I hadn’t seen my brother or his family since he left for his first posting in the Army. The last time I saw him, his oldest son was a toddler; so when I got the opportunity to see him play football, I jumped at the chance.
A linebacker for a small university, it was one of those games where a bigger university offers to pay the small school a pile of money for what amounts as a practice game for the bigger school. I didn’t care, I just wanted to see my nephew play football.
I took the train to Connecticut and when I got to the stadium, they had my ticket waiting and I learned later word was sent to the locker room that I was there.
In trying to find my seat, I encountered not just members of the stadium security, but the head of security. They showed me to my seat and told me they would send word to the locker room.
A short time later, I see this tall guy in his football uniform walking down the sideline of the field. Not seeing him since he was two, I obviously didn’t recognize him, but I recognized his uniform number – 44. I started moving down the stairs but when I got to the bottom, the security guy wouldn’t let me on the field, but we met on the stairs…and hugged like the long lost relatives we were. The time was short but I was very excited and it was all thanks to two strangers who made a point of making sure my nephew knew I was there.
When I got back to my seat, some guy comes down and asks me how I knew that guy…”he’s MY nephew!”
I listened to every football game on the internet and kept track of his stats. On some Sundays, we would talk about the game (I grew up watching football and baseball with my Dad and learned a lot about the game). Of course, the conversations didn’t last long…he had to go to the cafeteria and “punish it”!
I was disappointed when he was cut from the Lions the week before they played the Bills – a game I would have been able to see – but when he signed on for a year with the Sioux Falls Storm Indoor Football League, I didn’t miss a game.
These days my nephew no longer tackles people; as an accountant he tackles numbers.