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"THE FINE PRINT"

The musings of Michael Schrader

                       FOOTBALL -- IT’S ONLY A GAME
(Published Autumn 1994 in the Farmington Press-Leader; posted in toto with Preface and Epilogue 5 July 2001)

PREFACE -- Marriage changes a person. What seemed important as a single man lost its importance as a married man. Call it a woman’s stabilizing influence.

      It is now officially autumn. Time once again for the men of the country to turn their attention to, you guessed it, football. It is also the time of the year when women long for the new year and the end of football season.
      Why are men so fascinated with football? When I was single and had time (after all, having kids means that you don't have any of your own time until they grow up), I was a football junkie. On Friday, it was high school football. On Saturday, it was college football, and on Sunday, pro football.
      I, of course, was not as fanatical as other men I know. One friend of mine would not eat on Sundays in order to watch the then St. Louis Cardinals get humiliated once more on television.
With a family came an end to football, as I no longer control the remote. With this forced withdrawal came a realization: it's just a game. Whether my alma-mater, the University of Missouri, wins or loses, it doesn't matter; my life will still go on. While I still like to go to at least one Mizzou game a year, it's not the game I go for; it's the excitement, the ambiance, and the memories. The memories of the way things were, old friends and good times.
      It is the atmosphere that makes Homecoming at Mizzou so exciting. It certainly isn't the football, as it has become a yearly ritual for our state team to be slaughtered at Homecoming. Nonetheless, it is the atmosphere, the fond reminiscing of the golden years (which some conspiracy theorists believed to be fictionally contrived by the CIA) that draws the alumni.
      Football on television has no mystique or aura. Those few games that I have watched in recent years have resulted in sleep and channel changing by my wife. Despite all the hype, I have no memories of recent Super Bowls. It was merely another television show. Why, then, the obsession with the game?   Why, then, the nasty looks when you say that you do not listen to the local high school football game religiously every Friday?
      I have been asked on several occasions what I think about our local football team. What should I think about it? When I was in high school, I followed my high school football team. What else are you supposed to do in high school? In college, I went to some of the college games. Of course, I never went by myself, because then I wouldn't have someone to talk to to pass the time away. I never went to a game to actually watch it, but rather as a backdrop for companionship.
      While football is great, it should not consume us. If the team wins, great, if not, oh well. Losing builds character. Despite what we might think, the world does not stop for a football game. Babies will be born, people will die, despite our beliefs that football supersedes all.
      Let's keep football in perspective. One final thought: go team, and no matter what you do, life will go on.

EPILOGUE -- I didn’t realize the extent of football fanaticism until I moved to Arkansas. I dreaded Razorback games in Little Rock because of how unruly the fans were. In the smaller towns, people lived and breathed high school football to the point that they would hold grudges based on who-beat-who. Texas has its share of fanatics as well, but not to the degree and zealousness I saw in Arkansas. It forever turned me off of high school football.
      It’s not just football, though. We tend to take all of our amateur athletics way too seriously. I stopped coaching T-ball because the parents and other coaches treated each game as the World Series, which completely sapped all of the fun out of it for both the players and myself. We have completely lost the meaning of what it is all about -- to have fun!