His Biggest Cheerleader!

There's something magical about football! I guess it's the warrior in me that gets excited when I see the soldiers in full gear run onto the field - some excited, anxious, or extraordinarily focused or noticeably calm - but all ready for battle (or at least you hope)!

As the helmeted soldiers warm up their weapons of muscular legs - some that are capable of running a 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds, some have bulging biceps that in a strange way look like rocks protruding from boulders, or some display raging emotions that make you wonder if any of these guys are actually "nice," I sit and imagine what it must be like to be in their cleats. To view your menacing opponent through a piece of headgear donned with a thin white strap that acts as a guardian angel for the brain beneath the shiny dome, I wonder if the warrior thinks of scenarios such as colliding with the opponent or getting hit with what feels like the same G force as a fighter plane? I can only imagine that the anticipation of the body-to-body contact (the war) that is bound to happen in the next three hours on the field must be exhilarating!

How amazing it must be to have no fear during the war as a defensive player to strike or pummel your opponent and knock him silly into tomorrow or as an offensive player to catch the bomb thrown by the quarterback and run past defenders who look as though they are battling a ghost. It must be even more fulfilling to know that after this particular war is over (God willing that you stay healthy and survive with minimal pain or injuries), you get the opportunity to do it over again next week.

This is football my friends! The sport that I love to watch every Fall season. Football is a sport I've been a fan of since the Rams called San Diego home and the sport that my former husband (Keith Browner) and his five brothers (Ross, Jimmy, Willard, Joey and Gerald - the "First Family of Football") played in college and/or professionally. And now my son, Keith Browner, Jr. who is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the popular Pac-10 team more commonly known as the Cal Bears.

You may have already surmised, I'm not your ordinary football mom. I don't cringe when my son makes a tackle (I'm guilty of having paid him $20 for every tackle and $50 for each QB sack in High School) and I don't worry if he gets up slow from a tackle (my motto: if it's not broken, get up; if it's bleeding don't fret, it will coagulate in a few minutes). From the time he was five years old, Keith Browner, Jr. has successfully followed the path to his dream to becoming a High School, College and hopefully Professional football player.

He has and will continue to succeed because God is my son's biggest fan, clearing the ground for which he travels and blessing him with many talents as he becomes the warrior he was meant to be!

And me? I'm simply his Biggest Cheerleader as you can see. I'm passionate about football and intrigued by the lessons taught and learned on the gridiron, the nuances of being a football player and how society embraces the sport.

I hope you will follow my blog all about football...from a mom's perspective.