Football, Birthdays, Marriage and Other Such.

Back again!

The wife and I have just returned home from Atlanta for the second weekend in a row. (To Atlanta from here and back is 12 hours of windshield time.)

The reason for the trip this weekend was to visit the Georgia Dome to watch the Atlanta Falcons snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after the two minute warning against the Tennessee Titans on Friday night. Don't get me wrong, the Falcons are going to kick booty this year. I have the utmost confidence in them. It's just that the Titan's third string offense apparently is stronger than the Falcons third string defense.

Go Falcons!!

I am not a big football fan. I am a musician, and a drag racer. I never before had time to pay attention to grown men playing a game for money that children play in the yard for free.

All that changed when I got married. My wife is a HUGE football fan. She was a trumpet player in the FSU Marching Chiefs all through college, and as such, she NEVER missed a football game. I don't think she has missed a game since then if she could help it. Her favorite Pro team is the Falcons.

When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday,(Friday,) she told me that she wanted me to surprise her. "Plan a trip or something... take me somewhere nice. Surprise me!"

Surprise!

Of all the places I could have taken her, and of all the things we could have done, she NEVER expected a pro football game. Now granted, it was a pre-season game, but it was on her birthday, and it was so far out of the box for me that she was very impressed. (Go Me!...Go Me!...)

She was very happy.

And so was I, by the way. I was a lot more into the game than I thought I would be. There was a time in my life when I thought that going to watch a pro football game was just above watching cars rust and just below watching grass grow on the list of exciting things to do with your time.

I was wrong.

Late in the first quarter, Falcon's fifth round draft pick DeAndra Cobb ran a 101 yard kickoff return for a touchdown. If this had been a regular season game, he would have set a Falcons all time record. And he didn't run it all by himself down the sidelines, he ran it right through the Titans defensive line, and kept going, and going, and going...It was a beautiful thing to watch.

At half time, we went to one of the concession stands, and bought $22.00 worth of the world's biggest hot dogs, (These things were absolutely ridiculous!), and after the game was over, we were off to another little cubbyhole along the walkway in the stadium to spend the rest of our money on the obligatory tee-shirts, hats, stickers, little tiny footballs bearing the Falcons logo, and so forth.

The main thing was that the wife had a blast, and whether or not I enjoyed it, that was the important thing.

I am amazed sometimes at how being married changes your priorities. I have an interest in football now, because it makes her happy. She likes drag racing now, because it makes me happy. I have a dog in my house now because he came with the package. Until her, animals belonged outside. Period. She listens to hard, heavy guitar music now, because I like it. You give and you take. It is how things should be. I have had to admit to myself and to everybody else that I am not the only important thing in the world. My interests are not the only things that matter, and I am infinitely richer for the realization.

Here's to the important things!

And Go Falcons!!