Tressels, Fickells and Urbans,
There are two Ohio State football games where I didn't watch the fourth quarter...and never will: the 2006 National Championship game vs. Florida and the 2017 game @ Iowa.
This last weekend of unwatchable fourth quarter football was a good lesson on two fronts.
The first - it provided a hard-earned teaching moment for my second grade son, Jake, who is an extremely knowledgeable and passionate Ohio State football fan. Jake learned about dealing with disappointment. He's not the type of kid to cry...he's kind of a tough kiddo, typically. I could tell Jake was trying to hold it in when Iowa scored late in the third quarter...and once Iowa scored at the very start of the fourth quarter to go up by 28 points, the tears started flowing.
I pulled Jake into another room without a TV, isolated from the onslaught, and told him we didn't have to watch the rest of the game...it was OK to stop. We sat there for a while - the rest of the fourth quarter, in fact - and talked about how sometimes things don't turn out the way you want them to...sometimes tough things happen that are hard to explain...and sometimes things just go sideways when you don't expect it. I told him it was OK to be disappointed and gave him the words to talk about it so he could work through it.
The second lesson I learned last Saturday was that I'm not inherently a masochist - it's very unnatural for me to root for a team that gives up 55 points, plays uninspired, looks listless and makes my child cry.
...but after the letter Jake received earlier today, I may reconsider for Ohio State football.
The letter was from Jake's Great Uncle Rick on Shannon's side of the family...it was neatly handwritten on yellow legal pad paper, cut in half and fold over once. Rick is not on social media or mobile device text chains, so news of Jake's disappointment must have reached him the old-fashioned way - actual human connection. The letter read:
"Dear Jake,
I recently learned that you were upset over the Buckeye's loss to Iowa. Well, I can tell you, so was I! Buckeye fans don't lose a game like that very often.
I know we have two very tough games coming up with Michigan State and Michigan. This week we play Michigan State and whoever wins will have a chance to win the Big 10 championship. All we can do is cheer like crazy for the Buckeyes to win! Go Bucks! Love, Uncle Rick"
...and that's exactly what we are going to do.
Touchdowns: Dobbins, Dixon, Dixon, JT, Austin Mack, BB Landers
OSU 42 MSU 37
Go Bucks! Beat MSU! BB Landers for Heisman!
Large Father
