A House Divided

It’s that time again! College football is back, and my family is excited! College football season is almost like a holiday in our home. A reoccurring holiday that we get to celebrate every single Saturday for months out of the year? Yes, please! 

However, we are a house divided, and some of those divisions lead to some intense trash talking in the Gordon house. 

It started with a little girl, born and bred in Ohio, who decided that Penn State was her team. Unless you’ve lived in Ohio, or perhaps met a fan, you probably don’t understand the gravity of my situation, but I can assure you that I committed the ultimate sin in the eyes of many of my fellow Ohioans. Yes, I’m writing about it with humor, but I’m not joking when I tell you that I’ve had everything from impolite slurs, suggestions to what they would like to do to my person, and death threats shouted at me by strangers when I’ve gone out on a crisp autumn Saturday in Penn State gear back home. It’s a little absurd. That’s not to say that all fans are like this at all. I also have a ton of friends and family, including my own son, who I just exchange playful banter with every season. However, Ohio State fans are at least part of the reason why I never became one.

While Parker started out as a promising young Lion, my family got to him during an extended trip home shortly after he turned two. They took advantage of my stepping away for a quick shower, and his love of the color red, and the rest is history. Parker is wildly competitive, a trait he got from his father, so game days around here are quite the event. Just in the last year or two he’s really upped his trash talking game too, so we have a lot of fun together on football Saturdays. When it comes down to it, Parker and I are certainly the most invested, probably because our teams are the only two that play each other yearly, and the Penn State vs. Ohio State game is one of the top ten celebratory events in our household every year. 

Sebastian, loyal son that he is, cheers for the Nittany Lions with his mama, though in recent years I suspect it’s less loyalty to his mother and more his desire to root in opposition of his brother. Regardless of his reasoning, at least I have someone to wear all of the Penn State year I bought and put up back when I assumed my children would shout “We Are!” with all the enthusiasm of their mama. 

Eleanor’s “first game”, the morning after we brought her home from the hospital, was a Notre Dame game. Members of my dad’s family had been ND fans for as long as I could remember, so I always watched them when I could, and my Aunt Janet in particular was quick to claim Eleanor for The Fighting Irish. A week later we received a package with these teeny, tiny Notre Dame socks, and a fan was born officially turning us into a four team family.

The fourth? Well, when my poor husband started dating me he didn’t know what he was getting into. Michael had never really watched football before we got together, but with not only a fiancé who loved the game but also a job as a bartender in a sports bar, he needed to learn. He cheered for Penn State with me, and wore an Ohio State Jersey at work (you don’t go against the locals when you pay your bills with tips), but in the end he became a Tiger. Michael’s Team is LSU, rounding off our oddly divided team quartet. 

One of these days I plan on having a flag made to represent all of our teams, though maybe I should wait until Mabel throws her hat into the ring and chooses her colors. (Which will surely be Penn State, because she’s a good girl who loves her mama.) 

Until then, happy football season. Touchdown!