Merry Christmas

This Monday night will mark the first Eagles-Cowboys game I've watched in-person with my dad in many years.  When I was a kid, football season usually meant Sunday lunch in front of the TV, with mom sleeping on the couch and the guys rooting for the Eagles.

Except during Cowboys weeks. 

You see, my father is a Cowboys' fan.  Has been for a long time.  Started following the team because of Staubach and loved Landry, but didn't mind rooting for Johnson and his boys. 

The weeks the Eagles played the Cowboys, things often got pretty heated, and we generally ended up watching the game in different rooms.  I imagine we used to argue about lots of different things while watching the games, but the main point of contention that I remember was the question of whether or not that bastard Michael Irvin had just pushed off yet another Eagles defender to catch yet another out route from Aikman. 

In hindsight, I think it's pretty clear who was right.  Unfortunately, at the time it didn't much matter, because the refs just kept letting him get away with it.

Over the years, my dad's enthusiasm for the Cowboys has waned.  As an ardent Penn State / Joe Paterno man, he didn't take the Switzer era all that well.  (Come to think of it, as a Cowboys fan he wasn't that fond of most of it either).

Then he took a liking to Andy Reid, and the Eagles are always the local game, and Jerry Jones is Jerry Jones ... and the next thing you know, he was starting to waver.  I wouldn't say the break has been made yet, but if any man can sever that attachment, it will be the hated Terrell Owens. 

So Monday night's game won't be like the old days.  Dad will probably still be rooting for the Cowboys at some level, but he won't want to see TO do anything special and he knows how much this game means to the Eagles, and their fans, aka my parents' friends and neighbors and offspring.

The odds are therefore pretty good that we'll be able to watch the whole game in the same room.  Which is good, because we're probably getting too old for arguments about football, anyway.  And it's Christmas, the season of family and togetherness, so that's a time for coming together, not splitting apart.   

Not to mention, I don't think they have cable upstairs in the new house.

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Merry Christmas everyone.  I'll be back on Monday.  Safe travels if you're headed anywhere this holiday season.   

Comments

[Tom G]

You're never too old to argue about sports.

[klkatz]

I'm sorry about your childhood predicament. But it seems as if your dad might come to his senses and root for a team with heart.

Fly Eagles Fly!