Life
I used to think getting into the sport meant changing who I was.
But the makings of a fan were always in me.
We exchanged the usual pleasantries about our travels and learned they were retired and from Dallas.
Nice to meet you, I said, smiling.
You could practically hear the record-scratch sound effect.
My husband looked at me with a mixture of awe, amusement, and horror.
No one is more surprised by this than me.
Ive been missing out my whole life.
Discovering my own football fan within, Id come to the same conclusion.
I just beat her to it by a couple of years.
In a way, it all startedwith banana pudding.
(One particularly iconic clip is a supercut of him insistentlycorrecting every reporter who calls him Darius.)
That I could handle.
I had to admit: It was thrilling to feel like I had been drafted to something bigger.
Its always fun when youre winning, he said with a rueful laugh.
I discovered that on my own pretty quickly.
And, really, this was far from my first realization that watching football wasnt always unadulterated fun.
The threat of CTE and life-threatening injuries makes it an incredibly dangerous game.
OMG, yes, she replied.
Welcome to the plight of the football fan.
Its not all that different from politics, actually.
Those might never go away and they didnt negate the journey Id been on.
This article was originally published onFeb.
