Bowl week elicits different emotions in our house. For Kami, it’s “UGH – more football!” But for me, it brings back some great memories. Let’s go back to 2005. At this time in our house, things were a little crazy. Megan was not being the most cooperative kindergartner, Kami was pregnant with Christian, and Jeffrey was 3, but he wasn’t your typical three year old – Jeffrey wasn’t talking yet. Grunting, crying, screaming, pointing. No words. He could understand us and could communicate yes and no, but no words. For those of you who didn’t know us then, Jeffrey was deaf when he was born, profound in both ears. When he was three, he entered a pre-school for children with hearing loss where he was being taught sign language and at this time he was beginning to make progress with his signing.
Also, Jeffrey was still really attached to his mom more than me. We hadn’t yet found that ‘something’ to bond us. So it was during bowl week that something really cool happened. I love football, all kinds. Even those really crappy bowl games that no one cares about. I can’t remember the game or the teams, I only remember what happened when the game went to commercial. I hadn’t even noticed that Jeffrey was watching the television, but every time there was a break in the action, he would turn, look at me, and begin to scream. Because he wasn’t talking, I really had no idea what was happening. It didn’t take long to realize what he was upset about because as soon as the game came back on, he would stand right in front of the TV, jump up and down, and start making ‘happy’ noises. It was so cool. I started to experiment by changing the channels, and each time I did he would turn and look at me like, “Come on Dad!!” For the rest of the week, I watched more football than I had ever watched in my life.
What a joyous feeling to finally have a connection with my boy! Since that day we have spent countless hours watching football together. At first, it was ok that he stood by the tv because he was too short to block my view. But now….he’s bigger than me so he must sit. It also didn’t take him long to figure out the “ON-Demand” features for the NFL Network and BIG 10 Network highlights. Soon thereafter he was able to navigate YouTube to see highlights of past games, big hits, and anything in between.
It didn’t take long for me to indoctrinate him into Eagle Nation, which has become his favorite team. He has jerseys, hats, socks, jackets. You name it. His favorite movies were the 10 Greatest Eagles Games given to him by his best friend Frederick. One of my favorite moments was the first time I took him to an Eagles game when he was 6. The organization was awesome and allowed me to take him onto the field for pre-game warmups. To see his eyes widen as we walked out of the tunnel was something I will never forget.
Even though we don’t watch every football game together anymore, (he’s too busy playing guitar lately) I will always look back fondly to that week as the time Jeffrey and I became more than father/son, we became football buddies.
