Twiddling My Thumbs

What do you do, when you`re a pro football fan and the season is over after week 6? Sure its over for the Hawks. We`ve got injury on top of injury, a backup quarterback who thinks he`s still in college, and plays at that level, a first string QB who`s injury prone, and a head coach I`m beginning to have questions about. The backup QB we should have, is currently holding that position at Dallas, and will be unlikely to ever want to return to the city that kicked him out.

I`ve been a fan of the Hawks since 1987, and I`ve experienced the thrill of postseason play around a handful of years. The first of those ended so quickly with a snowball fight at Green Bay, that I wasn`t even sure that it hadn`t been an 18-week season (with the bye). I should be used to it by now, being out of contention by week 6, and watching each game for its own merits. Fans of the Eagles are desperate for a ring, but I`ll gladly settle for a winning season, even if we don`t make the play-offs.

I`ll be a fan of the Hawks until I pass from the scene, simply because they are in my blood (but I won`t brag about bleeding axle grease blue), and no other team could possibly supplant them in my affections. It isn`t easy being a fan of a team from a city where coffee shops and cinnamon mocha pomengranate latte`s outnumber neighborhood dives and drafts on a fifty-year old bar. I do envy my neighbors, happily toasting their Giants, with long necks of Bud and Coors. The best I can do is aim my bottle of Sam Adams at the screen,..........and cry.

Next for us, are the Cowboys, and I`m as filled with dread at the thought of it, as the Seahawks are with pain-killers and cortisone. If we by some miracle should win, I won`t rail at Bowl, Robbo, Love4, Canuck, and Monster. I`ll be too busy thanking Providence for His mercy. If we lose, I`ll probably take a vacation, and try to summon enough courage to watch the following week. That game will fill me with dread too, for we`ll be playing the much feared Detroit Lions.