A Different Kind of Scrimmage Line

A Different Kind of Scrimmage Line

By Lana Wolfe

 

Football season is upon us and the increase of salon activity reflects this.  Year after year, beginning with the pre-season games, women frantically phone for waxing services and makeovers.  This continues through out the football season. I’m as grateful for it as I’m amused by it and bemused by it.

 

It has been my experience as a stylist that my business increases with two kinds of attitudes: one being that of the woman who can finally make the time to do things for herself since her mate will be fully occupied elsewhere for the next few months to come.  The other kind of woman is the single woman who genuinely likes sports; her motto: “great place to find men.”  Whichever camp they are in, whatever their goals may be, they share their love for this sport that calls men out of their cocoons all over the country.

 

I used to love football, too.  It meant seeing friends and watching their families grow.  It meant the expression of great joy and also a great many explicatives.  The women would cook up tasty dishes and join the men for the game that featured the “family’s” team.  From there, some of us would cut out and go to the neighborhood pub or go shopping.  Sometimes we would even catch a movie.  Football freed us from the monotony of every day living.   Yessiree, from the Fantasy Football nights through the Super Bowl, we led very interesting lives.

 

But there is a downside to this time of year that a small minority of women are fully aware of.  Unfortunately, my friends and I got to watch one such event unfold with our own eyes.  In 1998, there were several new singles that had become part of our group, both men and women.  Nothing threatening about that... 

 

I’ll never forget the friendly brunette named Sharon. She was petite with curves and large breasts.  Her friendly smile was engaging to all around her.  We all loved her and her real asset was in the food she prepared.  She helped us to turn our football parties into theme parties.   There wasn’t anything she didn’t know about football and was the top winner one year in the football pool.

 

There were a few women who had been struggling in their marriages, women who through the years had become family to us.  Their husbands still joined us for every game while the women took what time they could find for themselves; joining us occasionally and when they did, there was always a little tension the women picked up on but the men didn’t notice.  The times were changing.  One of the gentlemen, who I’ll call Rod, spent a great deal of time discussing game maneuvers with Sharon.I knew from the beginning that this spelled trouble.  Rod was married to my friend and was falling in love with Sharon. It took a year, but he finally made my friend so miserable that she quit joining us entirely.  Come our third football season together, Rod and Sharon were shacking up.  The delicious dishes Sharon used to prepare for us were few and far between.  They introduced the element of relationship side-line arguments to the rest of us—yet they are still together to this day. 

This tore at us and a few other relationships slowly eroded.  I quit joining the rest of them; half hoping some single woman would help me find my freedom.  The fact is, I rarely watch football anymore.  The joy of the game was sullied in my book and what became most noticeable to me was there was more than one way the football season can grab a man’s attention.

 

So now, I listen to the women who come in and wonder if this woman will be the next to nab her perfect mate (or the mate of someone else).  I wonder who the next woman will be to lose her husband to a different kind of scrimmage.  For now, all is well; but this is only the beginning of the season.