I consider myself quite lucky. Born a Giants fan in 1976, in my lifetime, I’ve seen my team go to the Super Bowl five times and return with four Super Bowl rings. That’s precisely the same number of Super Bowl appearances and Super Bowl rings that my father has witnessed as well and his fandom precedes mine by nearly thirty seasons. So it’s really tough to complain now when my New York Giants are winless at 0-6. This is truly unprecedented in my lifetime and it’s bought me a little bit of freedom this Fall.
Normally my Sundays this time of year are fully committed. Saturdays are the only free weekend day. And while watching football games is assuredly leisure time as opposed to work time, it’s not without its stresses. A Giants loss has usually put me in a foul mood at least temporarily. And missing the playoffs in any given season has made me feel like my investment of Sundays in the Fall was for naught. So the luxury of being winless at this point in the season is really unique. I still enjoy watching football – I always will. It’s just that win or lose, the stakes are so measurably reduced that if I happen to be changing a diaper and miss an important play, so be it! And if there’s somewhere we need to be on a Sunday and I’m forced to get updates on my Blackberry, I can deal with that. I have two day weekends back this year and I like it!
Let’s just not make a habit of it!