Weekend Wandering....Thoughts - Are You Ready for Some FOOTBALL?!

This weekend has not involved any entertaining wandering yet, and given that I am the host for the SuperBaugh/HarBowl tomorrow, it looks like most of the wandering will be them coming to me and me happily enjoying a weekend of laziness.

Lazy weekends do lend time for lazy, meandering thoughts though, and the topic of mine this weekend has been Dad's recent defection from the world of civilized football fans (yes, I just used civilized and football fans together...we really do exist!).

You see, I was raised in Oregon where there is no pro football, so most folks either liked the Seahawks or a team of their own choosing that had no geographical relevance to their current location. Mom was raised in Colorado and Dad had lived there for a good bit as well, so for our family it was the Denver Broncos. I have been a Bronco fan since before I was old enough to remember what football even was, and it feels wrong to even think of anyone else. Being a Bronco fan when I was growing up and learning to love them - primarily the late 80s to early 90s, also meant one other thing....you HATED the 49s. More specifically, you hated Joe Montana, but since they could replace the 49s logo with is face and people might not even notice, it was all the same to us. We all have that one team that just really frosts you, and for me, thanks to the once wise teachings of DAD, that will always be the 49s.

Now as far as I'm concerned, hating a team is just as important as loving one, and comes with very similar qualifications. First and foremost, you are suspended from the club if show any sign of being the teetering fair weather fan when your team is sucking wind. Second, you are kicked out forever if you all of a sudden become superfan again once they improve (if you are a fan of a team who ever does improve that is, and a lover of say, the Browns....). Hating a team falls under the same rules - you don't get to change your mind. If you hate a team for 30+ years, you had better go on hating them for 30+ more. Fair weather hater is just as bad as fair weather fan.

Alas, though, I cannot seem to get this concept through the thick head of my father. Since he graced me with the news last week that he will be cheering for the 49s tomorrow, because he loves "Super K" and they have a great coach, I have repeatedly tried to explain this to him. Two of his goods friends also joined in (though I think their motivation was more out of enjoyment at seeing me worked up and the fact that they are from Baltimore than out of actual desire to help me, but I'm not going to look the gift horse in the mouth!). Even my threats of making him watch the game through the living window if he so much as attempts to bring the blasphemy of cheers for the 49s into my house was just met with laughter. "You have to roll with the times, Leah" he laughs. "Things change" he says. "Sure I hated them, but they are a different team now" he argues. So Dad, does that mean that I can decide tomorrow that I don't like the Broncos anymore? And then change my mind in 5 years, because they will be a different team then? "NO!!!" he bellows. "It doesn't work that way, you can't change your mind like that if you are a real fan" he continues. EXACTLY Dad, you just made my point. I left that last conversation with the a big smile, but I have a feeling it's going to be gone tomorrow when he is pounding on the door and shouting at me to let him into the house......