From a young age, I knew I was different. I knew that what I took interest in wasn’t the same thing other girls took interest in. I mean yeah, I liked Barbies and baby dolls, but I also had this weird love for sports and G.I. Joes.
As I got older, my love for sports grew-- I played t-ball at a young age and watched football every Sunday with my parents. My older cousins, Conrad and Nick, played baseball and watched football as well. It was something that brought us closer and something we still enjoy doing together.
Growing up with older boy cousins, I had to work really hard on knowing what I was talking about, and even then I had no idea. Being so much younger than them, I always felt like a burden because I wanted to be doing what they were doing.
I was about nine when I chose what teams I was going to like. In my family, there are all different teams and everyone wants to tell you who to like. My mother is a New York Giants fan, while my father is New England Patriots fan-- talk about tension. Nick is a Dallas Cowboys fan and Conrad likes the Miami Dolphins. If you can name a team, someone in my family probably likes them.
Me being me, at the age of 9 and not really knowing football, I chose a team based solely on the colors the teams wore. Now if you know football, you know there isn’t a pink team so I went with the next best thing, the purple and yellow Minnesota Vikings.
As I watched football on the screen growing up, my love and need to actually physically play the sport grew. When I was in seventh grade, I joined the boys' football team at my school. All the boys made fun of me at practice and told me I couldn’t play because I was a girl; some even called me “princess.” Everyday I went to practice, put on my pads and cleats in the girls' locker room and went out to the field and played with the boys. All I had ever wanted was to feel what those players on the screen were feeling. After finally knowing what it was like, I felt like I achieved my goal and I didn’t play ever again.
One of my favorite things to hear about female football fans is that we either do it for attention or we fake knowing what’s going on in the game. I know for a fact that we don’t do it for attention-- most women that watch sports are actually interested and engaged in the sport. I know someone who is genuinely interested in tennis, but that doesn’t mean she fakes it. I mean, who actually watches tennis? I love to watch golf- I mean, it's golf- one of the slowest and most time consuming sports to watch.
What I’m trying to get across is that you can like what ever you want to, whether it be sports, Barbies or match box cars. Whatever it is that you like, go for it-- like it, master it, and become the most intelligent person on that topic. If it makes you happy, then good for you. I know that to this day, I still love my purple and yellow Minnesota Vikings and its been almost ten years.
For all the females that do like football or any sport in general, good for you. Keep on yelling at your TVs and keep on winning.
