Football with Tracey

Michigan's season opener was yesterday against Notre Dame, which was a big game for a number of reasons.  It was a 5:30pm (MST) game, so I was able to have all the kids in bed by the second half of the game... but Tracey was not falling asleep very well.

After multiple attempts to get her to settle down, I finally pulled her out of her room (which she shares with Howard and Caroline, who were sound asleep by this point) to come into our room for the fourth quarter of the Michigan game.

My plan was to not reward her for not falling asleep but to try to get her to settle down by making her watch football with me.  At least in my room, she couldn't wake up the twins, and I thought she would probably get bored by watching football.  Little did I know, it would turn out to be the most enjoyable Michigan loss I've ever experienced.

I am not going to remember every adorable and inquisitive question and comment she had about the game, but it was so much fun to explain football to her and have her actually respond with relevant and interesting questions.

I explained to her how Michigan was losing and down by two touchdowns and so we were cheering for Michigan together.  She kept saying how much she loved watching Michigan football with me (although this might have been a calculated comment because she liked that she was getting to stay up with me instead of going to bed).

She commented several times that Michigan must be losing because we changed out of our Michigan outfits.  We were wearing pajamas now, and we don't have Michigan pajamas.  She asked if I could get her Michigan pajamas because maybe then Michigan could win.

She would comment when players got hurt and she noticed if they were from Notre Dame or from Michigan.  We talked about how we never want players to get hurt, even from the other team, but we do want the other team to lose -- but not get hurt.

She would see a Notre Dame player and say, "I hate him," to which I would explain that we don't hate anyone, we just don't like the team.  I explained that this was just a game and we never hate people in a game.  I explained how after the game was over, the players were going to shake hands, and smile at each other and congratulate each other on a fun time playing each other.  It was good for me to remind myself of that as I was teaching these life lessons to my four-year-old, because its true.  And sure enough, we watched all the players shake hands and give high-fives when the game was over.  We talked about sportsmanship and watched as these young men and coaches were good sports and congratulated each other after the game was over.  Not that any college football players read my blog -- but to the college athletes out there, young people, even really young children are watching everything you do and learning about more than sports... about life by how you conduct yourselves during and after games.  Thank you for living up to a high standard of sportsmanship as I watched with my very impressionable little girl last night.

She commented on how all the players wore helmets and "face helmets" to keep them safe.  She asked the names of different players numbers.  She asked the names of the coaches and had fun recognizing them when they came on the screen.

We talked about that Harbough and Howard both start with "H" and Michigan, Mama, and Miller all start with "M."  I told her that Lloydey (our dog) was named after a Michigan coach and it was fun to see her start to understand what that meant.

Near the end of the game, Michigan scored to pull within 7 points of Notre Dame.  She loved being a part of that excitement as we squeezed each other's hands and then quietly cheered when they scored.  Then, we talked about that Michigan kicked the ball away instead of doing an on-side kick, and that I might not have done that if I was the coach.  Tracey said that she would not have done that either if she was the coach.

Well, Michigan defense held, we got the ball back, and we had a final drive down the field with 2:00 left in the game and no timeouts.  I started really talking to the team at this point, "Come on, guys.  We can do it!"  Tracey asked me why I said, "we?"  I then explained that I felt part of the team -- I was cheering for them and really believing in them, I left like I was a part of the excitement... we could do it... we love Michigan.  Tracey agreed and said she was part of the team too.

Within moments, Shea Patterson threw a poor lateral pass which was picked up by the Irish and with the Irish possession, the game was lost.  When I explained to Tracey what happened, she said, "I don't feel like a 'we' anymore."

I cannot remember ever being in such a good mood following a Michigan loss.