The Reluctant Football Mom

Early last year, my oldest son David, a sophomore in high school, announced that he wanted to play football. 

Inwardly, I cringed.  Football is not a sport that I'm fond of.  At least not anymore.  I used to love watching football games with the hubby years ago.  For several years, I was the hubby's sounding board as he anguished over his fantasy football draft picks and sought my input on which quarterback to add to his line up.  As we added babies number two and three to the mix, I found myself deep into diaper changes and less into men crashing into each other on TV. 

When the oldest was about ten, the hubby found a new recruit into his Fantasy Football line up.  David began showing an interest in football after discovering his father animatedly yelling at the TV on Sundays.  And Saturdays.  And some Thursdays.  And of course, on Monday Night Football.

Woosh.  The hubby sucked in Son Number One.  Son Number Two joined the hollering fest at the tender age of eight.  Every week, from late summer into mid-winter, the boys collaborate with their Dad, discussing the pros and cons of putting in one defense team over another.

I didn't mind. 

But then in middle school, the oldest son asked if he could play football for his school.

I hesitated a bit.  Not only did I hate the idea of him bashing into another kid under the guise of a sport-- I also had to worry about the possibility of David losing the rest of his hearing due to a rare genetic condition.  In my family, several of us became deaf or hard of hearing from hitting our head.  My oldest sister was three when she fell, hit her head and became profoundly deaf.  My brother was 36-years-old when a wooden beam fell on him at work.  He woke up in the hospital two days later with a severe loss.  Another sister slipped on a rug and became profoundly deaf.  Both my brother and I lost hearing from barefooting (waterskiing on bare feet)--his a mild loss, mine--profound.

The hubby and I discussed the pros and cons of football and other sports and we decided not to let any of our kids hold back because of this gene.  So David played football in middle school for a year.  This year, he is playing for the sophomore team on both offense and defense.

My reluctance isn't from worrying about losing any of the hearing he has left, I'm more worried about other injuries.  In the first game of the year last week, one of the teammates was carried off the field.  He has a concussion and temporary paralysis from being hit. 

Do you think I'd be a bad mom if I bribed the kid to stick to Fantasy Football next year?

Karen Putz blogs at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World and is a feature writer at Disaboom.  This is cross-posted at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World.