. For years I was the only ball-boy for the U of U basketball team; and after I was married, I graduated from the U of U. This has caused some interesting challenges in my family life, as my wife graduated from BYU-- the nemesis of Utah. There is perhaps no greater in-state rivalry in the country than Utah vs BYU.

Of course I believe that Utah should be the National Champion this year-- after all, they are the ONLY team to be undefeated. What more is there to say?

Later in life I grew to love both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles. I served two years on a mission for the Mormon Church in Pennsylvania, spending time in Philly, Pittsburgh, Altoona, and Scranton. While I was in Pittsburgh, the Steelers won their very first Super Bowl! What a party that city had! And, the Steelers are in the playoffs this year.

Of course, with Terri's family, and one of my sons, living in Philly, we are 'required' to root for the Eagles. Which is ok, since the Eagles also are in the playoffs this year!

Philly was always an interesting city. During my mission, it was a very rough place. The paper used to keep a running total of all the murders, rapes, and general mayhem that was happening, on the front page. Instead of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, we called it 'filthy-delphia, the city of brotherly shove!'

While serving in Phily, they happened to have a roofer's strike. Being a roofer, I followed it in the papers. The Union threatened harm to any roofer that worked while the strike was on. On several occasions, they caught workers on the roof... and simply threw them off!

My father lives in San Diego for six months of the year, which means that I am 'required' to root for San Diego also... And San Diego is in the playoffs this year!

Terri and I lived for 7 years in New England, and, of course, became long-time Patriots fans. They should have been in the playoffs, winning 11 games, but who can figure? As New England fans, we learned to hate New York. Anyone who beat the Yankees was cheered. And it was crushing to be defeated by the Giants in the Super Bowl!

My most memorable experience with New York was while working on a roofing project there. We were living in Connecticut, and had a customer who had several stores, one of which was in New York. Since we did all of his work, we also traveled to New York to re-roof his building there. What an experience! We had sub-contracted out some of the work to local companies, such as hauling the debris from the jobsite. One day a black Lincoln pulled up to the jobsite and asked us who we were, and why we were not using his garbage service. Didn't we understand that this was his 'area'?

It turned out that he was a mobster, and had come to shake us down. He made it clear that if we didn't remove the 'offending' dumpster, and put one of his in its place, we would 'have problems' at our jobsite. Thinking this was too much like the movies, we told him to get lost. A couple of days later we had a truck that was set on fire! I did not want to give in, and planned to hire security guards, but my boss decided he wanted to cut his losses-- so we pulled the offending dumpster, brought in one of the mobster's (at double the cost), and finished the job as quickly as possible. Needless to say, we never worked in New York again!

We also lived in Cleveland for 3 years...which means we became Indians and Browns fans. When the Browns then moved to Baltimore, I became a Ravens fan, and watched what used to be our favorite team win the super bowl! And, of course, the Ravens are in the playoffs this year also.

Art Modell, the Browns owner, was lucky to get out of town with his life! People were so angry that he had deserted Cleveland, they wanted to kill him! We tried to follow the Browns again when they got a new stadium and new team, but it has never been the same!

We also gave up on the Indians, even though we had become ardent fans. Our family went to the very first game played in Jacobs Field; and at another home game we were even seen on TV! But when they traded all our favorite players... it just wasn't the same!

So, I'm having a great year this year! No matter what happens, I think I will have a favorite to root for in the Super Bowl!