At What Point Did You Know Football Was Special For You

[KittiesKorner]

when was that time you found yourself enumerating statistics that left your peers' jaws agape, or totally just owned someone in an argument about zone vs man coverage?

When did it occur to you that this game of inches meant just a little more to you than anyone else that you know/knew? That crucible moment when you emerged from the crystallas as a true football fanatic?

For me, I think it was the 2006 preseason game against the Cardinals where I got tickets for $90(!). Someone sitting next to me asked me how I thought the Bears would do that year. I recited the entire roster (pre-cuts down to 53!) to them. They moved.

I just had to chuckle. Sure, they don't get it. Sure, they think I'm on the spectrum. But they will never have my passion.

How about you?

 

[Kaufman20Embalm]

A-trains rookie year I was in 6th grade and that's when I truly became a bears/football fan. My family were always bears fans but I was too young to really care. During that season I became obsessed. To this day my buddies are amazed that I can tell them where every Bears player from the last ten years went to college.


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[KittiesKorner]

A-trains rookie year I was in 6th grade and that's when I truly became a bears/football fan. My family were always bears fans but I was too young to really care. During that season I became obsessed. To this day my buddies are amazed that I can tell them where every Bears player from the last ten years went to college.


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even Nathan Enderle (Idaho Vandals)

 

[ijustposthere]

Second grade. I used to know the bears entire roster every season. Now, I still follow fairly closely, rarely miss a game, but it's just not as important to me as it used to be. Not a bad thing.

 

[KittiesKorner]

point of order, fellas. This is NOT team-specific!

 

[ijustposthere]

For the record, I used to eat, sleep, and breathe football. Would go to the library and read books about play design, history, etc. I'm a Chicago fan though, so the Bears were always my main focus.

 

[staleystarch]

All the hype when the Joe Namath lead Jets beat Colts in SB III got me interested in pro-football. When the following season started I began following the Bears. They sucked big time that first season, but I was hooked.

 

[KittiesKorner]

Earl Bennett (Vanderbilt)

 

[Monster]

1977.... Walter rushed for 275 yards against the Vikings. Every kid I knew had a Payton poster. They lost to Dallas in the playoffs. Been hooked ever since...

 

[Scoot34]

7-8 years old. 1983-84. Loved and new all the palayers and stats. But then fell of as I got older and players began moving around so much. Started playing at age 9 and I loved playing middle linebacker. I was better than I expected. Loved Walter Payton as everyone else was loving Bo Jackson.

 

[Chris Sojka]

Around 12 years old so 20 years ago

 

[KittiesKorner]

7-8 years old. 1983-84. Loved and new all the palayers and stats. But then fell of as I got older and players began moving around so much. Started playing at age 9 and I loved playing middle linebacker. I was better than I expected. Loved Walter Payton as everyone else was loving Bo Jackson.

are you related to scoot26? cos he hates football btw but maybe you already know that because you may be related

 

[Penny Traitor]

Had to have been the summer of 1985.

Went over to a friend's house where they had the Sunday edition of both the Tribune and Sun-Times Sports Section sprayed over the kitchen table and each were scribbling notes in these workbook looking things.

I asked if they all had summer school and they just laughed. Told me they were hitting up box scores and tallying up points for something they called "fantasy baseball". I laughed and called them nerds for doing more math in the middle of July than they did all year in school.

One of them tried to show me how they "played" and I literally started to fall asleep. I told them this game could be far more fun and concise if they switched from baseball to football.

This time they all laughed at me and told me that a bunch of fat guys running into each other lacked the science for their little game.

I said between math and science...summer school sounded better than this stupidity. I tried to explain that football was like a chess match and they said, "Chess??? Who is the nerd now, Poindexter?!?" Then something about baseball having the kind of finesse that football could never achieve.

Finally I stormed out and went to the park to smoke weed and try to talk to Michelle even though I always stumbled over my words whenever I got within five feet of her spectacular rack and also stuttered when I got too high. Still, I could not stop thinking about all the ways fantasy football was a much better idea than fantasy baseball.

So when I passed the joint to Michelle and she smiled at me in the kind of way that makes a teenage boy tingle in all the right ways and asked "How is your summer going?"...all I could muster out was.....

"Eric Dickerson!"

 

[Chicago Staleys]

I was into football since birth. I was born on Super Bowl Sunday. My first toy was a football. My grandfather was a huge Bears fan and instilled it into me at a very young age. The Super Bowl win I watched with him, it was one of his greatest moments. Started playing at age 7. Won a state championship in high school. Played in College. Nagging injuries deteriorated the back end of my career. Coached High School for 8 yrs. Love football.

My obsession probably started in 1984 when Payton passed Jim Brown. This got me interested in stats and milestones. That lead to schemes and reads. I was obsessed with the responsibility’s each player had on every play.

Football teaches life lessons on a degree most sports can’t touch.

Greatest game ever invented!

 

[KittiesKorner]

That michelle is a keeper. Tbh, if you ever do secound round, marry her


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[Chicago Staleys]

That michelle is a keeper. Tbh, if you ever do secound round, marry her


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Ummm...she is a DICKerson fan. Go for it!!

 

[KittiesKorner]

Ummm...she’s is a DICKerson fan. Go for it!!

hey now, buddy, pump the breaks. I saw the bears shut down dickerson and the rams 2 weeks before superbowl 20. dickerson was wearing goggles and otis wilson knocked them off him like the bitch that he was. It was cold and snowy in soldier field, and my father had just grounded me for trying to throw my brother out the hotel window, but like I said, this is NOT team-specific, I am just more concerned about how we all became football scientists

 

[botfly10]

I liked football for prob my whole life, but realized I was a football nerd in like maybe 2004 or so when I was in college and some friends came over to my house while I was watching the bears. Baers were playing like shit and I kept bitching about the plays and pointing out specific shit they were fucking up and it happened like 6 times where I said something and then the announcers said the same shit like one second later, almost verbatim. My friends were like jesus dude I think you take this too serious.

Another time, probably the same year, I was at the bar to watch football at 10 am getting drunk with my only friend that also likes football and knows anything about it. He is a Lions fan and we were watching bears vs lions. Bears were playing like shit and getting whooped but they were also getting fucked by the refs. My friend kept talking shit and fucking with me and I almost lost it. I swung to punch him right in the fucking face in the middle of the bar, but redirected at the last instant and hit him in the chest. He was stunned as fuck. I shoved him and stormed out like a bitch. Only time in my life I ever instigated violence. Thing was tho, he was my ride so I had to wait for him outside until he came out laughing his ass off.

 

[KittiesKorner]

I liked football for prob my whole life, but realized I was a football nerd in like maybe 2004 or so when I was in college and some friends came over to my house while I was watching the bears. Baers were playing like shit and I kept bitching about the plays and pointing out specific shit they were fucking up and it happened like 6 times where I said something and then the announcers said the same shit like one second later, almost verbatim. My friends were like jesus dude I think you take this too serious.

Another time, probably the same year, I was at the bar to watch football at 10 am getting drunk with my only friend that also likes football and knows anything about it. He is a Lions fan and we were watching bears vs lions. Bears were playing like shit and getting whooped but they were also getting fucked by the refs. My friend kept talking shit and fucking with me and I almost lost it. I swung to punch him right in the fucking face in the middle of the bar, but redirected at the last instant and hit him in the chest. He was stunned as fuck. I shoved him and stormed out like a bitch. Only time in my life I ever instigated violence. Thing was tho, he was my ride so I had to wait for him outside until he came out laughing his ass off.

I didn't know hippies got violent but I admire your oomph

 

[botfly10]

football is the only thing that ever got me raging pissed off

my old lady refuses to be around me when I watch the bears cause the yelling and cause they usually suck and I am pretty sure she hates the bears cause how many sundays I wind up pissed off or depressed