No matter what side of the Atlantic you live on it would be hard not to know that last night was the infamous American Super Bowl.  Apparently this year it pulled in a record 111.3 million TV viewers, and yes, we were one of them.  Well, I made it to half time, Chris made it through to the final whistle.

I think it’s the American in me that necessitates that I watch the Super Bowl.  I may live on foreign shores but to shun this uber-patriotic epic sporting event must somehow feel wrong. It’s not like I can claim to have ever regularly watched the sport.  I just about know the rules, in that I know what a “down” and a “sack” are, but beyond that, the more complicated plays and even the names of the positions become a quandary.

A glaring illustration of this would be during the 2008 Super Bowl when like this year the New York Giants went head to head with the New England Patriots.  Fully charged in the moment, during a tricky play I leaped from my chair and shouted my support for Tiki Manning.  The thing is, the Giants quarterback was and still is Eli Manning and I somehow managed to merge his name with that of fellow Giants player at the time, Tiki Barber.  My American friends watching with me that year don’t let me live that one down.

Of course another reason  that I’ll probably continue to watch is that my sport-loving husband has gradually been adding US sports to his regular viewing list and American football is now one of them.  We’ve also recently acquired Sky Sports, which only feeds his obsession.  There is rarely a night here where there is not some type of sport switched on our TV, and while I actually enjoy a bit of it, too much of it can be wearing.  In some ways, since Chris isn’t even a big team supporter, just a general sport lover, too much is often the name of the game as he’ll happily watch anything.

LLC is a pretty active little lady who is generally up for throwing and kicking balls with Chris.  In fact we are considering signing her up to a local Little Kickers football class, which would help her burn off some steam early on a Saturday morning.  Still, there are times like the other day when we were at the park, it was freezing cold, and Chris was running around like a dog after a ball trying to get LLC and and me to join in without any luck when I wondered if in having a son Chris will find a kindred spirit in the limitless energy, never want to go in from sport department.

My dad is not at all sporty.  Neither is Chris.’  It could be our son has no interest whatsoever.  It may be that LLC carries the sporting torch.  Or that neither of them do.  But in that moment, with LLC wrapped up like the Michelin Man in her all in one and running away from the ball bouncing off her (soft ball I should add) I thought it would be nice for Chris if our son shares his boundless capacity to run free and chase a ball.

Of course this means I’ll probably never get them to switch sport off the TV or come in from outdoors…

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