"What part of I don't care do you not understand, dad?"

It's Wednesday, May 23, 2012, and I'm being my normal controversial self. After preparing my lesson handout for Sunday last Saturday morning, and then running some errands here and there, I returned and sat down to find something to watch on TV. The NASCAR All Star race wasn't on until Saturday evening, therefore, I found the European World Championship for Football (Soccer) and tuned in to it. This was supposed to be a lopsided victory for the Munich team playing against Chelsea from Great Britain. Supposed to be. I can spot a true underdog when I see one and even though I didn't have a dog in the hunt, so to speak, I immediately began rooting for Chelsea. The first score didn't come until the 83rd minute. Munich, the stronger team, looked like they had put an end to the improbable run of Chelsea. Suddenly, Chelsea scored in the 87th minute, just three minutes before the end of regulation. Unbelievable goal! End of regulation, tied one to one. End of first 15 minute overtime, tied one to one. End of second overtime, still tied, one to one. Now it was time for the penalty kicks to decide the championship. Munich got ahead 3 to 1 in kicks but Chelsea came storming back and did the impossible, they won the championship for the first time in their over 100 year history. I was standing and cheering. My wife observed that it was like I was screaming for Jeff Gordon ahead on the last lap. What a match. I think that's what they call them. I know calling it football is heresy here  in our country and especially here in our area. I called my eldest son and asked him what he thought about that match. He said he didn't care. I told him how great it was. He said he didn't care. I explained how the underdogs won. He said he hoped that in the future I would remember that no matter what happened, he still didn't care.

The purists were unhappy with the way that Chelsea won. They played a very defensive game. The other team was vastly superior on offense, so what would anyone expect Chelsea to do? The critics call it ugly play but it was a strategy designed to give them a fighting chance to win and at that level I believe they said it was worth untold millions to the winner. I will tell anyone that calls this type of competition sissy, they were not watching the same program I was. Some of the hitting was very intense and some of the fouls were severe. How could anyone not like the story? A team who was a huge surprise and was thought to not belong there ends up winning. That has to be a feel good for not only their fans that follow them all the time but for anyone who enjoys exciting sporting events. And, we all know that folks across the pond do take their brand of football very seriously. There's an element of hostility that goes on among the fans that can become violent in a heartbeat. They call those crazies that carry on that way, hooligans, and that they are. Fortunately, most of the fanatical sports behavior here in our country doesn't end with folks being taken to the hospital or worse. (Maybe I will have to update that statement given the situation in Oklahoma City where 8 people were shot Monday night after the Thunder-Lakers game.) I don't mind me getting stirred enough to cheer a little in my own living room, but, getting out there and mixing it up with other watchers who somehow live vicariously through the action on the field, no thank you.

Just so you know, the call to my eldest son was a set up. I already knew his thoughts about the sport and I just kept on asking him even though he was protesting every step of the way. His way of looking at it is that watching paint dry is about as exciting as watching one of those soccer competitions.I was just pulling his leg, so to speak. To pull one's leg you are spoofing or making fun of him, usually in a good-humored way. But that wasn't always the meaning of the expression. When the expression first turned up in Scotland about a hundred years ago, it was lacking the lighthearted touch it has today. In those days 'pull one's leg' meant to make of fool of him, often by outright cheating. The best theory of the origin of the phrase is that by tripping a person -- pulling his leg -- you can throw him into a state of confusion and make him look very foolish indeed. Come to think about it, I did see quite a bit of tripping going on in that competition that we don't dare call football because it is an insult to too many folks that are already exhausted from staying up late to watch the professional player draft selections for their favorite NFL team. My way of looking at it says there's enough silliness to go around, foreign and domestic. That's it for today. Much written about something that really doesn't amount to much other than to end up occupying their tiny little digitized places on the electronic storage device. Maybe tomorrow I'll share some about how that we have become fans of the American Ninja Warrior show. Maybe. Maybe not. Until then, may God bless each one. Amen.      ....More later.