It’s football season again which means that Sean is very focused during the games. Is that a nice way of saying he’s pretty much glued to the couch?
I on the other hand am of the “football is the game with the pointy ball” variety. I don’t get it and don’t try and explain it to me. People have tried and I glaze over and zone out every time.
Sean is also playing fantasy football online and in a point spread pool with some people I work with. (No, I’m not playing vicariously, but I do ask how everyone is doing. Concerned wife and all.)
So far, it’s been a rough season for Team Mitchell. He cheers for a perennial underdog (the Bills) and his picks have not done well this year at all.
He’s asked me my opinion a few times which makes for amusing conversations. My picks are based on any of the following criteria:
- which team have I heard more about lately
- which city I like better in general
- what colour their uniform is
- is there a player I’ve heard of playing for them?
- Was there an article about that team in the Sports Illustrated that Sean left in the bathroom?
- is the sun shining? What phase is the moon in?
- You get the picture
Fortunately, he doesn’t take my picks too seriously, due to the lack of strategy and all.
I knew his picks were going really badly when he started talking about picking the opposite of whatever he wanted to pick. Then he started asking Flora who to pick. Flora, being two, doesn’t really get football. She likes throwing a football, and knows that Daddy likes football and watches a lot of it on TV, but that’s about it.
This morning when we were all snuggling in bed, Sean asked Flora who he should pick. Here is a paraphrased version of the conversation (paraphrased because my memory isn’t as good as I’d like)
Sean: “Ravens or Steelers?”
Flora: “Steelers!” (said in the most confident tone a football-ignorant person could possibly muster. Gotta love a toddler’s self-confidence)
Sean: “Good choice. Jets or Bills?”
Flora: “Bills!”
Me: “She may have picked them because we’ve taught her to say ‘Go Bills!'”
Sean: “I don’t know if I’d pick them right now. Seahawks or Rams?”
Flora: “Rams!”
Me: “I think she’s just repeating the last word you say.”
Sean: “I think you’re right”
Me: “Collapses in a heap of giggles at the futility of watching Team Mitchell picking out who will win at their sporting events of the day.”
We’ll have to see what happens when Flora is a little older and can actually grasp the rules of football. She may be able to help Team Mitchell make better picks and Flora and Sean can live out their own football-based Simpsons episode with a Daddy Daughter Day of their very own.
Or, given the way that Simpsons episode went, maybe not.
