HOW I BECAME A FOOTBALL FAN

I didn’t grow up a football fan. Oh, my dad and brother watched NFL football, along with a lot of other sports, when I was growing up. We did watch my dad’s beloved Denver Broncos lose a couple of Superbowls. But growing up outside of St. Louis, we were a baseball town. I remember my grandmother listening to Cardinals’ games on the radio on those hot summer days at her house.

But football, not so much.

I went to college in Utah at a medium-sized university with a solid art program, a few hours away from where my parents lived at the time. Our football team may have won two games the whole four years I was there.

My sorority sisters and I attended the football games, but it was not an all-day event.

I was in a business fraternity, the American Marketing Association, or something like that. We had a speaker talk to us about how USU could ‘grow their audience’ or whatever terminology they used back then. He told us how in the South, football fans come to the stadium and stay ALL DAY LONG! How they set up tents and tables and TVs and throw the football and drink cocktails. We had a no-alcohol policy outside and surrounding the stadium. It WAS Utah, after all.

I didn’t give it much thought until I went to the University of South Carolina for grad school.
One of our classmates hosted a tailgate party the first Saturday that fall at his house near the stadium. This cute guy in our class drives up with Carolina Gamecock flags flying on his car. He’s wearing a Gamecock football jersey and a Gamecock baseball cap. And probably carrying a Gamecock cooler. I remember thinking, ‘what a dork, we just got here like two minutes ago.’

Then I discovered my future husband was a third-generation Gamecock and a huge football fan.

His grandfather and his parents had attended school there, and his dad had been a quarterback for the team. His favorite uncle had also played defense for the Gamecocks. Oh, and he was practically born in the ‘married student housing.’ (who knew that was a thing). Joe had gone to Vandy for undergrad, and as he would say in defense of their football team, ‘they were an academic school.’ So, he was excited to finally be a Gamecock, even if it was just as a graduate student.

Well, ok, I got it. The rest is history.

After we were married, we went back to South Carolina for football games every year, and then the Carolina Panthers came to town, and the whole city became Panthers fans. However, I really learned more about the game when our oldest started playing Pop Warner football and played through high school. Nothing like watching your kid play to make you pay attention.

Thirty years later, our boys are huge football fans.

Although neither attended USC, they went to big football schools. (War Eagle, Hook ‘Em). They grew up going to South Carolina Gamecock and Carolina Panther games, and, of course, in college, they went to games in Auburn and Texas, as did we. On weekends, our house was filled with TVs blaring and the sounds of ‘catch that ball’ and ‘get him.’ And there was always betting. If their teams didn’t win, they better at least cover.

So, now by osmosis, I am officially a football fan.

I know this is more of a personal story rather than a story about art, but I’m told it’s good to get to know the artist behind the art. I do also like to share behind the scenes in the studio. Or if you want to see new art, take a look here.