It was cold as the proverbial Witch’s naughty bits tonight, but you don’t miss the Gallia vs Jackson football game just because it’s cold.
Some backstory is necessary, however.
We went to a game a few weeks ago and at one point during halftime the cheerleaders threw out little footballs. One went a little behind us but I couldn’t reach it. Fortunately Ethan wasn’t there to be disappointed.
Unfortunately I’m as dumb as a sack of hammers and mentioned it to him.
Then he started asking when they would throw more footballs for us to get one.
Of course they only do it once a game, and not always, but you try explaining that to a 4 year old.
He only mentioned it about 72 times in the second half of the game. So on our way out I acted on my mother’s old advice: “If you don’t ask, the answer is no.” I figured I could ask if they had any left. If they did, excellent. If they didn’t, I’d be no worse off than I was before.
The first cheerleader I asked sent me to the far end of their area and pointed to a box where she thought they would be, if they had any more. I went down, Ethan in my arms, and asked if they had any more.
“Well, we aren’t supposed to give any out after the giveaway….” she said with all the proper respect for authority one could hope for in a teenager.
But I was standing there with Ethan. When faced with the decision to ether uphold some random rule with little negative consequence or making a little kid happy, I think the better person chooses the kid.
Although we did not discuss ethics and worldviews, she clearly agreed, and gave Ethan a football, who issued a suitably excited “Thank you!” to her.
So that was that.
Tonight we were walking to the game and out of nowhere Ethan says, “Tonight we’re going to get an orange football.”
Why orange? I have no idea. The team’s colors and blue and white. The other football was, I believe, green.
Did he see an orange one in the box that she gave him a green one out of? Possibly. It was several weeks ago but he has both excellent eyesight and an excellent memory (it’s a bit freaky, actually). Does he harken back to the team of his birth, the Florida Gators, whose colors are orange and blue? Perhaps.
We did our best to explain to him that: A) they might not be giving out footballs today and B) we don’t know what colors they might have. Unspoken but also under consideration was C) we don’t know that if they throw them they would actually come near us. If C happened he would surely expect that I would walk him down to get him another one.
Sigh.
No good deed goes uncomplicated.
It appeared that it would be a relatively moot issue, because halftime came and went and no little footballs appeared.
But if that was the whole story, what kind of story would this be?
Sometime during the 3rd quarter, out came the footballs. But nowhere near us. Then the last one came sailing our way. I looked up and thought at first it was going well over our heads, but then it came down.
Ethan, who had been sitting on my lap for most of the game and supplying me with a nice bit of warmth, was sitting with Tracey. I stood up. There’s not much room to move around in the bleachers. I was cold. The ball came down. I reached up and stretched out as far as I could and felt it drop into my hands.
This is what winning the Superbowl must feel like.
I nearly lost my footing, and in doing so nearly fell on a small child. No, I did not snatch the ball away from a small child. Nearly crush her after catching it, yes; be a big mean adult, no.
It was only after I handed it to Ethan did I notice the color.
Orange indeed.
(Cue music, slow camera panning over the crowd singing “We are the Champions.”)
Who knew I could be a hero of a high school football game 15 years after graduation?
In other news, Gallia beat Jackson.