Americana- Faith, Family, Football and Friends

Three of my favorite things in the world are football, family and faith. If I was to sort them properly it would really be Faith, Family, Friends and Football. All four of these things have been part of my life since I was a small child playing ball in the back yard trying to tackle my brothers and cousins at my Grandmothers house on Sundays after church. We would eat every Sunday for lunch, watch football and spend time with family. Along the way we always had many friends over which just made one huge extended family.

My Grandmother was the Sunday school director for over fourty years at the church I grew up in. My mom taught and Sunday school and was a boy schout leader also. My dad and grandfather were always involved in the mens programs at church fising things and helping to raise money. I learned how to shoot a shotgun by going to the church Turkey shoot on Saturdays at the old church farm. Those were some great weekends with family and friends. I wish families today could experience the unique way I grew up and others like my age.

We watched football on Sunday afternoon after we had lunch. Seemed like the game was always so much bigger on that old television we had to change the channel on manually. If you were the youngest child in the room, you were the modern version of a remote control. You also got the task of moving or holding the antenna so the game could be more clear. If the weather was bad or it was cloudy then recpetion was bad and you had best do good making sure the screen was right.

Dallas Cowboys vs. the Washington Redskins was the biggest game of the year. Half of the family were Cowboy fans while the other half was Redskin fans. Yes I still call them the Washington Redskins and always will. This mess about the Football Team label and all the woke crap with it is ridiculous. We had some interesting Sunday arguments and scuffles over who was the best team. I loved football and played it and coached it all of my life. Football, family, faith and friends have several things in common. I wanted to mention some of those and let you know how they can bring you together.

Football- Is a game of strategy, inches and execution. It is full of bumps, bruises, fumbles, wins, losses and other life events.

Family- requires strategy, commitment, organzation and is often not so easy. Football community is family to me.

Faith- faith requires us to work hard at getting better. It forces us to be part of something bigger than us. It helps us grow as we are coached by God about life.

Friends- friends require us to love one another, be supportive, be there and ready to help out. Friends teach us who really cares for us and who doesn’t. Friends are friends forever most of the time.

All four of these things require time, energy, patience and hard work. All four require us to bust our tails, focus and do the right things. All are a game of inches full of pitfalls, wins, losses, strategy and fumbles. We fumble in life at times as a family person, running back, father, mother, brother, teacher, coach and friend. We also score big at times in all of these roles in life at times. The key is how we oush through each of these inches of life