Football and family

We have many football fans among our family and friends, most more avid than I. This article will be out of the norm for Our Heritage but it’s fall, and it’s my blog, so we’ll take a brief look at American football and its intersection with family appreciation.

Mom becomes a football fan

My mother’s interest in sports used to be centered around baseball, from our little league teams to the Detroit Tigers. I picked up her interest in the Tigers in the summer of 1961, when I listened to game broadcasts on our family radio. That was a good season for the Tigers, but resulted in a not-uncommon second place finish behind the New York Yankees. I could still name the starting lineup of the ’61 Tigers by field position. First baseman Norm Cash led the American League with a .361 batting average, but the sporting world was focused on the home run derby between Yankees teammates Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.

I think Mom always liked football and basketball to some degree, but her interest in football rose to a whole new level when my nephew Jesse came up through the youth leagues to become the starting center for Central Montcalm High School. Mom is not a quiet sports fan when her grandchildren are on the field. Now she has joined the active ranks of ever-hopeful Lions fans as well as cheering for Michigan university teams.

Where did this topic come from?

Dee and I have subscribed to Guideposts Magazine for many years. The cover story for the September 2016 issue features Ben Utecht’s experience with gradual memory loss related to concussions from his career in the NFL. You can read the article here: https://www.guideposts.org/comfort-hope/former-nfl-star-ben-utecht-on-dealing-with-memory-loss. Ben recounts the impact on his career and on his family. The video about his song ‘You Will Always Be My Girls’ is touching and poignant.

This story has a personal intersection with my own family for more than one reason. We have good friends in North Carolina who are gradually losing a loved one to early-onset dementia. Several years ago we watched the slow decline of Dee’s mom’s memory and awareness in the waning years of her life. We lamented the loss of her gifts and abilities, yet she seemed to gain a contentment that I hadn’t seen in her days of conscious worry and concern over the challenges of life.

This story has another personal connection with our family from our years in Minnesota. Ben Utecht’s father was the associate pastor at our church. While Dee and I didn’t have any significant contact with little Benjamin, I think our son Joe did. Ben, of course, wouldn’t know any of us because he was still very young. His family moved on to other churches and we moved to North Carolina. Nevertheless, as they say, it’s a small world. As we pass by people in our lives, we never know when or where we might later encounter them. We should be more mindful of our friends and especially our family before we lose them. If we are fortunate, our paths might meet again.