Confessions : part one

I have a confession to make. I’ve been meaning to get this out for a while, but I’ve been afraid of what others would think. My family already knows, but I haven’t had the nerve to tell the blog world.

I love football. I hate the NFL.

I’ve read everything this fall: bloggers who love football and hate people who don’t, bloggers who hate girls that ‘pretend’ to like football, etc, etc. I’m even “participating” (loose quotes) in a fantasy football league this year in order to get more into this league that everyone seems to love, but it hasn’t worked. If possible, I might hate the NFL even more now.

For all of you people-who-don’t-like-football ‘haters’, just stop now, because I really DO LOVE football. It doesn’t run strong in my family, as I have solid memories of my mom and dad watching Cowboys games on Sunday afternoon. If he wasn’t dozing off, my dad was ‘giggling’ at the TV for all of the fumbles and missteps the Cowboys (home team) would make. My mom, on the other hand, probably cared way more than the only man in our family and to this day still gets irritated watching football with my dad.

Another confession within a confession: I was in band. Yep, die-hard band nerd right here. My family is musical and I started band in 6^th grade and stuck with it through my sophomore year of college. It was an amazing way to grow up and I don’t regret it at all! I had some of the best memories in band. It was there that we were forced to attend every high school football game and it was then that I tried to impress the boys by knowing how the game worked. First, I played innocent my freshman year and had a cute boy spend most of the game with me explaining the rules. As those four years went on, my love for the game would grow and I became one of THOSE fans. I LOVED football season.

There was a slight lull when I went to college at Stephen F. Austin in East Texas and the football was about as good as a bad high school team. That being said, the fans weren’t quite into it either, and I lost a little piece of my heart. As I wrote about here, I made the switch to Texas Tech and jumped right in with the Big 12 fan base. I LOVED our team and was at almost every game cheering them on. I managed to be on the front row multiple times and the games were the highlight of my week.

Even now, I can easily be found catching a game on TV of teams I don’t care for but I choose to watch it. I catch as many Tech games as I can, of course, and am sometimes more into it than the guys. I follow the standings, have the ESPN app, and LIVE for football season.

I hate the NFL. I have no interest in watching grown men play a game that, for the most part, doesn’t matter to them because in most cases, they still get a HEFTY paycheck. Granted, I had a great time at my first Cowboys game last weekend because I like sports and I like getting out and experiencing new things. My disdain for this particular league, though, was on a steady decline after driving to the stadium and passing parking lots that charged $60 for parking. There were TONS of people there and we had to wrestle our way into the stadium. Plus, the Dallas Cowboys AT&T stadium has a new rule that you basically can’t bring any sort of bag into the stadium. So, armed with only my cell phone and ID, I waited in line to be wanded down with a metal detector (is this Detroit?). We had GREAT seats and the stadium is beautiful, but there were the normal vendors charging something like $72 per beer or hot dog, like you see at most sports venues. Then, the whole thing was a HUGE production. They had fire–blasters (for lack of a better name) halfway across the field that nearly singed my hair every time a player came on the field. The next 3 hours were spent watching grown men saunter around with absolutely no urgency and make halfway attempts at completing a pass or getting a down. Did I mention while making MILLIONS (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars? For instance, anyone know who Travis Frederick is? I didn’t either, but I googled him (he is the center for the Dallas Cowboys – correct me if I’m wrong) and he is making $405,000 this year. That’s almost half a million dollars for playing 16 games a year. Guess who else makes $400k a year: Barack Obama. Yep, our President who has arguably the most stressful job in the world (despite your political party), makes less than a Dallas Cowboys center.

I guess if I wrap up my overall feeling of the game on Sunday, it just boggles my mind that there is SO much money in this game and it’s extremely obvious. People were crazed and I stuck out like a sore thumb without a Cowboys shirt or jersey. Then the BIG EVENT begins, the actual game, and it’s slow, void of passion, void of urgency. I understand that the fans are passionate, but I didn’t feel it at all from the players. Overall, I think that is what sets college football apart from the NFL. Not only are the fans die-hard, the team is too.

That’s why I hate the NFL.