35w0d: Indoctrination

My husband is, for the most part, not an asshole about being a Pats fan. He's loved them through thick and thin, and apparently they've had some awful decades in there. I don't know, since I'd never really heard of them until we began dating.

(I mean, seriously, American football? It's so weird. Rules about who is even allowed to catch the ball? Rules about who can throw and who can throw backwards? The quarters--and the entire game--don't even end when the clock goes out! And they hardly ever do anything in the whole 3 hours, which explains why I, as an 8-month pregnant woman, could easily dress as a center or one of those other big guys for Halloween and no one would be like, "You can't play with that big belly!")

I myself am not an asshole when it comes to being a Jazz fan. We haven't been truly awful in my life time, but we have had some less than impressive seasons, and tons of bi-polar seasons like the one we're currently undergoing, which is probably why I have higher blood pressure now than I did 3 weeks ago.

When we first began discussing baby names, we both tossed out several team names. (Don't you think Stockton is cute, for a girl? Gronk kind of has a nice ring to it.) We were kidding, of course, since we're not total assholes.

We had a conversation a couple nights ago about whether we will...well...brainwash our children. If they don't particularly enjoy basketball or football, that's one thing. But could we raise little ones who...turn into Laker fans? Get thee behind me! (My husband feels similarly about the Jets.)

Of course, in the long run, supporting a professional sports team isn't a big deal. (Assuming we also raise our children to be sane and to not be assholes.) But come on, there's a reason I support the Jazz, and it's because, well, I'm from Utah. Although my mom isn't into sports at all, my friends had parents who were, and I grew up hearing about them, learning all their names like they were rock stars. We didn't have TV until I was 8, so I'd never even seen a professional game on TV, but I knew all about them from the playground. I was a tom-boy and played "basketball" with the boys at recess. I wanted to be in Junior Jazz (like Little League), but at the time, they didn't allow girls. I mean, if I'd been raised in Denver, I have no doubt I would be a Nuggets fan, you know? That sort of deep, long-abiding love and willingness to say, "It's our year!" over and over and over...when your roster is entirely full of aging players with broken knees or crammed with 19-year-olds who think defense is for non-famous players...that's not entirely rational.

I'm pretty sure our kids will love the Jazz and Pats, at least until they're slightly older and desire to individuate from us or their peers. It's interesting to think about.

And if they decide to cheer for the Lakers, they can't sit next to us. I think that's fair. Consequences are an important thing to grasp, after all.