Sports

I used to have this theory that as Southern women age they get more and more into football. A majority of my early evidence consisted of my grandmother’s fervent watching of LSU football that eventually expanded to include the Saints and Texans. I remember my grandfather getting her all worked up every time LSU would start losing. He’d start talking about how bad the team always was and she’d get all ruffled and holler at him about not talking bad about her Alma Mater. He could give a rat’s butt about who won the game, he just liked to see her get feisty.

As I got older I watched more of my friends get more and more into the sport. One has season tickets to LSU and even goes to the games without her husband when he’s not feeling up to it. My Mother In Law watches while my Father in Law snores in his chair or watches sitcoms in the other room.

I sometimes wondered if it was a bit like Stockholm Syndrome. Forced to watch it at every social gathering and at home with their spouses, they eventually grew ravenous with love of the sport even after their spouses lost interest.

I’ve since altered my theory to include sports in general. Imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when I heard my own Mother trash talking about Formula One racing. Who was this strange creature?! She’d dodged the football bullet but got hit with the F1 craze. Woe is me when I make the mistake of calling during a race. Haha!

I thought I was immune too until I made a crucial error. You see, in trying to further educate myself so that I’d be better equipped to talk shit to my brother (a particularly favorite hobby of mine) a couple of years ago, I started paying attention to NHL hockey again.

We grew up watching NHL hockey and going to minor league games here in town. Raised to be fans of the New York Rangers, we consider them our family team. (Mark Messier will forever be my favorite player.) As individuals though, my brother and I root for separate teams. I’m a Colorado Avalanche fan myself. Once I moved out of my parents house, I really only paid attention to what was going on during the playoffs and not much then. However, one must be properly informed when talking shit so I began to do my research.

It started out with checking the scores online and maybe reading an article here or there. Then I started following a couple of teams on Facebook. I convinced The Hubs that I needed an Avs jersey for Christmas. I enjoyed watching the highlight reels so much on Facebook that when I saw I could see some of the games on HBO/Max, I started watching live when I happened to see one was on. At the start of this season I donned my beloved jersey and promptly signed up for ESPN+ so I’d be able to stream all of the games. I began teaching The Twins about the game.

Now I sometimes watch games even when my team isn’t playing. I’ve started collecting hockey cards. It’s not unusual to find me yelling at the TV at bad calls and cheering when there are fights. I follow trade announcements and read speculations about playoff seedings. I’ve become obsessed with the sport I often ignored as a kid in favor of reading or drawing. The Hubs rarely watches with me and on the off chance he does I usually end up fussing at him for talking too much crap. (Like my grandfather and grandmother, he loves to ruffle my feathers.)

So apparently I’m getting old and really into hockey. At least my team is doing better than my brothers!