Fouls and Profanity or Basketball Season Wrap-Up

When I'm feeling a little angst-y, I think of the lyrics of the Talking Head's song "Once in a Lifetime," and specifically the line that David Byrne sing/chants, "You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?" How did I get to this place where my life revolves around sports seasons for a 10 year-old, an 8 year-old, and a 5 year-old? I never played sports, but I have three sports-obsessed children. Well, two who love sports and one who doesn't necessarily love sports, but who aspires to be a professional cheerleader. I've doomed her to this destiny because she's basically been an amateur cheerleader for her older brother and sister since she was born. The first full sentence she spoke was "are we late for [sister's] soccer game?" Now I've created a record for her so that she can bring my archived blog posts to her future therapy sessions. 

We've just finished up basketball season and, as always, everyone learned something. The Girl added a new cuss/curse word to her growing repertoire, the Boy learned that when you make big plays you make yourself a target, the Baby figured out how to stack the deck in Spot It!, and I learned that seven and eight-year-old basketball players foul out on the fifth foul, just like in the NBA. 

War, Sports, and Childbirth

On occasion I catch snippets of sporting events while walking past the television en route to the laundry room or doing some similar domestic task. It seems like whenever I do tune in, I'll end up doing an eye roll because of the insane overuse of military terms by players and commentators when talking about the actions on the field. Trust me, tune into the Superbowl and you won't have long to wait before you hear someone talking about one team "battling back" or referring to players as "warriors."  Back during the playoffs, Robert Griffin III, the Redskins quarterback continued to play on an obviously injured knee against the Seattle Seahawks. Redskins coach, Mike Shanahan received a lot of criticism for the decision to allow Griffin to play. Griffin tweeted in defense of his coach, "Many may question, criticize & think they have all the right answers. But few have been in the line of fire in battle." 

Aspirational, but sadly unlikely.