I thank my husband for my love of sports!
Sports for me was a social event growing up. I remember going to football games at my highschool and being more interested in talking with my friends or chasing boys than actually watching the game or caring who scored the winning touchdown. I never really played sports either. I would play in recreational games of soccer or softball with local kids, but never for an organized team. My Dad was never really in to sports either, so I was never subjected to the Sunday football marathons or anything like that.
As I got older in to my 20's, I started having more of an appreciation for it. I was born and raised in North Carolina so of course I gravitated towards being a Tarheel fan and now it's an anybody but Duke kind of attitude.
When I met my now husband 5 years ago, one thing I learned very quickly was that he was a sports fanatic. He loved all sports, football, baseball, nascar, golf, etc. I remember a couple months after we started dating, he was in a Fantasy Football League and it was down to the championship with him and another of our friends competing. You would have thought it was life or death. But now....I understand.
It started with NFL football. I was sucked in quickly. Not only when the Panthers played, but Thursday night, all day Sundays and Monday nights are now dedicated to football. The 2nd year in to our relationship, I joined the Fantasy Football League and astoundingly won the championship my first year! Needless to say, me against 11 guys, there were some upset participants, but I did have Peyton Manning as my star quarterback and he went off that year! As i mentioned before, we are Panthers fans and as many of you know, we went to the Super Bowl 2 years ago. It was so extremely exciting that when we played so poorly and came home empty handed, you would have thought someone had died. We were crushed. We put our hearts and souls in to the season and just felt so disappointed, but there's always the next year!
We have gotten to go to several professional sports events over our past five years together which just makes you love it even more. There is nothing better than seeing the athletes live and being a part of the excitement, even if your team is losing.
Our new love is Premier League Soccer. Every Saturday and Sunday morning we are up, watching the matches, rooting for the Tottenham Hotspurs. Our dream is to go to England and to be able to see a professional soccer match.
I am so thankful to my husband for opening up my eyes to the world of sports and how exciting and heart wrenching it can be.
Go Heels, Spurs, Panthers, Hurricanes, Angels and Dale Earnhardt Jr. !!!
Go Spurs! Tottenham supporters here in the US seem to be few and far between... great article and good luck on the contest (looks like you made the finalist round)