Kids want you to show interest, but they don’t want you to actually DO anything about their sports.
From Leave It To Beaver:
Ward) I used to be in quite a lot of sports in school
June) Why don’t you tell them about the time you were doing the butterfly stroke and when you went underwater and didn’t come up fast enough your mother stood up and yelled, “Somone help him, he’s drowning.”
I came in to say this. Sit down with your son and watch whoever his favorite team is with him one Sunday and ask him about it. Chances are, he’ll give a longwinded and confusing explanation, but I also imagine he’d love nothing more than to get to just ramble on and on teaching you about it.
The thing about football is, yes, it’s a very complicated game, but it really doesn’t take deep knowledge of the game to be able to enjoy it. Like with Chess, where you can play it and enjoy it just by knowing how the different pieces move and not knowing a lick of strategy, in football all you really need to know is the basics like what a down and the line of scrimmage are, scoring, etc. and you can understand enough to enjoy it, or at least be able to enjoy it as an activity with your son. Most of the rest of the stuff you can learn from your son and/or the announcers as they discuss a certain call or penalty.
The same goes with Baseball, except the basics are even a lot simpler. In fact, the Baseball season is on now, while football is in preseason which generally isn’t as much fun to watch since they’re more concerned about finishing up the roster than winning. Even better, the Baseball season is getting into the more interesting part since it’s starting to wind down with the playoffs less than 6 weeks away (I think), so chances are a given game with a playoff contender in it will be a little more interesting to watch.
I watched a SuperBowl with some American friends. I asked for a short explanation beforehand, but the guys wouldn’t give it. At one point, I was preparing more food with the other woman in the group, and she explained a bit. My conclusion was “ok, so it’s rugby with shoulderpads, give or take some details?” “Yep.”
Gee, that wasn’t so difficult! (Once you can explain rugby in five minutes, that is).
You’re the dad, the kid should acclimate to you. Tell him you’re not watching no damn football and change the channel.
Or just break up with him. Tell him he’s just not what you’re looking for in a son right now. He’s a nice kid, but you guys don’t have anything in common. Maybe mom would be a better fit.
How rude! I have a friend from Africa and when she comes we explain things to her - until she tells us she is bored… If you were to watch with us we would explain, I promise.
why not get him to teach you?
Well, it’s a lot like rugby league with shoulder pads, but not at all like rugby union. There’s no analogue for the concept of an (American Football) down or play in rugby union, whereas in rugby league the five-tackle system is broadly similar.
Wow - thank you all for the terrific suggestions. I’ve started to ask him questions, and in the innocence of an 8 year-old, he doesn’t think anything of answering them, and does think it’s pretty neat.
The idea of playing video football, etc. is a great one to. I grew up in the era of Frogger and Donkey Kong, and other than arcade driving games, I haven’t kept up with video games even though I’m in the IT field.
We have an X-Box and we have the football and baseball games, which are incredibly realistic, but it’s hard because I have to acclimate to how to play, along with the incredibly complex combinations of rear-button, front button, joystick, and four keys, which through a dizzying array of permutations allow you to dive for a ball, steal a base, etc. My son has it down to a “T”. Maybe, I have to sneak in some practice sessions.
Great suggestions all. Thanks a bunch!!
Yeah, but for me that “five-tackle system” falls into the hole marked “details I couldn’t care less about.” I’ll listen and nod when people talk about it, but so long as I’m good at bringing the next cold beer when it’s due, most rugby or american football fans are happy.
Hey! Has anyone thought of having his son teach him??
Also we’ve done some threads on learning the basic rules and what to look for in different sports
Baseball–with RickJay’s phenomenal contributions
Football–the chess analogy is particularly good
I know you didn’t mention it, but I’m including this thread anyway because this is the king of sports and the sport of kings (whatever that means). Hockey
I was in your position, aalghat. I was kind of bookish (and, to my discredit) snobby about sport until I acquired a step-son who loved it.
I discovered that kids who love sports looove watching it on TV. So I started watching it with him. His sports were cricket and rugby, but it works with all of them, I’m sure.
The great thing about televised sports is that the commentary, if you watch for a while, teaches you a great deal about the game, from beginner levels to extreme subtleties. (Try having anyone explain the black art of reverse swing bowling without the graphics that television can bring.) And if you don’t follow some aspect of the game, you get to ask the kid about it, on the pretext of “what do you think about that?”
Worked for me. Now I can talk to the kid about his favourite things in the universe and not sound like a complete doofus. And I also have come to kind of like sports.