Passage III

A Typical Football Fan

My seventy-year-old grandmother immigrated to the United States from South Korea forty years ago. She is now a U. S. citizen, though she still speaks and reads Korean better than she does English. Before retiring recently and not being employed, she has worked for many years as a waitress. She considers herself to be a devoted wife and a doting mother and grandmother. She certainly doesn't fit the image associated with that of a typical fan of American football. In contrast, for the past thirty years, she's been in love with this physical, male-dominated sport.

As summer ends, my grandmother's ongoing preparation for the new professional football season begins. She eagerly studies the weekly listing of upcoming televised games that comes out every week. On Saturdays, she shops for groceries, prepares reheatable meals for herself and my grandfather (who, by the way, dislikes football), and finishes every household chore that might disrupt her game day. On Sundays, she settles on the sofa for the pregame show, but she doesn't sit still or stay quiet for long. As the game unfolds, she jumps to her feet, waving the remote control and yelling, "That was clipping!" or "Touchdown!"

My grandmother can talk football as fluently and confidently as any sportscaster. However, she'll proclaim that in her Korean accent a veteran, thirty-five-year-old quarterback should "retire already—too old" and that a "Heisman-winning rookie tailback" will easily gain a thousand yards this season. (43) She'll predict that one team will make the playoffs due to "smart draft picks" and "good game plans," while another will end up "in the division cellar" because of "salary caps" and "too many injuries."

Perhaps because of the depth of her understanding of football, my grandmother is not impressed by pampered superstars and overpaid quarterbacks. Instead, her loyalties lie with dedicated, hardworking athletes—team players whom, of course, play to win. In that sense, she certainly fits the mold of the typical football fan.