Sunday, February 3
Good Morning Justin…
It’s Super Bowl Sunday.
I think I will root for the Ravens this year. I figure any team that can beat Tom Brady and
the Patriots in their home stadium during the play offs, deserves to win it all
and probably will. That’s my guess,
anyway.
I was a high school student working as a dishwasher in a
cafeteria on the day of the first NFL-AFL
championship game between Kansas City
and Green Bay . It wasn’t yet the national spectacle it is
today. In fact the Los Angeles Coliseum
was half empty that Sunday as the Packers handily beat the old American
Football League Chiefs. It took flamboyant
quarterback Broadway Joe Namath and
his New York Jets to upset heavily favored Baltimore
to make the game a celebrated event. It
was no longer just a championship game in sports. It had truly become the Super Bowl.
If I watch the game today it will be the first Super Bowl
I’ve seen since Ely Manning and the New York Giants first beat New
England a few years back.
I’ve lost track of football and sports, in general. Narrowing my time to interests most important
to me is probably a natural part of aging.
I never decided to turn off sports.
My vitality as a fan merely slipped away. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t see myself old and decrepit. I’m just changed.
Life has stages. Yours
is Starting Out and with great vigor. We
could just as easily call it the Hurrah! stage as that would truly fit
you. One of my great memories of you was
your first game in Little League – T-Ball to be exact. You were placed at Short Stop but when the
ball rolled past the First Baseman into Right Field you could be seen running
full speed after it. Somehow the concept
of just watching something didn’t make sense to you. After the play the coach came out to remind
you your position would be Short Stop.
In your heart, though, you knew he must be kidding and you continued
scrambling after the ball no matter where it was hit. You had two strong legs, stout heart and
great desire to always be in the center of the action. You’ve since learned to play your position
but you remain for me that kid, always chasing action like the wind.
Love,
Dad
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