Go Colts! It’s official — the Colts will be playing in the Super Bowl this year and I’ve noticed my Maryland based brother has been silent on the subject.
My eldest brother has in his older and wiser years become the family grapevine, so to speak. He calls each of us weekly for short talks and keeps us posted on what’s happening with the rest of the siblings.
It occurred to me when I realized the Colts were playing the Ravens in the playoffs that Big Brother hasn’t called in the past week or so. Now, I’m not saying he’s sulking or anything, but … let’s just say he’s been unhappy with the state of Indiana a time or two in the past.
The first time I heard grumbling about the state was in the late 1970s when he drove from Maryland to Wisconsin. I wasn’t living here yet but my move to the Hoosier state was eminent. Apparently Big Brother had to pay a higher price for gas at a toll road station and we heard about it — repeatedly.
The second stately sin the Hoosier state committed against my brother was when the formerly Baltimore (as in Maryland, as in 30 minutes from my brother’s abode) Colts picked up and moved out in the middle of the night and re-invented themselves as the Indianapolis Colts back in 1984.
My eldest brother has admitted he puts the fanatic in sports fan. Depending on the season, our phone conversations are often interrupted with hoots, hollers and yes, sometimes mumbled cusses as he multi-tasks conversing with me while keeping up with the Orioles or Ravens. The Colts bolted he was spitting mad, as were most Colts fans and more by the suddenness and sneakiness of the move than the move itself.
At that time we Michiana folks really could care less. We were all Chicago fans —“Da Bears” were smoking hot and headed toward recording the “Super Bowl Shuffle” and a Super Bowl win in 1986. I tried to explain to Big Brother that geographically we were closer to Chicago so an NFL team in Indianapolis didn’t overly excite us — at first.
By the time we were switching allegiance to the Colts he was probably getting over it and the Ravens had come to Baltimore. Last week the Colts and Ravens met in the playoffs and the Colts prevailed.
Would a “nah nah nah nah boo boo” here seem childish?
As for my own sports allegiances — I’m loyal to the home team — all my home teams! Sure, I’m cheering for the Colts to win but had the Ravens won, I’d cheer for them for my brother’s sake.
I’m a diehard Yankees fan — except for when they play the Mets — then I root for the underdog. I also like the Orioles and have actually been to an Orioles game (but not a Yankees game — YET). I frustrated my eldest son when I proclaimed to be both a Yankees fan and an Orioles fan.
“You can’t be,” my Oriole-loving (at that time anyway) son informed me. “If you like the Orioles you hate the Yankees!”
Nuh uh, not me. But if they play each other, I’m rooting for — you guessed it — the YANKEES! My son follows players more than home teams, so I had a hard time keeping up with who he was rooting for. I’m less complicated — once a fan, always a fan — no matter the season, the players or the coach.
Locally, I’m definitely a NorthWood Panthers fan — both sons are alumni and I spent many a Friday night cheering for the “Wood.” I might still be in the stands, but bleacher seating and a bad back don’t get along so well. But before I lose half my readers — I’m also a Goshen Redskins fan (“You can’t be” I hear you saying …. see above Orioles-Yankees logic) and since I live in Falcon country and both my nephews played for Fairfield, I’m also a Falcon’s fan. However, if the ‘Skins or the Falcons play the “Wood” there’s no question of who I’m rooting for!
“And you call yourself loyal?” I hear some fanatics questioning. Yes, I do. There’s enough cheer in me to go around and when the stakes are high and I have to choose, my allegiance is true.
I’m a social sports fan — no, not one of those women who go to the games to be seen and read a novel instead of the scoreboard. What I mean is I don’t follow the regular seasons anymore but won’t miss the “big ones” — Final Four, World Series, Super Bowl.
Since my eldest son moved out and my TV is not automatically steered to ESPN I don’t keep up as much as I used to, but I will watch those big games even if alone and Lifetime has a great movie playing.
Whether my Big Brother is silently sulking or he’s just been busy remains to be seen — I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and send him this column to find out!
Denise Fedorow is a correspondent and columnist for The Goshen News. Her column appears every other week. She wants her big brother to know she really loves him and is just teasing! Mostly.
