Julianne Sun
Football games are physically horrible across all teams and divisions. That’s the truth at least from my perspective. I’ve been to many a game; not by choice, but because I’m a member of my school’s marching band. I have sweatshirts and sweaters in my closet that I’ve put aside for football games and I can play almost every pep band tune perfectly. While I am no avid football fan, I believe that I’ve seen enough to say that there is something fun about football games.
To parents whose children aren’t in football and have never seen a single game, football games seem like a loud, pointless mob of adolescents. But to the football team, the coaches, the parents, and the student body, football games are the linchpin of the high school experience. As the old saying goes, misery loves company and football games are equivalent to that misery. Games are cold, and sometimes it rains the entire time. They’re certainly not comfortable – I haven’t met a single person that enjoys sitting on cold metal. They’re also very time-consuming, especially for those who aren’t very familiar with the finer points of the offense and defense.
Going through all that torture is horrible, especially if you tried to go through all that yourself. No friends to cheer with, no classmates to huddle on the bleachers with, no football nerd to explain what exactly is happening on the field. And therein lays the secret to enjoying football games: you’ve got to go there with friends.
Watching your fingers turn darker and darker shades of blue is more fun when your friends are going through the same thing. In a morbid way, football games provide a special kind of torture not found anywhere else in the high school world. It is through that torture that you can bond with your friends (which is incredibly important to the adolescent mind) and make the high school life just a little bit sweeter. Just a bit.
Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on parenting (I’m only 16), but to all the Chinese parents confused as to why their children insist on attending this brutal American sport, this is part of the reason why. Sure, your children could hang out with their friends on any other day, in any other setting, but there’s something unique about the horribleness of football games. American traditions are weird, yes, but you can’t deny that they’re fun.
Pictures: Provided by Emily Wang and from internet Editor’s note: Julianne is a junior at Brookfield Central High School and as she has mentioned, a member of her schools marching band. This in turn requires her to go to all of the football games, even if she wouldn’t want to voluntarily attend. Through the constant attendance, she has found a sort of bliss in going to these games and wants to show the parents of high schoolers that it’s not about the violence of the sport, but of the dynamic that surrounds the game. It truly boils down to be a social get-together.
