Suck It Up

Football season is here.

Practice started this week for my 12 year old, and today was a muddy one. As I drove into the parking lot to retrieve my boy, I saw my friend, Terry, sitting in her Jeep. I pulled my car up next to her to say 'hey'.
It was raining, and the boys were still out in the field. The coach was talking and they had taken a knee. Terry was becoming a little nervous. "It's getting dark...Why are they making the kids kneel in the mud?...They shouldn't have to be out there in the rain."
Poor Terry. She doesn't get it ...yet. But she will.

Although she and I have sat through many basketball seasons together watching our sons, this was Brandon's first time playing football. Brian, on the other hand, has been playing since since second grade. This is his fifth season.
When I signed him up for the Peewee Football League at the age of seven, I was also a bit concerned by what seemed to be harsh treatment for such young children. But I quickly saw the positive impact football was making on my son.
I will never forget the look of pride on my little boy's face when he walked up to me after practice one evening and said, "Guess what we did today in conditioning? The "House of Pain" The coach said I was the best."
I had just witness one of the most valuable things that the game of football teaches kids. Football teaches the boys to "suck it up"
No whining, no crying, no complaining...you take a hit, you get back up...you don't get mad ...suck it up. It's raining? So what. You have teammates depending on you to do your job, so follow directions. Sometimes you can't just do your best, sometimes you have to do what is required.
What great life lessons.
But personally, my favorite part of football, is listening to somebody, besides me, yell at my kids.
Yeah, it's all good.