Throughout the country football fans are ecstatic about the start of another football season, but their spouses don’t necessarily share in the excitement.“It’s hard for me when football season comes around,” says Helen, whose husband Bob is an avid football fan. “The games are really long and they are on every single weekend and at least two days during the week. I feel like all we do is watch football.”
Helen admits her bias toward the game may stem from the environment she was raised in.
“We didn’t watch football when I was growing up. I remember watching basketball games with my dad, but not football games. We would only watch football on Thanksgiving when my aunt and uncle were around. Then I met Bob and here I am, watching football three to four nights a week,” she said.
Helen claims watching football with her husband has helped her to gain a better appreciation for the game.
“I don’t think we should spend so much time watching the games, but I have to admit that I enjoy watching them with Bob,” she said. “He told me he enjoys watching the games with me too because I am able to ‘talk intelligently’ about the game now that I understand it better.”
Watching football has become a weekend routine for Helen and Bob’s little family.
“My two oldest children have teams that they like to cheer for,” she says, “Dorothy is a Redskins fan and Buzz is a Cowboys fan. It is funny to watch them harass each other about the teams they like, they get that from Bob who is also a Cowboys fan. I don’t have a favorite team but I do have certain players that I enjoy watching.”
Helen recognizes there are worse things her husband could enjoy doing besides watching the Cowboys football games.
“While the games do tend to eat up a lot of our time together, I am grateful that he does his best to put our family first,” she said. “He usually only watches the games after the kids go to bed on weekdays and on weekends he helps me with whatever I need done before he turns the game on. It could be worse, he could be a BYU football fan, those people are crazy.”