Life after the Super Bowl
When you love football, it's always sobering to be faced with the end of another season. No more team to cheer for; no more fantasy football; no more playoffs. Sad, indeed. But what has surprised me is seeing Luke deal with this reality for the first time.
I will preface this by stating that Luke will see sports-related things and point them out to you, even if you don't see them. A couple weeks ago, Em was in Target and all of a sudden Luke started pointing to this guy and saying "ba-ball" which is his word for football. This guy wasn't carrying a football, however, he was wearing a Green Bay Packer hat. So she thought it was pretty amazing that he recognized the Green Bay Packers logo of all things. However, it gets better. When she walked closer, Luke specifically pointed to the NFL logo on the hat and said, "Ba-ball! Ba-ball!" Wow, the power of branding!
Then the other day Em was eating Frosted Flakes and he started saying ba-ball again, but this time we were like, "No Luke, this is cereal! And no, there's no football on!" But he was so adamant about it; he kept pointing at the box and saying ba-ball. Lo and behold, there was this really really small NFL logo (again with the logo) on the side of the box. When we gave him the box, he then pointed directly at it, said ba-ball, and put the box down, having made his point.
There are many other "ba-ball" moments. He never misses a beat. He really enjoys watching it. There are really strange coincidences where it's a little scary. He'll cheer especially loud on 3rd and long, he'll yell, "Go! Go!" when someone is taking off, and he's always clapping. Plus, on Sundays after church, when we get in the apartment he calmly goes to the tv, says ba-ball in a normal tone, and will often turn the tv on himself. He doesn't do this on other days. I'm glad that I'm instilling a relationship between church and football in him from an early age.
So anyway, Luke was living life and enjoying all the fun that the NFL has to offer. This leads us to the week before the Super Bowl. That hard week when there is no football. He did all his normal gestures as I've described above, so I had to look him in the eyes and gently tell him that there was not going to be any football on today. I tried to temper that statement with the fact that the championship was going to be the following week, but I could see Luke trying to process this earth-shattering moment in a young toddler's life. He was so confused! Poor guy!
I didn't talk about football all week, and then Sunday afternoon Luke and I were hanging out and I told him, "Guess what son? I have a present for you!" And I turned on the tv and there was the pre-game with plenty of football imagery for him to get the point that football was on. He was so happy!! He started sprinting up and down the hallway, and he would just point and point at the tv saying ba-ball. So cute.
I will preface this by stating that Luke will see sports-related things and point them out to you, even if you don't see them. A couple weeks ago, Em was in Target and all of a sudden Luke started pointing to this guy and saying "ba-ball" which is his word for football. This guy wasn't carrying a football, however, he was wearing a Green Bay Packer hat. So she thought it was pretty amazing that he recognized the Green Bay Packers logo of all things. However, it gets better. When she walked closer, Luke specifically pointed to the NFL logo on the hat and said, "Ba-ball! Ba-ball!" Wow, the power of branding!
Then the other day Em was eating Frosted Flakes and he started saying ba-ball again, but this time we were like, "No Luke, this is cereal! And no, there's no football on!" But he was so adamant about it; he kept pointing at the box and saying ba-ball. Lo and behold, there was this really really small NFL logo (again with the logo) on the side of the box. When we gave him the box, he then pointed directly at it, said ba-ball, and put the box down, having made his point.
There are many other "ba-ball" moments. He never misses a beat. He really enjoys watching it. There are really strange coincidences where it's a little scary. He'll cheer especially loud on 3rd and long, he'll yell, "Go! Go!" when someone is taking off, and he's always clapping. Plus, on Sundays after church, when we get in the apartment he calmly goes to the tv, says ba-ball in a normal tone, and will often turn the tv on himself. He doesn't do this on other days. I'm glad that I'm instilling a relationship between church and football in him from an early age.
So anyway, Luke was living life and enjoying all the fun that the NFL has to offer. This leads us to the week before the Super Bowl. That hard week when there is no football. He did all his normal gestures as I've described above, so I had to look him in the eyes and gently tell him that there was not going to be any football on today. I tried to temper that statement with the fact that the championship was going to be the following week, but I could see Luke trying to process this earth-shattering moment in a young toddler's life. He was so confused! Poor guy!
I didn't talk about football all week, and then Sunday afternoon Luke and I were hanging out and I told him, "Guess what son? I have a present for you!" And I turned on the tv and there was the pre-game with plenty of football imagery for him to get the point that football was on. He was so happy!! He started sprinting up and down the hallway, and he would just point and point at the tv saying ba-ball. So cute.
posted by Rich at
11:14 AM
5 Comments
