The View From the Stands, Part One

I'm not a big sports person. I don't have anything against sports, it's just not my thing. Crowds are also not my thing. So if you put the two together, attending a sporting event should not be near the top of my "To Do" list.

I have, however, attended plenty of sporting events through the years: softball games, track meets, basketball games, soccer matches, field hockey games, cross country meets, tennis matches and even parts of football games. I've always enjoyed them.

Today I watched a football game from start to finish for, I think, the first time in my life. I had a good time.  It's exciting to see "my" team get closer to the goal, but I don't get the game at all (Well, I do get that if you score a touchdown, that's a good thing. I'm not a complete idiot).

There's a lot I don't get. I don't get "Downs". I don't get the penalties (or most of them anyway). I don't get what they're doing with that rope thing with the poles at either end (looks like some rudimentary type of surveying, and I think it might be related to the "downs", but I'm not quite sure). I don't get why someone is flipping over big numbers on the sides. I don't get why they'll stop the clock sometimes and not other times.

And speaking of "don'ts", I don't want to listen to someone trying to explain these things to me.

Even though I don't get a lot of it, it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy being there today.

Part of the fun is trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Numbers are resetting on the big board and I'm reading the sponsors, wondering how those specific sponsors got involved. Were they asked or did they volunteer? And if they were asked, why weren't others asked as well?

Players are switching off but I'm watching some of the other players drinking from a bucket. They're drinking from a long hose. Is it water or Gatoraid?

Whistles are blowing and players are running back and forth while I'm looking at the letters on the refs' backs trying to figure out what they mean.There's an R and a U and an L, but I can't make out the other one.

Next to the watching the marching band, the real fun is watching and listening to the people around me.

To my lower left, there's a bored little grandson playing with his grandfather's face and you can see the love they have for each other in their interaction.

Further in front of me is a young teenage man with special needs who is quite affectionate to someone who appears to be his older brother, and his brother is very giving as well. Often, his older brother has his arm around this young man and this young man frequently rests his head on his brother's shoulder. It's very touching. Later, this same young man is dancing a jig as the marching band is playing accordingly. He's quite good and several people around him applaud in appreciation.

I listen to the men behind me and it's obvious that there are a few players on our team who are idiots when we are losing, but decent players when we're ahead (one favorite expression: "What the hell was that?").

I listen to the band parents expressing pride for their children and the other children as well. I watch as they crane their necks to find their kids in the stand while the game is going on.

As the day winds towards an end, my butt is killing me on the aluminum benches. It's getting colder as the sun is going down and that damn clock keeps stopping with more frequency as it gets closer to the end.

But I stay. I stay for the the same reason I came in the first place; the same reason I've attended every sporting event. Someone I love is involved, in this case my older son.

I was here to share in that experience and to watch with pride and admiration.

And, as usual, it was great.

P.S. We won