I Don't Trust Guys Who Don't Like Football

[Hostile]

Great post Hos

Football takes on a bit of a deeper meaning for me.

My father and I have never really been close. I'm 33 years old and can honestly say, we never did the things we all envision we will do with our kids. My father and I never tossed the ball around in the back yard, we never played catch, we never shot hoops....Until I was 18 I only say my father cry once. That was when his own father died. Until I was 18 I never heard my father say I love you, I guess I always knew it was a given. My father had a very short temper, it made it real hard to talk to him. Though he was never abusive, there was a fear.

Football had a way of bonding what little connection we had. I grew up a Cowboys fans more then anything because my father is an Eagles fan. He tried really hard to influence me, a have loads of pictures of me at an impressionable age dressed in Eagles pajama's. It never worked but in the end, it probably was a blessing. It allowed me an outlet, some thing to hold over his head. While it was all in good fun, part of me felt as if it was "take that" each time the Cowboy beat the Eagles.

In high school I was highly involved in sports. Basketball, Track, Volleyball, Wrestling and Football. Football was my passion. I'm from a football family. My cousin Forest Blue was a All-Pro center with the SF 49ers, I'm a distance relative of William Heffelfinger, my great grandfather was a player on the first American Professional Football team known as the Canton Bulldogs. 4th one on from the left. This picture hangs in the HOF, little known to the NFL or the HOF, the original that in those times were printed in cloth resides in my home. Handed down to my grandmother from her mother and then from my grandmother to my father and then from my father to me. In it's original frame, my great grandfather marked by the lipstick circle my great-grandmother place on the glass.

I guess it was in my blood. I was addicted to the game and became even more so when for the first time my father took intrest in my passion. He attended all my games. Became known as the crazy father on the team. One time even storming onto the field after a player of another team kicked our QB in the head while he was down. Another time we just beat the top ranked team in the state, they had 4 OL and 3 DL all heading to D1 schools. Our front dominated them, playing OT I made sure of it. I also blocked the XP on their last TD, we won by 1 point. My father rushed the field as time expired, claiming the new powers of the state.

All those memories and many more are all I really have of our father son realtionship but it was my last game of my Senior Year, the last time I would ever put on pads for my highschool team that changed a realtionship between a father and his son and would forge the way this father raised his own.

It was a State Championship game. We were playing a school we had no right being on the field with. The school was twice our size, they were loaded with D1 prospects across the board. We played our hearts out be we never stood a chance. When the scoreboard finally ran out I could of cared less if we won or lost, my emotions were going to be the same.

I realized I may of just put on football pads for the last time. I may of just played my last game with my brothers whome I have been batteling with for 5 or 6 years. I was over come with emotion. I never sobbed so hard in my life, I could not stand up, my heart was broke. I still tear up to this day remembering how it felt.

As I looked around, trying to pull myself up there was my father. Hundreds of people around, I could only see him walking towards me. He reached down and picked me up, tears filled his eyes, those tears I only saw that one time back when his father died. He picked me up off the ground, looked me in the face and put his arms around me, told me how proud I have made him and then for the first time in my child hood, for the first time I can ever remember he told me he loved me.

We never played catch, we never attended a game, we never talked, we never said "I love you" but that one winter day, when a game for kids was played, I became a man and my father became......a father. All was forgiven. That one time what was always just assumed was verified.

Don't ever tell me football is just a game. For me, it a bond between a father and son. It's unspoken words, it's the answers your looking for, it's a right of passage, it's family history and it's getting passed onto my sons.

I see the passion in their eyes and thanks to that one game, unlike my father, I'm going to be there the whole way. Catch in the back yard and tickets to the ball game. Then that one day, when they are putting on the pads for the last time and I'm picking them up off the field I'm going to tell them how proud I am and how much I love them. I'm then going to hope because I was a better father then my father was that they will go on and be better fathers then me but I will never forget.

It all started with a game, it all started with Football.

Dear heaven. It does not get any better than this. Hands down, the best thing I have read this entire off season.

This story deserves its own thread.

 

[Maxmadden]

Thanks HOS and HOL for making the time I spent reading this whole thread worth it.


(and for removing the yuckie comments)

 

[notherbob]

Great story, H of L, thanks for sharing it.

Football is always the king of games for those who have played it. It doesn't matter whether it was varsity or intramural or just a bunch of kids in the park getting up a game. You can do everything in football - run, throw, catch, hit kick, punt, make up planned plays, innovate on the run,do trick plays, there's no limit to the fun you could have.

We all have fond memories of our best games, the best teams we played on, the great interception we made or the game saving tackle. We remember the personal grudges and wars we fought, the punches we got in and the hits we took as well. And all the while nobody in particular notices because everyone else is so busy fighting their own battles in the game they don't pay attention to the others clobbering each other in the clinches.

To those who have played the game at any level football is personal.

 

[rysko]

wow HOL that brought tears to my eyes... god do i love football... and to Junkie, dude sounds like a 16 year old who can't get any *** for the life of him.. sad.

 

[The Ominous]

Such a shame a beautiful thread about something I thought we all shared and cared about, football, turned into the same redundant drivel that is the never-ending "soccer debate". I respect the athleticism, but the GAME IS JUST BORING. There's no two ways around it. It's flat-out boring to watch. PERIOD. Maybe soccer fans feel the same way about football, but I really don't care. My opinion, and the opinion of nearly everyone I know is that SOCCER IS BORING. I don't care what countries play it, how many play it, or how old it is.

Despite the obvious garbage in this thread, I must say that Hos's original post, and the post by HOL more than made up for it, easily.

HOL, your post really struck a soft-spot in my heart though, because I have went through something similar with my own father, and I bet others have as well.

Definitely not just a game...

 

[Biggems]

without football and baseball, our national heritage would totally suck IMO.

 

[bbgun]

Such a shame a beautiful thread about something I thought we all shared and cared about, football, turned into the same redundant drivel that is the never-ending "soccer debate". I respect the athleticism, but the GAME IS JUST BORING. There's no two ways around it. It's flat-out boring to watch. PERIOD. Maybe soccer fans feel the same way about football, but I really don't care. My opinion, and the opinion of nearly everyone I know is that SOCCER IS BORING. I don't care what countries play it, how many play it, or how old it is.

What are you trying to say?

 

[lewpac]

Such a shame a beautiful thread about something I thought we all shared and cared about, football, turned into the same redundant drivel that is the never-ending "soccer debate". I respect the athleticism, but the GAME IS JUST BORING. There's no two ways around it. It's flat-out boring to watch. PERIOD. Maybe soccer fans feel the same way about football, but I really don't care. My opinion, and the opinion of nearly everyone I know is that SOCCER IS BORING. I don't care what countries play it, how many play it, or how old it is.

Despite the obvious garbage in this thread, I must say that Hos's original post, and the post by HOL more than made up for it, easily.

HOL, your post really struck a soft-spot in my heart though, because I have went through something similar with my own father, and I bet others have as well.

Definitely not just a game...

Agreed.

For the life of me, I just don't get why some folks come to a FOOTBALL forum, where the very life of the gig is FOOTBALL, where supposedly everyone around here is AROUND here to talk football............and a few nimrods always muck it up with some "soccer" drivel.

If you want to talk soccer, then go to web-site that deals with the three most meaningless and unimportant and boring things in the world. Surely, there must be at least two or three forums than actually care about soccer.

I would never go to a WNBA forum and insert how it compares with the NFL. That would be indecorous, out of line, and outright asinine. Because over there, they're talking girls basketball. If I had anything worthwhile to contribute to that discussion, then I'd go there. But to go there, and INSIST that they love and respect MY sport is just plain arrogant, if not stupid.

Hos posted what was, most likely, one of the most relevant and important threads that this forum could ever hope to see. And for it to be hijacked and prostituted to an argument between soccer and REAL Football is shameful in the least, criminal at worst................

Take all your "soccer" stuff and go to the Christopher Robin site. Leave the "real man" NFL talk to us..................

 

[Rampage]

Agreed.

For the life of me, I just don't get why some folks come to a FOOTBALL forum, where the very life of the gig is FOOTBALL, where supposedly everyone around here is AROUND here to talk football............and a few nimrods always muck it up with some "soccer" drivel.

If you want to talk soccer, then go to web-site that deals with the three most meaningless and unimportant and boring things in the world. Surely, there must be at least two or three forums than actually care about soccer.

I would never go to a WNBA forum and insert how it compares with the NFL. That would be indecorous, out of line, and outright asinine. Because over there, they're talking girls basketball. If I had anything worthwhile to contribute to that discussion, then I'd go there. But to go there, and INSIST that they love and respect MY sport is just plain arrogant, if not stupid.

Hos posted what was, most likely, one of the most relevant and important threads that this forum could ever hope to see. And for it to be hijacked and prostituted to an argument between soccer and REAL Football is shameful in the least, criminal at worst................

Take all your "soccer" stuff and go to the Christopher Robin site. Leave the "real man" NFL talk to us..................

stuff happens. but don't worry there will be more if he's still writing a book about Football. i'm sure this thread and others are some ideas or pieces of the book in one way or another.

 

[the kid 05]

Because I'm a fan.

and it's possible live an interesting, intense and passionate life w/o caring about sports btw.

no you had said we dont care about those that aren't football fans, why would one come here in the first place if s/he didn't care about the sport?

i know its possible, very possible but because some people are crazily passionate, intense that they feel their blood bleeds their team colors isn't something that should be mocked. its like being mocked because you believe in a religion or you have a hobby of sorts

 

[the kid 05]

Great post Hos

Football takes on a bit of a deeper meaning for me.

My father and I have never really been close. I'm 33 years old and can honestly say, we never did the things we all envision we will do with our kids. My father and I never tossed the ball around in the back yard, we never played catch, we never shot hoops....Until I was 18 I only say my father cry once. That was when his own father died. Until I was 18 I never heard my father say I love you, I guess I always knew it was a given. My father had a very short temper, it made it real hard to talk to him. Though he was never abusive, there was a fear.

Football had a way of bonding what little connection we had. I grew up a Cowboys fans more then anything because my father is an Eagles fan. He tried really hard to influence me, a have loads of pictures of me at an impressionable age dressed in Eagles pajama's. It never worked but in the end, it probably was a blessing. It allowed me an outlet, some thing to hold over his head. While it was all in good fun, part of me felt as if it was "take that" each time the Cowboy beat the Eagles.

In high school I was highly involved in sports. Basketball, Track, Volleyball, Wrestling and Football. Football was my passion. I'm from a football family. My cousin Forest Blue was a All-Pro center with the SF 49ers, I'm a distance relative of William Heffelfinger, my great grandfather was a player on the first American Professional Football team known as the Canton Bulldogs. 4th one on from the left. This picture hangs in the HOF, little known to the NFL or the HOF, the original that in those times were printed in cloth resides in my home. Handed down to my grandmother from her mother and then from my grandmother to my father and then from my father to me. In it's original frame, my great grandfather marked by the lipstick circle my great-grandmother place on the glass.

I guess it was in my blood. I was addicted to the game and became even more so when for the first time my father took intrest in my passion. He attended all my games. Became known as the crazy father on the team. One time even storming onto the field after a player of another team kicked our QB in the head while he was down. Another time we just beat the top ranked team in the state, they had 4 OL and 3 DL all heading to D1 schools. Our front dominated them, playing OT I made sure of it. I also blocked the XP on their last TD, we won by 1 point. My father rushed the field as time expired, claiming the new powers of the state.

All those memories and many more are all I really have of our father son realtionship but it was my last game of my Senior Year, the last time I would ever put on pads for my highschool team that changed a realtionship between a father and his son and would forge the way this father raised his own.

It was a State Championship game. We were playing a school we had no right being on the field with. The school was twice our size, they were loaded with D1 prospects across the board. We played our hearts out be we never stood a chance. When the scoreboard finally ran out I could of cared less if we won or lost, my emotions were going to be the same.

I realized I may of just put on football pads for the last time. I may of just played my last game with my brothers whome I have been batteling with for 5 or 6 years. I was over come with emotion. I never sobbed so hard in my life, I could not stand up, my heart was broke. I still tear up to this day remembering how it felt.

As I looked around, trying to pull myself up there was my father. Hundreds of people around, I could only see him walking towards me. He reached down and picked me up, tears filled his eyes, those tears I only saw that one time back when his father died. He picked me up off the ground, looked me in the face and put his arms around me, told me how proud I have made him and then for the first time in my child hood, for the first time I can ever remember he told me he loved me.

We never played catch, we never attended a game, we never talked, we never said "I love you" but that one winter day, when a game for kids was played, I became a man and my father became......a father. All was forgiven. That one time what was always just assumed was verified.

Don't ever tell me football is just a game. For me, it a bond between a father and son. It's unspoken words, it's the answers your looking for, it's a right of passage, it's family history and it's getting passed onto my sons.

I see the passion in their eyes and thanks to that one game, unlike my father, I'm going to be there the whole way. Catch in the back yard and tickets to the ball game. Then that one day, when they are putting on the pads for the last time and I'm picking them up off the field I'm going to tell them how proud I am and how much I love them. I'm then going to hope because I was a better father then my father was that they will go on and be better fathers then me but I will never forget.

It all started with a game, it all started with Football.

i refuse to lie that brought a tear to the eye

 

[daschoo]

To everyone who felt the need to defend soccer in this thread: Please turn in your man card, cut off your junk, pack your things and catch the first avaliable flight to France or Brazil. Thanks.

so you're less of a man if you like two sports?

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Great post Hos

Football takes on a bit of a deeper meaning for me.

My father and I have never really been close. I'm 33 years old and can honestly say, we never did the things we all envision we will do with our kids. My father and I never tossed the ball around in the back yard, we never played catch, we never shot hoops....Until I was 18 I only say my father cry once. That was when his own father died. Until I was 18 I never heard my father say I love you, I guess I always knew it was a given. My father had a very short temper, it made it real hard to talk to him. Though he was never abusive, there was a fear.

Football had a way of bonding what little connection we had. I grew up a Cowboys fans more then anything because my father is an Eagles fan. He tried really hard to influence me, a have loads of pictures of me at an impressionable age dressed in Eagles pajama's. It never worked but in the end, it probably was a blessing. It allowed me an outlet, some thing to hold over his head. While it was all in good fun, part of me felt as if it was "take that" each time the Cowboy beat the Eagles.

In high school I was highly involved in sports. Basketball, Track, Volleyball, Wrestling and Football. Football was my passion. I'm from a football family. My cousin Forest Blue was a All-Pro center with the SF 49ers, I'm a distance relative of William Heffelfinger, my great grandfather was a player on the first American Professional Football team known as the Canton Bulldogs. 4th one on from the left. This picture hangs in the HOF, little known to the NFL or the HOF, the original that in those times were printed in cloth resides in my home. Handed down to my grandmother from her mother and then from my grandmother to my father and then from my father to me. In it's original frame, my great grandfather marked by the lipstick circle my great-grandmother place on the glass.

I guess it was in my blood. I was addicted to the game and became even more so when for the first time my father took intrest in my passion. He attended all my games. Became known as the crazy father on the team. One time even storming onto the field after a player of another team kicked our QB in the head while he was down. Another time we just beat the top ranked team in the state, they had 4 OL and 3 DL all heading to D1 schools. Our front dominated them, playing OT I made sure of it. I also blocked the XP on their last TD, we won by 1 point. My father rushed the field as time expired, claiming the new powers of the state.

All those memories and many more are all I really have of our father son realtionship but it was my last game of my Senior Year, the last time I would ever put on pads for my highschool team that changed a realtionship between a father and his son and would forge the way this father raised his own.

It was a State Championship game. We were playing a school we had no right being on the field with. The school was twice our size, they were loaded with D1 prospects across the board. We played our hearts out be we never stood a chance. When the scoreboard finally ran out I could of cared less if we won or lost, my emotions were going to be the same.

I realized I may of just put on football pads for the last time. I may of just played my last game with my brothers whome I have been batteling with for 5 or 6 years. I was over come with emotion. I never sobbed so hard in my life, I could not stand up, my heart was broke. I still tear up to this day remembering how it felt.

As I looked around, trying to pull myself up there was my father. Hundreds of people around, I could only see him walking towards me. He reached down and picked me up, tears filled his eyes, those tears I only saw that one time back when his father died. He picked me up off the ground, looked me in the face and put his arms around me, told me how proud I have made him and then for the first time in my child hood, for the first time I can ever remember he told me he loved me.

We never played catch, we never attended a game, we never talked, we never said "I love you" but that one winter day, when a game for kids was played, I became a man and my father became......a father. All was forgiven. That one time what was always just assumed was verified.

Don't ever tell me football is just a game. For me, it a bond between a father and son. It's unspoken words, it's the answers your looking for, it's a right of passage, it's family history and it's getting passed onto my sons.

I see the passion in their eyes and thanks to that one game, unlike my father, I'm going to be there the whole way. Catch in the back yard and tickets to the ball game. Then that one day, when they are putting on the pads for the last time and I'm picking them up off the field I'm going to tell them how proud I am and how much I love them. I'm then going to hope because I was a better father then my father was that they will go on and be better fathers then me but I will never forget.

It all started with a game, it all started with Football.

Beautifully written. Damn it got dusty in here for a minute.

 

[ethiostar]

Great post Hos

Football takes on a bit of a deeper meaning for me.

My father and I have never really been close. I'm 33 years old and can honestly say, we never did the things we all envision we will do with our kids. My father and I never tossed the ball around in the back yard, we never played catch, we never shot hoops....Until I was 18 I only say my father cry once. That was when his own father died. Until I was 18 I never heard my father say I love you, I guess I always knew it was a given. My father had a very short temper, it made it real hard to talk to him. Though he was never abusive, there was a fear.

Football had a way of bonding what little connection we had. I grew up a Cowboys fans more then anything because my father is an Eagles fan. He tried really hard to influence me, a have loads of pictures of me at an impressionable age dressed in Eagles pajama's. It never worked but in the end, it probably was a blessing. It allowed me an outlet, some thing to hold over his head. While it was all in good fun, part of me felt as if it was "take that" each time the Cowboy beat the Eagles.

In high school I was highly involved in sports. Basketball, Track, Volleyball, Wrestling and Football. Football was my passion. I'm from a football family. My cousin Forest Blue was a All-Pro center with the SF 49ers, I'm a distance relative of William Heffelfinger, my great grandfather was a player on the first American Professional Football team known as the Canton Bulldogs. 4th one on from the left. This picture hangs in the HOF, little known to the NFL or the HOF, the original that in those times were printed in cloth resides in my home. Handed down to my grandmother from her mother and then from my grandmother to my father and then from my father to me. In it's original frame, my great grandfather marked by the lipstick circle my great-grandmother place on the glass.

I guess it was in my blood. I was addicted to the game and became even more so when for the first time my father took intrest in my passion. He attended all my games. Became known as the crazy father on the team. One time even storming onto the field after a player of another team kicked our QB in the head while he was down. Another time we just beat the top ranked team in the state, they had 4 OL and 3 DL all heading to D1 schools. Our front dominated them, playing OT I made sure of it. I also blocked the XP on their last TD, we won by 1 point. My father rushed the field as time expired, claiming the new powers of the state.

All those memories and many more are all I really have of our father son realtionship but it was my last game of my Senior Year, the last time I would ever put on pads for my highschool team that changed a realtionship between a father and his son and would forge the way this father raised his own.

It was a State Championship game. We were playing a school we had no right being on the field with. The school was twice our size, they were loaded with D1 prospects across the board. We played our hearts out be we never stood a chance. When the scoreboard finally ran out I could of cared less if we won or lost, my emotions were going to be the same.

I realized I may of just put on football pads for the last time. I may of just played my last game with my brothers whome I have been batteling with for 5 or 6 years. I was over come with emotion. I never sobbed so hard in my life, I could not stand up, my heart was broke. I still tear up to this day remembering how it felt.

As I looked around, trying to pull myself up there was my father. Hundreds of people around, I could only see him walking towards me. He reached down and picked me up, tears filled his eyes, those tears I only saw that one time back when his father died. He picked me up off the ground, looked me in the face and put his arms around me, told me how proud I have made him and then for the first time in my child hood, for the first time I can ever remember he told me he loved me.

We never played catch, we never attended a game, we never talked, we never said "I love you" but that one winter day, when a game for kids was played, I became a man and my father became......a father. All was forgiven. That one time what was always just assumed was verified.

Don't ever tell me football is just a game. For me, it a bond between a father and son. It's unspoken words, it's the answers your looking for, it's a right of passage, it's family history and it's getting passed onto my sons.

I see the passion in their eyes and thanks to that one game, unlike my father, I'm going to be there the whole way. Catch in the back yard and tickets to the ball game. Then that one day, when they are putting on the pads for the last time and I'm picking them up off the field I'm going to tell them how proud I am and how much I love them. I'm then going to hope because I was a better father then my father was that they will go on and be better fathers then me but I will never forget.

It all started with a game, it all started with Football.

Wonderfully written piece man. Just beautiful.

 

[SDogo]

Thanks guys, it was hard to let go. It's a personal story and what even some condisder a peronal burden that I carry with me each day and have never really shared but with a select few.

It was actually theraputic getting it out and seeing the words.

 

[AtomicDog]

I love football too. Always have. I love the Cowboys.

But really football is just a substitute for war. Man, by nature, is still primitive and needs physical confrontation of some type. Thank goodness we invented sports or we'd all be dead by now.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Great post Hos

Football takes on a bit of a deeper meaning for me.

My father and I have never really been close. I'm 33 years old and can honestly say, we never did the things we all envision we will do with our kids. My father and I never tossed the ball around in the back yard, we never played catch, we never shot hoops....Until I was 18 I only say my father cry once. That was when his own father died. Until I was 18 I never heard my father say I love you, I guess I always knew it was a given. My father had a very short temper, it made it real hard to talk to him. Though he was never abusive, there was a fear.

Football had a way of bonding what little connection we had. I grew up a Cowboys fans more then anything because my father is an Eagles fan. He tried really hard to influence me, a have loads of pictures of me at an impressionable age dressed in Eagles pajama's. It never worked but in the end, it probably was a blessing. It allowed me an outlet, some thing to hold over his head. While it was all in good fun, part of me felt as if it was "take that" each time the Cowboy beat the Eagles.

In high school I was highly involved in sports. Basketball, Track, Volleyball, Wrestling and Football. Football was my passion. I'm from a football family. My cousin Forest Blue was a All-Pro center with the SF 49ers, I'm a distance relative of William Heffelfinger, my great grandfather was a player on the first American Professional Football team known as the Canton Bulldogs. 4th one on from the left. This picture hangs in the HOF, little known to the NFL or the HOF, the original that in those times were printed in cloth resides in my home. Handed down to my grandmother from her mother and then from my grandmother to my father and then from my father to me. In it's original frame, my great grandfather marked by the lipstick circle my great-grandmother place on the glass.

I guess it was in my blood. I was addicted to the game and became even more so when for the first time my father took intrest in my passion. He attended all my games. Became known as the crazy father on the team. One time even storming onto the field after a player of another team kicked our QB in the head while he was down. Another time we just beat the top ranked team in the state, they had 4 OL and 3 DL all heading to D1 schools. Our front dominated them, playing OT I made sure of it. I also blocked the XP on their last TD, we won by 1 point. My father rushed the field as time expired, claiming the new powers of the state.

All those memories and many more are all I really have of our father son realtionship but it was my last game of my Senior Year, the last time I would ever put on pads for my highschool team that changed a realtionship between a father and his son and would forge the way this father raised his own.

It was a State Championship game. We were playing a school we had no right being on the field with. The school was twice our size, they were loaded with D1 prospects across the board. We played our hearts out be we never stood a chance. When the scoreboard finally ran out I could of cared less if we won or lost, my emotions were going to be the same.

I realized I may of just put on football pads for the last time. I may of just played my last game with my brothers whome I have been batteling with for 5 or 6 years. I was over come with emotion. I never sobbed so hard in my life, I could not stand up, my heart was broke. I still tear up to this day remembering how it felt.

As I looked around, trying to pull myself up there was my father. Hundreds of people around, I could only see him walking towards me. He reached down and picked me up, tears filled his eyes, those tears I only saw that one time back when his father died. He picked me up off the ground, looked me in the face and put his arms around me, told me how proud I have made him and then for the first time in my child hood, for the first time I can ever remember he told me he loved me.

We never played catch, we never attended a game, we never talked, we never said "I love you" but that one winter day, when a game for kids was played, I became a man and my father became......a father. All was forgiven. That one time what was always just assumed was verified.

Don't ever tell me football is just a game. For me, it a bond between a father and son. It's unspoken words, it's the answers your looking for, it's a right of passage, it's family history and it's getting passed onto my sons.

I see the passion in their eyes and thanks to that one game, unlike my father, I'm going to be there the whole way. Catch in the back yard and tickets to the ball game. Then that one day, when they are putting on the pads for the last time and I'm picking them up off the field I'm going to tell them how proud I am and how much I love them. I'm then going to hope because I was a better father then my father was that they will go on and be better fathers then me but I will never forget.

It all started with a game, it all started with Football.

Great story, an excellent read, and I appreciate it. I can certainly see why football takes on being more than just a game for some. In a situation like this it simply couldn't be just a game. It has to mean much more.

The reality is though that not everyone, maybe unfortunately to some degree I suppose, is going to have stories like this to make football more than just a game for them.

I certainly don't have a story like this to make it more than a game for me. I love it. I watch it every weekend, not just the Cowboys but every game I can possibly see on TV from Saturday all the way through Monday night, but I certainly don't have the connection to it that you've got here.

This connection is a beautiful thing though, IMO, regardless of whether I share it or not. I don't have the connection, or that draw from it that brought me and my father together, we've actually always been quite close, but I'd be lying if I said I don't wish, to some extent, that my relationship with my father had mirrored this one, rather than the we one we've always had.

I don't know why that is, exactly, because as I type that it seems quite weird to admit you'd wish that your relationship with your father wasn't very tight in order to have a powerful moment like that. But there is just something about that moment, the way you describe it, that makes it seem much more powerful. Much more meaningful.

I appreciate you sharing that with us cause it absolutely made everything in this thread, even the silly arguing, worth it.

 

[juck]

so you're less of a man if you like two sports?

apparently so.narrowminded ness.So many tough guys,lol.Tell them a few things about Rugby,the toughest sport ever.Many great sports just gotta open ur eyes there is a world out there.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

As a matter of fact I've got to say that HOL's story actually made me realise just what I cheated myself out of with having a piss poor attitude and thinking I knew everything when I was in high school.

I played football until my sophmore year of high school when I quit playing cause of a few factors, most of them not seeming that important now, and never realising till this moment just what I actually lost by not continuing to play.

First let me say that one of the main reasons I quit, probably the main one, and the only one that I don't regret the decision for, was because I was a silly young kid who got his girlfriend pregnant and so I had a kid that I had to think about. I knew I needed to get a job after school and things of that nature, and also I figured that I was never going to college at that point since I had that responsibility in my life, so I figured football wasn't worth it anymore if I wasn't going to play beyond high school.

So that was a big reason, one I'll never regret, but it's the others that factored into it that make it a silly decision to have quit playing. I mean I probably could have, and would have if not for the other factors, still gotten a job and did the right thing while continuing to play football.

The other factors were an intense dislike between the head coach and myself. I couldn't stand him and he couldn't stand me. I didn't like him because he turned out to be just like every other HC that had come into that small town and played the political game of who he started and played based on whose parents were on the school board and crap to keep his job.

This never really directly effected me, or my playing time, as I still started no matter what. I played DE, TE, on all the special teams, so it's not like it kept me from playing but it just always rubbed me the wrong way that others weren't playing, who were better players, simply because the person ahead them had a parent on the school board, or working for the school.

So we clashed on that.

But we also clashed because I was foolish about what it took to be the best football player you could be. I always believed that to be the best I could be I needed to be out playing football every second I possibly could. That meant playing tackle football during offseason weight training sessions and such. When I was a freshman I had the perfect set-up.

We had football practice right after lunch. So I had offseason weight training for 4th hour, right before lunch. During the season I played tackle football on the field, with friends in the class, for that hour, went to lunch, came back and had an hour plus of football practice. Then once the season was over I had 2 consecutive hours of tackle football with the buddies in the class.

Now while that is all nice, and fine, it meant I wasn't hitting the weight room like I should. I didn't believe in weight training then. I didn't think it was as important as actually getting out and playing the game. I was foolish, and bull headed, and stubborn.

Now that I'm older, and finally enjoy weight lifting and training (I'll admit that back then not only did I not beleive in it but I didn't enjoy it, at all, either) I really wish I hadn't wasted that oppurtunity back then to get some quality lifting time in. I'd be so much farther along than now cause I'd have never allowed myself to get fat and out of shape in the first place.

Anyway back then I let his being pissy about my refusing to weight lift, his playing people who shouldn't have been playing based on who their parents were, and such cause me to go ahead and just quit. I never really thought about what I was missing out on when I was in high school, or even after, until just a few minutes ago. I just looked at it as more time to play football, and basketball, with buddies, to work and make money, and to have sex with the girlfriend cause I didn't have to go and practice and such.

But now, after reading that story, I realise what I really cheated myself out of.

That moment.

Not the one with my dad necassarily but that special moment when you realise you're putting the pads on for the final time with the friends, the brothers, you've played football with for years. That last moment as the clock ticks away on your high school playing days that you'd never be fully prepared for, even though you've known it was coming for 5 or 6 years.

HOL that was a brilliant story, touching, and it actually made me finally realise what I walked away from and missed.

Thank you.

 

[tomson75]

apparently so.narrowminded ness.So many tough guys,lol.Tell them a few things about Rugby,the toughest sport ever.Many great sports just gotta open ur eyes there is a world out there.

Lmao...so what does it make me if I played both football and soccer in high school and rugby in college? A tranny?

Liking soccer doesn't make anyone less of a man. Its just different. I unfortunately don't like it any longer because of the way its played these days. At one point, soccer could have been considered a full contact sport. Now, not so much.