I have suddenly at age 77 become a football fan. How did this happen?!

It all started when my husband Bob was looking for something to watch on TV while he did his exercises. During the week, he watched the news, but with news sorely lacking on weekends, he started watching football.

I used to watch football with my father when I was in my teens; it was a nice bonding activity. But once I left home I stopped. After I married, Bob and I were always so busy with house projects and then small children that watching sports just held no appeal. Well, in truth, we used to watch the tennis matches together because we both loved to play tennis, and when you play a sport, watching a game is much more interesting. We have never even considered watching football.

My two sisters and their families watch sports all the time. For them, watching sports is a fun family activity — everyone getting together, parents and offspring, to drink beer, watch the games, and root for their favorite players. It used to annoy me that we had to schedule Thanksgiving dinner around the football viewing schedule, and the rest of the gang spent most of the time watching sports on TV.

I was surprised one day when my massage therapist told me he thought football was his favorite sport to watch. He is primarily a musician and he is also Canadian. Shouldn’t he prefer to watch ice hockey? But he explained that football has a tremendous amount of strategy involved, and that every man on the team is vitally important in every play.

So recently, I would pass through the downstairs family room sometimes when Bob had a game on, and I would watch the play for a while. He would explain the situation and which side he was rooting for. I enjoyed watching with him and began to know a few of the players.

Some of the plays are really fun! The quarterback pretends to hand the ball to a teammate and the opponents start to run to toward that man — but, no, the quarterback still has the ball and is running with it and the opposition homes in on him. But wait! He suddenly throws the ball to a teammate over on the side, one who had been a quarterback in college, and the teammate catches the ball and throws a splendid pass downfield to a teammate who was wide open, and that person makes a touchdown. I mean, it really makes me laugh with delight. And several times I have seen a runner carrying the ball down the field at top speed suddenly encounter several people on the ground in front of him, and he just jumps over them like someone running hurdles in a track meet. Or if the pile of bodies is near the goal line, he just dives over the top, rolling down the other side into the end zone.

The camera work these days is so good you can see the players’ faces close up; you see the exultation of a winning play and the pain of a mistake. You get to admire some of the nicer players. Patriots linebacker and Wharton School graduate Brandon Copeland started having classes for his teammates on financial literacy, and it was so popular he is now putting it on YouTube. Think of the positive effect he will have on so many lives. Also, the commentators explain the play afterward, sometimes putting arrows on the screen to highlight the contribution of each player. Soon you realize that most of the play was choreographed ahead of time.

The new quarterback, Cam Newton, is a lot of fun to watch. His open face shows every emotion and he is really a nice human being, humble and grateful for a chance to play again. He is mentoring younger teammates and really helping to develop esprit de corps. He is also extremely talented and gives it his all. I remember one particular play when the team was within a few feet of a touchdown. Cam decided to make the run himself, charging right into the fray. When the whistle blew, there was a huge pile of bodies right in front of the line. Cam was somewhere on the bottom and couldn’t be seen, but sticking out from the writhing mass was a long arm with a football in hand, stretched just beyond the line. Touchdown!

So now, Bob and I set aside the time to watch the Patriots together. Neither one of us really knows the intricacies of the game, especially the penalty system. Something happens that I don’t understand, and I say to Bob, “I didn’t understand that. So glad I have you to explain it to me.” And then he flashes me this giant smile, because we both know he doesn’t have a clue either.

But what about the concussions, you say? Well, football is big money, and big money has no conscience. The colleges and the owners will happily use up a young body in college or in the pros to keep the game going. That is shameful and I hope it is starting to change. But now that the professional players know what they are risking, when I see how much they love to play, I say it is a decision each man has to make for himself. People risk death all the time driving in car races, climbing mountains, and even skiing, and no one tries to shut down those sports. I confess I would prefer it if they could play the game without all the tackling; perhaps that will come.

Meantime, I am finding football to be a nice topic to discuss with my sisters. When we talk to each other on the phone, we cover all the usual subjects: How’s your [insert latest physical issue here]? Are your children OK? Are your grandchildren in school or remote? Can you believe what [insert politician name here] just did [insert swear words here]? But then, mercifully, we are able to move on to football, a neutral subject that we can discuss with pleasure (dimmed a little by recent team performance). And when this pandemic is over and we have another family gathering, Bob and I will be sitting on the couch with all the others, watching the game.