Baseball Mom vs Football Mom

Recently my sister, Beth, texted me and said, “I’m so full of emotion right now…”  Whoa! That’s my line!  I’m the only one allowed to be full of emotion, right?  I told her to write a blog about being a football mom to which she responded that she’d leave the blogging to me.   Oh, okay, I’ll write an article on being a football mom, only I've never been one.  I started thinking…is there a difference between a football mom and a baseball mom? 

Tyler has never played organized football.  He  never really wanted to.  When he was younger, he was questioned every fall by the local dads “why aren't you playing football?”……”a kid your size and you aren't playing?”…..and my favorite, “doesn't your mom allow you to play?...which is a blog topic for another time!   On the other hand, my nephew, Steven, who is a few weeks younger than Tyler, lives for football.  He played baseball too and was good, but football is his love.   As I type this, Steven is in North Carolina for a long-snapper (is that the right term?) camp. 

The Baseball Mom vs the Football Mom--Is there a difference?  I've attended football games to watch classmates of Tyler or my nephews.  I am so not a football mom. I am a baseball mom. I get baseball - get excited about it. I understand it, I can follow it, and I like it. Football - not so much. And I look around at all the other moms who are so into it and seem to understand what is going on. Then I look back out there on the field and all I can see is a bunch of little kids running around jumping on top of each other. Am I watching the same game they are? Where is the instant replay, slow motion and zoom lens? Because that is the only hope of me understanding what in the world is going on out there - a televised broadcast, with beer, snacks and possibly a nap during the third quarter.

So what are some characteristics of a football mom that I have learned from my sister throughout the years?

1.  Her fall wardrobe has nothing to do with “her” colors, and everything to do with Steven’s team colors.

2.  She got used to her car smelling like a mixture of mud and a gym. 

3.  Her menu planner for the family’s meals on Friday nights automatically reads: hot dogs, pizza, popcorn, choice of pop and Swedish fish.

4.  She instinctively charged me 50 cents for my can of Diet Pepsi when I stopped by her house.

5.  She carries a dozen blankets in her trunk.

6.  When the play is over, everyone else looks for the ball and she looks for her son.

7. While watching the game and having a conversation with me, she can stop mid-sentence and change her voice to a deep, devil-like one yelling “STOP HIM!!” and then back to a sweet, innocent one asking me how work is in .0005 seconds. 

Lastly, fellow football moms have each other’s back like no other group of moms I have seen. Moms are IT in the football world.  What does an NFL wide receiver do when he returns to the sidelines after scoring a touchdown?   He yells "Hi Mom!" into the camera.  Likewise, when a young boy runs to the sidelines after his extremely awesome play he wants to see is mom.  But if his mom misses THAT PLAY and her son comes hurrying to the sidelines looking for the thumbs up or the WooHoo and she doesn't know what he has done, she is pretty much screwed.  That’s when the  fellow football moms step up.  These moms have formed a sisterhood.  They have gathered in the rain and cold, celebrated in the sun, watched each other's children, traded community news (okay, okay Gossip), but mostly they live by the chant YOU ALWAYS SAW THAT PLAY. 

Not only do Football Moms yell like crazy when the boys are making plays but they also take a minute to confirm that the appropriate mom saw the play.  If for whatever reason the mom did not see THAT PLAY she is filled in with every detail of the EXTREME AWESOMENESS that is her son.  It is like she never missed it.  And then when the boy that has made THAT PLAY returns to the sidelines, he is not only greeted with the smile from his own mom, he is also greeted with the hoots and hollers of all the other football moms.  He is made to feel like he is the MVP of that moment.  Kinda awesome, don’t ya think?

Being a football mom, baseball mom, or any other kind of "sports mom" is almost like having a part-time job.  Correction...it IS a part-time job with no financial pay.   There is a great benefit in the long run though and it's something our sons enjoy so we make the sacrifice.  The demand of the practice schedule, school, work, and maintaining a household is definitely overwhelming at times.  But we wouldn't be SuperMoms without a little chaos right?

I wonder what my sister, Beth, is going to say about us in the Superhero costumes?  I think we look pretty amazing! :)