Football is EVIL!

Ok, I am going on the record to say I HATE football. I have a number of reasons and I intend to vent and lay them out here, so strap on your seat belts and get ready to go...

First of all I grew up in a house where football was a sacred event. No one ever bothered to explained how the game worked and if I would try to ask I was neatly and clearly put in my place and told to be quiet they were watching the game - and we all know that the football game is more important than I was.

When I arrived in high school I was in the marching band. I didn't particularly want to be in the marching band, but if you wanted to play in the concert season, you had to play in the marching season as well. This meant that I was at every football game every Friday night for 3 years. I was bored to tears as I either fried or froze in my band uniform sitting on the sidelines. The one advantage of my experience is that I was finally around people who were willing to answer my questions about how the game was played and didn't just tell me to be quiet.

So as the years pass, living in Cleveland, I came to the sad conclusion that football would always be a part of living here. After all, although we never had a winning team, routing for the Browns was an experience akin to nirvana here for most people. Then there was a glorious day! Art Modell moved the Browns out of Cleveland to Baltimore. I have rarely experienced such bliss! I remember the day well. It was the same day that Yitzak Rabbine was assassinated, but you barely heard that on the news here because everyone here thought that football was much more important than the assassination of a major political player who was in the leadership of one of the most important countries of the world - but who wants to know about that?

Alas for me we got the team back. Cleveland has one of the worst school systems in the country. It is one of the poorest cities with some of the highest national foreclosure and unemployment rates. So everyone can see that we should ignore the failing school system, and pretend that the temporary jobs that were created to build the new stadium (because of course we couldn't use the old one) would fix the job problems. So the new Browns arrived in town a few years back.

Over the years I have learned that I am just about alone in my viewpoint. But that doesn't mean I have to like it or that I have to be quiet about it. Neither of which I am going to do.

Church is VERY important to me. I really wish that the superbowl was not on Sunday. It ruins the day - that is all anyone talks about. If however having a superbowl party is more important to you than being in church then, STAY HOME! I was just appalled as a couple in our church was whispering in a very loud whisper during communion as well as the sermon of everything that they had to do for their party. I do not doubt the faith of this couple but I see the poison that this obsession when chips and dip become more important than worshiping and communing with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not much has changed over the years. I still feel like Jeremiah - a lone voice calling in the wilderness. This year one of the churches where Emily goes to Awana the commander is one of the Browns. He is the first person I have ever met that seems to have put football in the correct perspective - behind God. I really look up to him for what he is trying to do. However I also see him failing at it. I used to look forward to going to Awana on Wednesday nights. I had met and become friends with other moms there and we would talk and chat during the meeting.

Now everything has changed. It is no longer the moms who bring the kids but rather the dads. I don't pretend that they are the least bit interested in Awana or even what their kids are doing. The only reason that they are there is because the commander is a football player. It is funny and sad to see a bunch of middle aged men following the poor commander around like puppies. The commander seems almost as annoyed with it as I am.

There is a reception area with a couch in that church. It is where my friends and I used to sit and chat. This week the commander was not there so all the football dads ended up there. Unlike the welcoming women I knew for years the guys sat and talked about football.

All of my life I have hated the game. I see how it has destroyed a family, a city and a church. So I can not help but believe that football is EVIL!