Sports Sure are Something

My family loves sports. Sure, you might read that and say to yourself, “My family loves sports too,” and while that may be true, we LOVE it.

Sport brings people together, gives them moments and memories to share, and most importantly offers a distraction from some of the stress and struggle of everyday life. So sure, sports aren’t everything… But they sure are something.

When one is lucky enough to have the family I have, certain things become tradition, and one of those greatest traditions has always been weekends in the fall.

We went on trips, fishing, hiking, swimming, etc. all during the fall, but the number one way to spend a weekend in the McDulin house, especially once our Dad no longer traveled for work, was watching football.

When I say “watch football” I mean wake up, put on the pregame shows, and then by eleven for college and noon for NFL it was kickoff (we were lucky enough to live in Houston at the time, which meant central time kickoffs, which is still in my mind one of the greatest things ever).

We did yard work, went to church regularly, finished homework, talked, chatted, ate (Meg could eat all of Dad’s chicken wings recipe if we let her), and sometimes got in trouble for a bad grade or a dumb decision, but football in the fall was always in the background.

LSU fake field goals, Mia somehow beating me in Madden even though she never played, the Cincinnati Bearcats going to the Orange and Sugar Bowls - my Dad and I didn’t miss one game of that 2009 Bearcat season thanks to ESPN3 – And there was Lee Corso’s headgear on ESPN and Saturday Night Football on ABC with one of my best friends, Elena Kramarz.

It united us, and today it still brings us together. So, when people ask me why I love sports, the answer is easy. I have very few memories that aren’t associated with it, both good and bad.

Here’s an example of just a few….

The first time I ever distinctly remember getting to stay up past my hard bed time of nine o’clock was a little Monday Night Football.

I was 7 years old and at that time my Dad was traveling. That year Christmas was midweek so he was off, and Brett Favre and the Packers were playing the Raiders on Monday Night Football.

Now at the time I couldn’t fully grasp what was happening, but Brett Favre’s Dad had died the night before. With millions of others watching, my Dad and I stayed up and watched one of the most heart-stopping sports performances by a player ever.

The first time I got my heart broken was definitely by sports, and not an elementary crush.

I was there at Paul Brown Stadium with my Mom, Dad, and grandparents as we watched Carson Palmer complete a pass to Chris Henry on a bomb of over 60 yards down the sideline only to turn back the other way and see our MVP on the ground in pain.

The next time heartbreak happened I was in Houston, with my parents again as we watched J.J. Watt's legend come to be against our beloved Bengals, and the next time we celebrated the first Bengals playoff win in twenty years, only to see victory snatched from us by former Miami Redhawk “Big” Ben Roethlisberger.

In addition to football, I’ll always be able to say where I was when Homer Bailey threw his second no-hitter as my Dad, his dad - “Gramps” Jim McDulin, and I watched history over on Winston right off of Main in Hamilton, Ohio.

I'm lucky.

Memories and moments, too many to count at such a young age, and countless more still to come.

As a family we may not get every weekend together anymore, but we are still always connected by sports.

Mia and I and Reds games, Dad and I’s love for any good college football storyline, Meg texting about the Buckeyes, and Mom and her Bengals.

Do me a favor, share your favorite sports moment in the comments, but make it one that is your favorite because of who you were with, not just because it happened.