More Tales From Colorado: It's Football Season!

Anyone who really knows me, knows that I am not a football fan!! Not at all!! It's at the top of my list of "most unfavorite" sports to watch! I enjoy watching baseball, basketball and I've grown to enjoy (if not only be accustomed to having it on all the time!) the NASCAR racing! But football remains to be elusive to me.....I don't really understand the games and it has always seemed unnecessarily rough to me. All of this being said, it would make sense that my son wholeheartedly wants to be a football player!!!

Part of his enthusiasm comes from the fact that James idolizes his big brother, Joe!! Joe now is a grown man, with a family of his own. James loves his brother and Joe treats James very well. We are all blessed by the relationships that James has with his big brother and sister!!

Joe started playing football in 2nd grade (according to his Dad....I wasn't in the picture back then!) and played straight through high school, some in college and then played a couple of years of semi-pro, until about 6-7 years ago! James has always thought that is way-cool!!

This is the first year that James is (finally!) old enough to play football through our local activities department. I think he was one of the first ones to sign up for the season. They start them in 4th grade here, and it's "flag football", something I can be alittle bit more comfortable about....at least for the time being. Next year, he'll move on to tackle football and I'll brace myself for that! I've never thought of myself as an overprotective Mom, but football just hits a chord with me.....one that I don't like. Maybe, as time goes by, I'll get over that, get more used to it all!

What I DO like is the huge smile that's on James' face as he comes running off the field, that fact that he has to work as part of the team, the physical activity of it all and how much he LOVES playing!! I can see both sides of it and so this Mom is trying very hard to be enthusiastic for HIM. He knows that I'm not a fan and thanks me for taking him to practices and for rooting his team on at games. We've both come to terms with each others thoughts on the subject.

And so, for now, I try my best to push aside my own discomfort and be there for James. We have a few more weeks to go and the season will be over for the year. Here are some of the pictures I took the other day at one of his games.......

Before the game, smiling with the mouth guard. Silly kid!