And so it Begins

At least for me, this past weekend officially opened football and of  course all fall sports for colleges, universities and high schools across America.  Every year I go in with high hopes and I am never disappointed. The athletes work hard in the off-season to prepare for this moment and the weekly games to follow.  I know with football they go through two a days or camp and watch hours of film.  The practice, and then they practice some more.  The coaches never stop throughout the year.  They are designing offensive and defensive plays, they are recruiting players, they check on all the details that effect their players.  They meet with each other, they meet with the new recruits and their parents, they meet with administrators.  They watch countless hours of film and plan for the season. 

And then comes the first game.  The stands are full of parents and friends who clearly know ,more about the sport than the professionals on the field who have spent hours preparing the team.  Every coach is an idiot, a moron, cannot possibly know which play to call.  Rather than keeping this information to themselves, the charming spectators cannot stop themselves from spewing comments that are belittling and/or undermine the team.  And you have to love the parents that feel qualified enough to actually go as close to the sideline as they can to coach the players themselves!  Well I guess somebody needs to since the professionals are so incompetent.  I try to imagine a patient taking over surgery from "Doc".  Now there is food for thought. 

The next target are the players themselves.  If you listened to the parents/spectators you would naturally assume that these young men (or women depending on what sport you choose to focus on) are doing everything within their power to deliberately lose the game. Much like their coaches, they are idiots, morons and totally incompetent.  They deliberately miss tackles, drop balls, get sacked and get penalized.  It is hard to believe that universities actually give them scholarships to embarrass themselves like this.

And before I go any further, let's talk about those penalties.  Who in their right mind would ever become certified to officiate any sport!  Nobody likes these guys!  The cannot see, they cannot think, they clearly cannot make a respectable call.  They play favorites and definitely don't know the rules!

I have spent about 25 years watching sporting events from the time the gang was about seven through college.  I have watched people belittle and abuse the coaches and the referees.  Do they really think that calling someone a blind moron endears them?  I know, maybe it makes them think about getting a vision and intelligence test!  Worse than that they attack the kids.  Their friends' kids and the children of total strangers.  They show no favoritism.  Now that some of the gang is older and sitting in the stands with me, they marvel at what they are witnessing.  I love it when they simply look at me and say "thanks".  "For what?"  "For not being that parent, ever!"

"The Surprise" has three years of eligibility left.  I am concerned that as I get older, my patience grows shorter.  If I don't snap on one of these bleacher buffoons before he graduates it will only be by the grace of God!  I wonder if my kids will come up with the bail money or let me sit there to teach me a lesson?