OT: Any mixed marriages out there (football-wise, I mean)

[KA-]

Moved out to SF, my GF I met here is a 49er fan

 

[supafly]

"Cowpatty", funny.

Sounds like you love your wife a lot. There's no other explanation for allowing oneself to like a Jerry Jones's product is there??
I guess you can always look at it as 'it could be worse -- she could have asked me to like the Jets'.

Let me be completely honest, TBS...

At first, I couldn't have cared less about the Cboys. It actually pained me to try and watch the games. I started gambling again, just to try and give myself incentive, but then I felt bad because I'd secretly be rooting against them a lot (for obvious reasons).

I saw how much it meant to my wife, who had been a fan for about 20 years or so and suffered without the postseason for quite some time. That alone now allows me to casually follow them with her, and she's come a long way following my team in return. It's amazing what marriage will do to a person

With her games I can half pay attention, surf the web, etc. With the Pats, I pretty much just swear and pace back and forth. There's still a huge difference, and always will be.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Let me be completely honest, TBS...

At first, I couldn't have cared less about the Cboys. It actually pained me to try and watch the games. I started gambling again, just to try and give myself incentive, but then I felt bad because I'd secretly be rooting against them a lot (for obvious reasons).

I saw how much it meant to my wife, who had been a fan for about 20 years or so and suffered without the postseason for quite some time. That alone now allows me to casually follow them with her, and she's come a long way following my team in return. It's amazing what marriage will do to a person

With her games I can half pay attention, surf the web, etc. With the Pats, I pretty much just swear and pace back and forth. There's still a huge difference, and always will be.

Sounds like a fine arrangement. I can tell you I'm still working on perfecting my arrangement (using my smartphone to surf Patsfan while in a dark movie theater that's playing a Nicolas Sparks movie is still on the bargaining table).

Btw, loudly swearing at the TV is definitely ok.....it's when the remote controls start paying the price for the opposition converting a third and long that it it's offocially a problem

 

[RobertWeathers]

Met my wife in 1991 in college. She liked football but hated the Patriots (not much to like back then..). She liked the Giants b/c my father in law is from Westchester County, NY. As Tuna, Drew and Kraft started to enter the picture (and things progressed between us), she adopted the Pats. Since her allegiance to the Giants was an association, she converted.

 

[Haley]

I grew up in Maine... Mrs. Rover, on Long Guyland... so when we met, she was a (gulp) Jets fan. So was/is her whole family.

However, we lived in Maine for 20 years after marrying, and she became a Pats fan to the point where when the Pats played the Jets, she'd be rooting for our guys.

Now we've moved back to Long Guyland (her parents are getting on in years), and, despite her feeling bad for her sibs when the Jets lose, she STILL roots for the Pats... she just doesn't tell her family about it. LOL... now that's my girl!

This has been such a fun thread to read with a lot of great stories. Thanks for starting this thread!

 

[oldrover]

You're welcome!

One thing about being so close to (and getting along with) a family of Jets fans... you don't see the, for lack of a better word, 'douchebaggery' that exists on the bulletin boards and elsewhere. Mrs. Rover's four brothers truly love the Jets, but will relentlessly make fun of them, too. My BIL texted me during the Denver game last weekend: "Here's my new chant: J - E - T - S - 1 and 15!!!" They also hate the Giants as much as we do, and were rooting for us during both the SB's we lost.

And I was watching the infamous Jets-Pats Thanksgiving day game at our house with 3 of her brothers... when it happened, they were all groaning and LAUGHING too. In fact, the oldest IMMEDIATELY said, "Omigod, this will forever be known as the BUTT FUMBLE game" and the rest of them were laughing their ***es off. I kid you not. I guess it's easier for them to laugh rather than cry. LOL...

 

[supafly]

Btw, loudly swearing at the TV is definitely ok.....it's when the remote controls start paying the price for the opposition converting a third and long that it it's offocially a problem

My dad (and his dad as well) were known for ruining/destroying multiple TV sets during bad gambling streaks.

I imagine that the remote control came into play on a couple of them, at least in my dad's case. My grandpa must have gotten much more creative back in the day, when one had to put more effort into destroying a perfectly good television without the benefit of a remote control.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

The Mrs. is a Bears/Pats hybrid... more Pats, most recently. Her middle son is a Colts fan from way back, so we had Forehead/Brady exchanges over the years... now next week will be another long-distance football "chat" no doubt. She also has a Bears fan, and a non-football kid who's nuts about the Blackhawks.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

My dad (and his dad as well) were known for ruining/destroying multiple TV sets during bad gambling streaks.

I imagine that the remote control came into play on a couple of them, at least in my dad's case. My grandpa must have gotten much more creative back in the day, when one had to put more effort into destroying a perfectly good television without the benefit of a remote control.

Damn Sup, that's quite an impressive fan lineage you got.
The best I can remember is Dad jumping so high after a play that he put his finger tips through the styrofoam textured ceiling (those horrid ceilings were common in the 70s). He had bet big on a game that was saved near the end of the game by a near miracle play (I think it was Fran Tarkenton/the Vikings). The finger holes stayed in the ceiling for several seasons -- as a badge of honor/"great" story to tell.

 

[1960Pats]

I'm the sports fan in my household. My guy hates sports. Its like pulling teeth trying to get him to watch a game with me. It's actually really weird because he played football in high school but he still asks me whats going on in a game on the occasion he does watch.

That really is weird. I guess it's pretty safe to say that hubby wasn't the starting QB for his HS team.

The first time I went to me future wife's home for Sunday dinner, her father asked me if I wanted to change the channel to a football game. He was watching stock prices rolling across the bottom of the screen. When he asked me what "downs" are I knew where he stood.

 

[1960Pats]

Similar situation here, I love the Pats and my wife hates football. She isn't just indifferent to the game but actually really dislikes it, mainly due to the fact that her prior ex-boyfriend was a real D-bag about the game. (One of those guys who still relives his glory days every twenty minutes to anyone who passes by, even though his glory days were high school football which was over 10 years ago for him, when he weighed 100 pounds less... Still lives with his parents... But I digress.) So football sort of has a negative connotation for her. But as the marriage goes on it gets better.

On a side note, she's a Yankees fan, so that's also a problem.

My wife will now reluctantly watch a game with me, although every time I look over to her she's reading the Sunday paper or a magazine.

My oldest son was a three sport athlete in HS and my youngest doesn't like sports at all. I did manage to talk my youngest into going to the Pats last game of 2001 in Charlotte, the one and only Pats game that he's ever attended. When the Pats went on to win the SB I gave him credit for being the one fan that the Pats needed to put them over the hump.

 

[1960Pats]

My dad (and his dad as well) were known for ruining/destroying multiple TV sets during bad gambling streaks.

I imagine that the remote control came into play on a couple of them, at least in my dad's case. My grandpa must have gotten much more creative back in the day, when one had to put more effort into destroying a perfectly good television without the benefit of a remote control.

I stopped betting when Dan Fouts and Air Coryell failed to cover an 11.5 spread after running up and down the field on the Seattle Seahawks many year ago. The Bolts were up 21-0 at the half but it should have been 42-0. Then, with 4 seconds left in the game and the Seahawks at midfield trailing 21-7, Jim Zorn goes back to pass, is immediately being pressured and starts running the other way. Zorn turns to his left and heaves a ball as far down the field as he could, where a Seattle WR catches the ball at the 15. Phew, I think.

But wait, there's a flag on the play. The Seahawks get one more play. They're still down 14 and have no chance to win, but Zorn goes back to pass one more time anyway. Zorn throws a pass in the front left corner of the endzone where Steve Largent has slipped and fallen, and while sitting on his butt in the end zone, Largent reaches up and snags the pass for a 21-14 final. I never bet another game after that.

 

[1960Pats]

Damn Sup, that's quite an impressive fan lineage you got.
The best I can remember is Dad jumping so high after a play that he put his finger tips through the styrofoam textured ceiling (those horrid ceilings were common in the 70s). He had bet big on a game that was saved near the end of the game by a near miracle play (I think it was Fran Tarkenton/the Vikings). The finger holes stayed in the ceiling for several seasons -- as a badge of honor/"great" story to tell.

My best save was when I bet the Cowboys giving up 5.5 many years ago. The game went into overtime and Drew Pearson caught a long pass and went out at about the five yard line. The Cowboys immediately set up for the game winning FG on first down and my bet looked like a loser. Then they faked the kick and passed for the winning and covering TD instead. That was one week and 39 years ago.

 

[Dragda]

Never raise your kids on the West Coast. I ended up with a Raiders fan and Colts fan son. My grandson is the only Patriots fan, but he has the attention span to watch maybe fifteen seconds of a game.

 

[supafly]

My best save was when I bet the Cowboys giving up 5.5 many years ago. The game went into overtime and Drew Pearson caught a long pass and went out at about the five yard line. The Cowboys immediately set up for the game winning FG on first down and my bet looked like a loser. Then they faked the kick and passed for the winning and covering TD instead. That was one week and 39 years ago.

Nothing better than a backdoor cover, especially in dramatic fashion!

I stopped betting when Dan Fouts and Air Coryell failed to cover an 11.5 spread after running up and down the field on the Seattle Seahawks many year ago. The Bolts were up 21-0 at the half but it should have been 42-0. Then, with 4 seconds left in the game and the Seahawks at midfield trailing 21-7, Jim Zorn goes back to pass, is immediately being pressured and starts running the other way. Zorn turns to his left and heaves a ball as far down the field as he could, where a Seattle WR catches the ball at the 15. Phew, I think.

But wait, there's a flag on the play. The Seahawks get one more play. They're still down 14 and have no chance to win, but Zorn goes back to pass one more time anyway. Zorn throws a pass in the front left corner of the endzone where Steve Largent has slipped and fallen, and while sitting on his butt in the end zone, Largent reaches up and snags the pass for a 21-14 final. I never bet another game after that.

I'm sure that we could go over many stories that we both remember due to examples like this. It always seems that when you're gambling, you experience THE craziest circumstances known to man--most of which simply go over the average casual observer's head!

I am glad to see that you were smart enough to learn your lesson. In my opinion, even if you come out on top, you're probably giving yourself some irreversible damage anxiety-wise, so it's probably never worth it. Just my 2 cents.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

My best save was when I bet the Cowboys giving up 5.5 many years ago. The game went into overtime and Drew Pearson caught a long pass and went out at about the five yard line. The Cowboys immediately set up for the game winning FG on first down and my bet looked like a loser. Then they faked the kick and passed for the winning and covering TD instead. That was one week and 39 years ago.

Drew Pearson, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time (along with names like Randy White, Hollywood Henderson, Too Tall). What a different type team the Cowboys were back then under Landry (Schramm?). I still wouldn't/didn't root for them (except a time or two in the SB vs Pitt, vs Denver) but they were certainly more 'root worthy' than the team now (the one molded in the image of Jerry Jones).

 

[FCB02062]

My wife and I grew up equidistant from Gillette stadium - she was 10' south I was 10' north...her father was sort of a pats fan and my father grew up a giants fan, as most people were here prior to 1960. once the pats started he immediately started going to games at BU, Fenway, etc. Thru him im a pats maniac.
My wife watches the games sometimes and she hates Peyton manning...my kids also watch the games with me and my sons favorite player is gronkowski, we fly our pats flag on the house on gameday as well....

 

[oldrover]

That's one thing that eludes me... neither of my boys are football or even sports fans, let alone Patriots fans.

I took them to one game... in 2000... when the Jets kicked our butts... maybe that put them off it. LOL