I love watching sports on TV. I prefer football the most, then baseball, then basketball, and finally hockey. But I do LOVE the hockey play-offs – talk about aggressive.
With my love of athleticism and competition, understanding the details of American sports is something of importance to me. Some women feign ignorance when it comes to sports, which somewhat annoys me. When a very intelligent woman says, “I don’t understand football,” I feel like saying, ‘I don’t understand how an accomplished businesswoman or successful parent and household manager can’t understand a rather fundamental game of kick-run-pass-tackle-score.’ In my opinion, a woman who doesn’t understand football (or any other major league sport) doesn’t want to learn the game. It isn’t rocket science. I’ve seen entertainment systems that are more complex to figure out.
You may wonder why a woman should want to learn about sports. I think she should want to for the same reason she might want to learn how to plant a garden or how the pyramids were built or how Donald Trump makes his money. It’s knowledge. The more you know the more you can relate to others.
When my friend, Pat Bowlen (owner of the Denver Broncos) invites me to his events, he chooses to seat himself between his wife and me. Everyone enjoys time with this man and he can have his pick to sit next to any of his guests, so why does he choose me? I would love to pin it on my charm, personality, and good looks, but in all honestly, it’s because I know football. Pat’s world is football and when we get together, we talk football. It’s that simple.
More importantly, you may want to invest time in learning about sports if sports matters to the ones who matter most to you. Spending the time to understand the things that your loved ones LOVE will result in spending more time together, and that in itself makes it worth it.
You might find this hard to believe, but WJJ and I always watch certain programs together in our TV room. In fact, we purposely left the TV out of our bedroom because we didn’t want to give ourselves the option to separate when enjoying the television. At this phase in our lives, we want to spend as much “together time” as possible. So, WJJ and I have to compromise and decide which show we will watch. Compromise works for us and in actuality, doesn’t feel much like compromise when I’m sitting by his side.
So, ladies, take a chance. Don’t play dumb. Learn about football or hockey or even rugby. What’s the worst that can happen? You might enjoy it. And how about this little bonus: you get to admire drop-dead gorgeous men running across your screen. If you need some motivation to get you excited about doing your homework, look up images of Tom Brady, Mark Sanchez, and Matt Leinart. I just gave you three more reasons to get your head in the game. Promise ladies, it’s worth the effort.
…Here’s one of Tom Brady for the road.