Fighting Aliens, Fighting for First Downs and Fighting for Family Time
Last night I nearly got a fat lip and my son smashed his finger - on his non-broken hand mind you - and boy we had fun.
Anyone who has played a tough game of NCAA Football on their Xbox 360 or Playstation can relate to our 'good time.' The game may be on the screen, but a lot of the trash talking and ‘elbowing’ goes on in the chairs or couches in front of the glowing screen. Last night it was on. UCLA vs. Texas. A back and forth game that involved a lot of bumping, talking and prophesying – from the competitors on the brown leather couch. A lot of things were said to each other, but most of it came out of our mouths in two or three word phrases - “In your face”, “Take that”, “Oh yea”, “Touchdown”, “First down” and “You got nothing” (done as Robert De Niro playing Al Capone in “Untouchables”) are some of the things that I remember either hearing or uttering myself.
In last minute of the fourth quarter UCLA was up 27-24. The game was over. Run out the clock and turn out the lights. (See Don Meredith) But then I asked my son if losing - yes I was UCLA - would ruin his Texas Longhorns saved season? His answer led my quarterback to make some bad decisions. He (notice the disconnect from the guy I was controlling) threw incomplete passes and even took a big time sack. That led to a punt - which wasn’t even good enough to get on a ‘pee wee’ version, let alone the EA Sports NCAA version, of video game football. Then my cornerbacks and safeties decided to key on the run while a long pass sailed over their graphically enhanced helmets and into the soft spot of the end zone. Add the extra point and the score board now showed Texas up 31-27 and just 5 seconds on the clock. I threw a ‘hail Mary’ that bounced off the hands of a defender and my receiver at the twenty yard line to make it official. He won, I lost. And today’s version of going out and ‘playing catch’ was over.
Ten years from now - even ten days from now - no one will remember the final score or even playing that game. However, I think ten years from now, the time we spent together and the time we spend together – even when it’s just playing a video game will matter.
