Football

This blog is supposed to be about spiritual things – learning the nature of God, forgiveness, reaching out to help others – all the things that supersede the ordinary.  But today it’s about football.  In a couple of days, my team, the LSU Tigers, will play for a national championship and undefeated season.  May not seem all that spiritual on the surface, but I remember another season in 1997 that was filled with football, God, and saying goodbye to my Daddy.

My Dad was not well for many years.  The man who had the kindest heart of anyone I’d ever known had a weak heart that just couldn’t hold on forever.  We knew the end was near in the fall of 1997.  Daddy was in and out of hospitals, and he chose to live out his final months at home.  I travelled back and forth from Tennessee to Louisiana to spend as much time as I could with him and my Mother.

And on those Saturdays – those precious Saturdays – we’d watch football.  Between spectacular running plays, dropped passes, and kicks that stayed just inside the uprights, we’d talk.  Dad dispensed career advice, and I spoke of the baby I hoped to have…bittersweet as we both knew he wouldn’t be there when it happened.  We talked about my wonderful husband who loved football, too (Go Mountaineers!).  And we did laugh.  Daddy never lost his quick wit.

James Earl Jones had it wrong in “Field of Dreams”.  It wasn’t baseball but rather football that was the binding thread running through our family.  And on those days we shared many special moments.  We listened to the LSU/Akron game on the radio (Tigers 56, Zips 0 – no pun intended).  We watched Tennessee’s difficult SEC Championship victory over Auburn with Peyton Manning at the helm.  And we got a little choked up hearing Bob Griese call his son Brian’s Rose Bowl victory over Washington State, earning Michigan a share in the national championship. We connected over football in these moments, the time marked by first downs like hands on a clock.

And then he was gone.  How he would have loved to see LSU take on Alabama Monday night.  He would have rooted for the Tigers with all his might but would also have been proud of the SEC for having both teams in the championship game.

Guess I’ll just have to cheer extra loudly for him.  I’ll watch the game on TV with my family, wear my lucky LSU hat, scream like a crazy woman, and wish that he could be there.  And those memories, divine in their simplicity, will be with me.  Here’s hoping my boys will one day say the same thing about being with their Mom and Dad – watching football – and being a family.