Football Break Through

From 1964 through 1970, I lived through a terrible period of football as played by the University of Maryland at College Park. Aside from watching Jerry Fishman give the midshipmen of Navy the middle finger during the 1964 season, Maryland football during that period was pretty much a wash. I got tired of "winning the first half" really early in my football career. Forty years later, with two children having graduated as Georgia Bulldogs, I now find myself rooting for a superior winning team ranked in the top ten and moving up. Not only that, I have a fine Maryland team under the guidance of Ralph Friedgen - Georgia Tech experienced - moving close to the Top 25. In other words, it's a great time for college football in my house.

It's even greater because we have a spousal break though! After many years, my wife, Nancy, has begun to raise her eyes from the spy novel she's reading to watch a notable offensive play from quarterback Matthew Stafford. This is a landmark moment in my life. Nancy graduated from a Lutheran college in the Midwest. She has no idea what it means for Fishman to give the finger to "Boystown" in 1964. Her college team was the "Saints." OMG

After forty years of personal frustration, football has become an unholy game for me. Still, I trust that all those midshipman can forgive a truly inappropriate gesture on the part of a frustrated Terrapin and schedule years of head-to-head competition well into the future. So Nancy sits on the couch opposite me, watching my twitches, listening to my verbal ejaculations. Gradually, though she may still refer to my team as "the turtles," she has come to understand that there really is something about a game that glues millions of fanatics to their stadium seats or their televisions every Saturday in the fall. Today, as LSU falls to the Dogs, I feel that Nancy will be there with me very soon, cheering them on to a bowl victory. After all these years, that's a damned good turn of events.