I come from a family of sports fans. Mom, Dad, brothers, uncles, aunts, cousins… even my Nana was glued to her television each time her teams played. What teams, you ask?
Boston teams. (Well, my Dad was born in Chicago and raised in Michigan, so he had convinced his kids that there was no baseball team like the Detroit Tigers. I bought into that until 1967… then, “Sorry, Dad! After all, ‘The Impossible Dream’ became possible!”)
When I met my husband, Barry… it became another “Possible” dream. Barry LOVED sports. He loved his Red Sox (we are season ticket holders) and Celtics and New England Patriots… and I loved him all the more for this shared FANaticism. Our children would grow to love sports too, both as FANS and participants. The boys loved basketball and skiing and golf… the girls loved swimming and running and skiing. As a family, we skied together, played tennis together, the guys golfed together. We followed our kids all over our state, region and even to national events for which they qualified. Now, our grandchildren have taken us to the next level… basketball, soccer, swimming, dancing… and we love every second of it. And our 4 adult children and their spouses have now all switched over to running and triathlon events…
But let’s get back to our professional teams. OK. The Super Bowl. Could I ever in my wildest dreams have predicted that Audrey would fall in love with and marry a… a… Steelers FANatic?! Yikes. And we’re not talking the kind-of, sort-of, happy-to-see-them-do-well kind of fan. We’re talking “his grandparents were season ticket holders and the family still has the tickets” fan. There have been seasons when BIG games are Patriots/Steelers… and lots of trash talk is tossed around. All in good fun. I think.
Anyway, yesterday was a big day for Matt… and my 4 beautiful little grandsons who come from this unlikely combo of Patriots/Steelers parents. And poor Matt had to watch the game in Patriots country, far from his family and friends back in Pittsburgh (and some even in Tampa). But how could we resist this cuteness (and Audrey’s good sportsmanship as a Pats fan at heart)?!
And what did I do to honor the Steelers and my son-in-law and grandsons in the middle of New England on Super Bowl Sunday? While running my 2nd 5K ever (Jane captured me crossing the finish line as the announcer called my name!)… check out the color of my gear:
Congratulations, Pittsburgh and your beloved Steelers! Yesterday’s Super Bowl was the best I’ve ever seen! And Congratulations to the Arizona Cardinals as well. What a gallant effort… and a knuckle-biter to the very end!
Do you have a favorite team or rivalry!?
I grew up in North Carolina, where college basketball turns people into raving lunatics…myself included! Where I’m from you are either for Duke or UNC. You love one and HATE the other, no way around it. I’m a huge UNC fan and can vividly remember being a kid and praying while I watched that God would let them win and if they didn’t, I would cry. Wouldn’t you know that my sister married into a family that loves Duke as much as I love Carolina? She’s now a Duke fan and very lucky that I haven’t disowned her! 🙂
Those pictures are adorable! At least the whole family can enjoy sports together, even if it prompts fighting and trash talk. 🙂 Congratulations on your 5K! What a great way to spend Super Bowl Sunday. And clearly you are a good sport too – I’m sure the boys appreciated it. 🙂
Congrats on running the 5K! You are awesome grandma!!!!!! We are not sports fanatics in our house, but, I did watch the most important parts of the game when they came back to win it! I was rooting for the Steelers cause the state is closer to where I live and I liked their colors. I LOVE Jennifer Hudson and voted for her thousands of times when she was on A.I. and to be under such pressure to sing the National Anthem was so touching, knowing what that poor girl has been thru. It was a great game, coming from someone who doesn’t understand football!
Hello Sharon,
I realized after waching your video that I finished right behind you in the race. I thought that it was you but I was too winded after my finish to talk!! How funny. I love reading all of the blogs from Mom Generations. I have a son who is 15 months old and I went back to teaching this year after taking a long maternity leave. Reading the blogs everyday just send a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart, and it makes going back to wrok a little bit easier!