Sports, a bond between a Father and Son

Every Father waits for the moment that their sons start to sever some of the apron strings with their mothers. I wanted a son so badly the first time around and I remember slightly being disappointed when I found out my first child was to be a super girl and would be lacking the Y chromosome. I think if ever expecting Father of their first child is honest he would tell you he is secretly hoping for a son. We have these visions in our heads of doing all these great activities and sports with our sons.
The reality is that boys bond very closely with their mothers in their early years and little girls develop special bonds with their fathers. This is a huge generalization but I'll be buggard if it didn't work out that way with me and my children. SG and I became really close from an early stage in her infancy and I have honestly struggled with SB. It's not because I haven't tried but there has been an issue of butting heads and trying to find some common ground that we can relate and talk about.
This past year those ties that bind as the cliche goes have started to take place with me and SB. I am an avid sports fan or should I say I am an avid Football and Basketball fan. I don't go as far as some who will watch any game any time. The game has to have a team I'm following or a big rivalry game for me to watch it unless it's the playoffs and then I watch every second, every play, every foul,every out, every strike, every touchdown, every pick and roll, and every timeout. It is the best drama on TV and to borrow the line from TNT it's Win or Go Home.

This has been the year that my son has discovered sports and not just playing them but watching them as well. When SB and SG are with us we spend a lot of time outdoors playing sports from skiing ,to tossing the football around, swimming and shooting hoops. I have learned this spring that both my children have really nice jump shots and SB is really good at basketball and plays with his friends at recess almost every day in school. This past year I took SB to his first college football game (an in state rivalry game) and to his first professional basketball game. He struggled with the understanding of the complex rules of football but he completely understands basketball. I have never seen my son get so excited as I did at his first basketball game. Our team won and he saved the game program and by the next he could tell you every player and their number on our team's roster. Two months later he can still me what the score was and what team we played.
Two and a half months later over spring break I took SB to his second game and his face was lit with excitement the entire game. I even caught one of those mini soft basketballs at the game and he has now permanently placed it on his bed right next to his Pirate Mickey Mouse from Disneyland (the highest honor it could have received). At the end of spring break he took home his game programs and our teams schedule so he would know when our team was playing. We also found a book on Amazon.com about our home team and had it mailed to him in Smallville.

Tonight Lois called me and told me I needed to call SB right away. SB didn't quite have a grasp on the playoff system and Lois didn't have enough time to explain it between her flights so we talked for an hour about basketball. We discussed the playoff best of seven system and how well our team matched up against their current opponent. We talked about his book and he read to me from it. He wanted to know who we would play in the next round of the playoffs and if we could beat them. My son has never carried on a conversation that has lasted for more than ten minutes at the most before and I think he would still be asking me questions if his Aunt hadn't called and needed to talk to Krypto.
This year SB got into football as well especially the playoffs. He didn't tell me until the day before the Superbowl that he was rooting for Eli Manning and the Giants. This about killed me because I am a HUGE DALLAS COWBOY FAN and the giants are one of Dallas's NFC East rivals. Talk about heart failure. I didn't say a word about it because I have been encouraging him to find things or choose things because he likes them and not because his family or friends like them. We even got him an Eli Manning Superbowl MVP t-shirt for him and he absolutely loved it. I hope one day I can take him to a Dallas vs. New York game and yes there will be trash talking during the game.

I look back on my childhood and some of my fondest memories are of watching the Cowboys play curled up with my Dad in his black recliner. Sports and the Cowboys were the things my Father and I have always been able to talk about. I am now on the other side of the relationship now with SB and understand the joy my Father must have felt as he taught me about something he was passionate about. Our relationship is really starting to grow and now the trick is to broaden our bonds to many other things as well.