Tag Archives: Jennifer K. Hale

It’s football season. And in my family, that means it’s a matter of time before someone brings up a reference to another thing I’ll never live down.

I married into a family of football fans.

I’d never been much of a football fan myself, mostly because I didn’t understand the rules.

I had no idea what a down was, what “3rd and 10” meant, or why on earth sometimes a team scored 6 points and other times it was 2 or 3.

And I really, really didn’t understand why an idiot player would take the ball and run straight into the onslaught of giants in front of him.

None of it made sense to me.

But then I married into a family of super-fans, and my hubby started with Football 101, allowing me to ask questions until I finally gleaned enough of an understanding of the game that I could really become a fan.

My father-in-law holds season tickets to his favorite college team, so when he invited me to tag along with him and my husband to a game, I was really excited.  I wanted to see this game up close; to really enjoy the atmosphere of it.

I’d been to one or two college games before, but at the time, I was more of  a fan of the band and cheerleaders than I was the actual players.

So this would be the first game when I could really appreciate the game and be part of the atmosphere.

We settled into out seats. I cheered with the rest of the crowd when the boys took the field. I sang the fight song and yelled like crazy at kickoff. I watched with intensity, and asked my husband and father-in-law questions for clarification as the game went on.  They were kind enough to oblige my ignorance so that I could better understand the game.

But then came THE question.

The next play was coming up and I didn’t really know how they judged the distance to the next down. So, I leaned over to my husband and asked–

“Where’s the yellow line?”

“Huh?” Hubby responded.

“The yellow line on the field–where is it?”

Taking in my serious face, my hubby held in his chuckles long enough to elbow his dad and have me repeat the question. Then they both burst into uncontrollable laughter and shared my question with the fans around us.

I had no idea why they were laughing.

“Jenny, the yellow line is computer-generated on the screen for the viewers at home.”

My face flamed and my father-in-law (who has always loved to crack jokes about me being blonde) laughed until I thought he was going to faint.

And I gave him plenty of ammunition. Serious, serious blonde moment.

And to this day, I haven’t lived it down. Every football season a male in my husband’s family makes a crack about the yellow line on the field.

I’ve been to plenty of games since and have been able to impress my hubby, his brothers, and my father-in-law with my growing knowledge of the game.  I’ll never forget the time I called a player offsides from the stands, shocking the males in the family so much that their eyes bugged out.

So, yeah, I’ve learned a lot about the game. I can now be considered a true fan.

But as for the yellow line, I’ll never live it down.

Share with me: Are you a football fan or married to one? What team do you support? Have you ever had a “blonde moment”? How did you handle it?