"Are You Blogging?"

I heard this last night, as I was typing away, replying to a PM left by a friend at a message board.

"Huh?", I said.
Nelson says "I said, are you blogging?".
Me: "Nope. Just replying to a PM."
Him: "A what?"
Me: "A private message, left for me by (insert name here - someone he knows)"
Him: "Oh. I wasn't sure."
Me: "That's ok. I should put something up, but I don't know what. Since you brought it up, any suggestions? What did you think I was blogging about?"
Him: "I thought maybe you were blogging about football." (as the game chugs on in the background)
Me: "I appreciate the suggestion, however I don't have much to say about football - but thanks for trying."

I don't much care for football. This was made worse by my tenure in the band in middle school, high school, and college. As a sport, it doesn't hold my interest. I rate it higher than golf, tennis, basketball, and baseball on the interest-o-meter, but not by much. It does, however, rate much higher than NASCAR.

I just really am not much in to sports as a whole. I do enjoy Ice Hockey - it manages to hold my interest. I also enjoy figure skating. When I myself was skating, I was much more in to it, but I haven't been hardcore in to it in years. I just haven't found anyone I can really get behind in the last few years. When the next Brian Boitano comes along, maybe I'll change my mind. I adore the Olympics, but probably more for the ideals they stand for. When they're on, nothing else is at my house. I have a good functioning knowledge of amateur wrestling, but I need to know that for my job. As an aside, I have very minimal knowledge on certain cheerleading and gymnastics regs for the same reason.

For all intents and purposes, I am a football widow. There was a time when he only watched NFL. He used to tell me "Hey, be glad I'm not in to college football". That, however, was just a matter of time. I didn't think Sundays would be too bad when we first met, because we can't get a whole lot farther away than the team he roots for, so there wouldn't be a lot of games to sit through, but that never mattered. We had to watch this game because it was important if they won or lost. Another game didn't matter in that respect, but we watch because it's football, and it's on. Now my Saturdays are tied up too. He roots for a team that is frequently on tv, so no dodge ther, and with the complex BCS rankings thingy, all games are important. When he's in full effect of football withdrawal, he goes to......Arena Football. No disrespect for people who enjoy it - please feel free to do so - but it makes me wish for regular football back.

I usually find something to do to keep my occupied while the games are on, and last night was no different. One thing we do enjoy together, however, is ranking on what should be loosely termed as "Color Commentator Teams". Our favorite target is John Madden. Words fail me to describe him. He's all circular talk, Telestrator play, and Brett Favre references. We both adore Frank Caliendo (You Tube him sometime) and his dead-on take on Madden ("Brett Favre could lose both arms and both legs and he'd still be the best torso in football!").

Anyway, the commentary team that was on the game we were watching (don't remember who - it was college - that's all I remember) is one that he particularly doesn't like. There are two people in the group that seem to be ok, but one who just has absolutely no clue, and he seems to speak the most. He made a lot of glaring errors, and strange comments. As I have my head buried in my laptop, working on another part of the PM chain that was going on last night, I hear something that should never EVER come up during a football game (or anywhere else at this point in time anymore):

Weird Dude: "Hey! What the heck is Britney doing?"
Normal Commentator: "Who?"
Weird Dude: "Britney! What in the heck is she doing anymore?"
Other Normal Commentator: "Britney who?"
Weird Dude: "Britney Spears, of course! What's the deal with her lately?"
Normal Commentator: "Why do we care?"

THANK YOU NORMAL COMMENTATOR! And apparently we weren't the only ones who thought that Saturday Night College Football wasn't the appropriate place to bring up Britney Spears, as they hurriedly cut to commercial, and then never mentioned it again.

And on another note.......

College Football is an animal all it's own, and one I don't think I'll ever fully get. I can understand why people get hyped up about their Alma Maters (GO YSU PENGUINS!!) but around here, Penn State is a religion, and I know very few people who have actually gone there. My cousin, a co-worker - that's all I can think of. They are fanatics, but I understand. The remainder of the people who live around here? Not so much.

We fly the Buckeye flag (two of them, in fact) in front of our house. We have our reasons. A lot of them have to do with the fact that we are fans of their coach (going back to his YSU days - I've met Jim Tressel, and he's a great guy). Apparently, that's not cool around here. Apparently there's an 11th Commandment that states "Thou Shalt Root For Penn State" that I'm not aware of. The topic has been brought up in church. We've had people refuse to wait on us in stores. I'm serious. People: there are more important things in this world. Seriously. Church is not the place to air a football rivalry. But that's enough of that.

Wow. I guess I managed, in my rambly and disjointed way, to actually blog about football.

This one is for you, honey.