The Super Bowl for Non-Football Fans

Photo by Jean-Daniel Francoeur on Pexels

This is going to be a short post. I got very little sleep, and for the first time in a bazillion years, it was because of a sporting event.

I’ve never been a sports fan. My husband, who’s from the East Coast, lives and breathes New England sports. From the Red Sox, to the Patriots, to the Celtics, to the Bruins, he follows it all. When I first met his family, the first presents they gave to me included a Red Sox baseball cap. He let me know that that’s how I knew I was a part of the family.

Growing up all over the world and never really having any roots, it was hard for me to find a home team to root for. So, when I married my husband, it was quite easy to slip into rooting for Tom Brady and the Patriots and to attend celebrations when the Red Sox finally broke the “curse of the Bambino” in 2004.

Even still, I never got that into football. It was too violent, and I hated how the league exploited players by making making rules to protect them from chronic traumatic encepholy (CTE), but still sending out players who had clearly seemed to have had a concussion back out on the field. And that’s not to mention the NFL’s problematic relationship with dealing with its players’ incidents of domestic violence.  

I guess, really the only thing to bring me to be able to watch a football game is Taylor Swift. I’ve written about my recent conversion to become a Swiftie, and of course, I was ready to follow the biggest game of the year to cheer her and her boyfriend on. 

But, I only watched until overtime. I began to realize again why I’m not a big sports fan. I just get so nervous and tense. And this game was an especially close game. I had no real ties to the Kansas City Chiefs, other than the fact that I wanted to watch a continuation of the world’s greatest love story. But, there I was pacing around, stressed out beyond belief and praying for the team to pull ahead. 

After a bit, I couldn’t stand it any longer and just went to bed, only to wake up to the celebratory news that the chiefs had managed to pull of a win in the final seconds of overtime.

I suppose, that’ll be the last that I watch until next season, if it looks like Taylor will be there!