Sports Talk

It's Sunday, so this must be football. As an adult American Male, I find myself inexorably drawn to the spectacle and community that the National Football League provides. Though there are only five teachers at my school who are men, we feel the our professional bond strengthened by the simplest sentence: "Didja see the game yesterday?"
It's a water-cooler thing. Being able to speak knowingly of the catch or the controversy takes the edge off of what may or may not be happening in the classroom. It's not strictly avoidance, it's more like a quick breath of air before we go back underwater. Showing up on Monday morning without some working knowledge of the ups and downs of the local franchises would be forgivable, but puts one in the position of having nothing to talk about before the bell rings. Breaking down the average weekend of professional football takes about six to eight minutes. If it's playoff time, maybe a even less.
But this is the first weekend, and every team is a potential Super Bowl contender. Every game has "playoff implications." That being said, it is also potentially devastating for your team to drop that first one out of the gate. A loss means you spend the week hoping for some sort of redemption before the next week begins. A lot of eye-rolling and shrugging will take place before the season concludes, but as the sun comes up this morning, it's all potential. My wife will say goodbye to my complete attention on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights. My son will check his interest level and still slip out at halftime to work in the Lego Lab. I will take my position in front of the TV, just in case something really amazing happens. And even if it doesn't, I'll have something to talk about tomorrow morning.