Should I Love Football??

My son recently joined football for the first time...it's offered in 8th grade for the first time in the schools. He never played little guy football like many of the other boys. He's a soccer player, and plays rather well, in my biased opinion. It may come naturally for him (the episode of my life at BYU where I got pregnant happened with a man from Chile...so maybe my son's love for soccer is actually inborn??) ~ he played goalie for the first time last season on his AA team, and he did very well. I enjoyed watching. He plays on a traveling team so we end up spending most of spring on the road every weekend so he can play. Talk about dedication. My boss thinks we're nuts. That's a subject for another post.

But now he's playing football. I was so glad he made the B squad vs. the A squad. It's because most of the boys on the B squad are the smaller guys. My son is already almost 5'9", weighs around 138 and is the biggest one on his B team. He told me they put him in as linebacker because he's the biggest. This gave me a better feeling because I'm not one of those moms who likes to imagine my son getting pummelled. I've been telling him to hit them as hard as he can, to prevent injury from happening to himself. Part of me wants to prevent this because the soccer season is looming, and I don't want any injuries to affect his soccer.

In fact, we had real reservations about his desire to play football at all. I hate watching football because I really don't understand the rules of the game. Besides, next year in high school, the football and soccer seasons are both in fall, so he'll have to choose one or the other. We said, why bother going out for football if you love soccer most, and next year you won't be able to play football anyway? You risk getting an injury and then what??

J: "I want to try football."

Me: "Think about it a little longer."

2 Days Later
Me: "Did you think about it?"

J: "I want to try football."

Me: "Think about it a little longer. You're risking getting injured. You are going to have to choose football or soccer in high school, you can't do both. I don't see the point of playing football if you love soccer more. REALLY think about it this time."

J: "But how can I choose which I love best if I never try football?"

That's just like him to throw out such a reasonable argument so I have absolutely no recourse but to accept the inevitable.

The worst news, though, came last night as I picked him up. "Guess what, Mom?! Coach pulled me aside and told me to enjoy tomorrow's game because it's my last game I'll play on the B squad. He's moving me to the A squad. I LOVE football!!"

Heaven help me. I'm going to have to find a way to love football too, I guess.