Football and the Super-Fem

For most of my life, I was an anti-sports girl.  In junior high I loved baseball (we had a storied franchise then, the Baltimore Orioles),  but I quickly lost interest once in high school, as baseball became a distant memory compared to so many other things...music, popularity, BOYS, BOYS, BOYS.

The years passed quickly.  Love, college, marriage, work, babies.   No time for much of anything but relationships, raising those beautiful kids, trying to fit some writing in in between.  Turns out creating brilliant, kind children takes a helluva lot of time.  Then, suddenly (it seemed), they were gone.  Creating their own lives, their own nests.  Returning to mine from time to time, but they were launched.  And where was I?

I'm a passionate person.  I always say, I go from 0  to 100% in no time flat.  So if I take an interest in something, it becomes a passionate interest.  Few things cans sustain that intensity of feeling.  Writing -- yes, but it needs inspiration.  Learning? Yes, but I need to find things worth learning.  Politics?  Here's where I get off the train.  Turns out, the inspiring don't inspire the great unwashed, of which I surely am.

One Sunday in September I watched a Ravens game with my husband.  We'd been ticket holders for ten years to the Terrapins, so football was not unknown to me.  But I had not caught the bug.  This time, this game, I did, because we were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, our avowed arch enemy.  I found myself watching, and asking questions.  My interest was further fueled by the fact that we won.  We not only won, we prevailed.  I think the score was something like 35 -7. 

After that, I found my interest grew in leaps and bounds.  I watched ESPN.  I read articles.  I bookmarked Ravens blogs.  I talked to the men at my local gym, all avid Ravens fans.  I asked questions of my very patient, very bewildered husband.    And I learned.  I love learning.  And in football, as in life, there is a hell of a lot to learn.

Football is a passionate, emotional sport.  I am a passionate, emotional female.  Do I like injuries?  No.  Do I like to win?  Yes.  Am I loyal to my home base?  Yes, as any mother is.  So it is a natural fit.

Now I get it, after all the years of not getting it.  Football is a metaphor for life.  Tough, gritty, passionate, to be played with all your heart.   The Ravens are an emotional team.  So the glove fits this girl. 

I'm in love with football, and the Baltimore Ravens.  I don't know where this will lead, but I'm excited to take the journey.   All my fellow football sisters, join me!