Oct 20, 2015 3 min read

Fall is near the top of my list for favorite season. One of the reasons is football. How could I not be a Steelers fan having grown up in Southwestern Pennsylvania in the 1970s?

When I was a kid, we played football in the front yard every day, and we girls played organized flag football (remember, this was the ’70s). I never missed high school or college games and tried to catch my alma mater (West Virginia University) on the road while living up and down the East Coast.

Now that I’m back home, it’s great fun (but perhaps a sad commentary on my social life) that my schedule still revolves around sports. As soon as the Steelers and WVU football schedules are released, I sit down with my calendar and mark each game. It’s pathetic, really. The Super Bowl gets written in my datebook as if it were a holiday. I like to imagine a nice autumn wedding if I ever get married, but who am I kidding? That would be virtually impossible unless the Steelers and WVU both had the same bye week. And what about the groom’s team’s schedule (in the unlikely event he’s not a Steelers fan)? Perhaps we would hold off until after the playoffs.

My sports obsession would be easy to handle if it ended with the last whistle of football season. But in our neck of the woods, Steelers season runs into Penguins season, which overlaps with Pirates season, and then the whole cycle begins anew. It’s exhausting. Why can’t I tear myself away?

Sometimes I’ll read with Pens or Bucs games on TV in the background. My car radio is always tuned to the game. I’ll pass on the fall weekend apple festival, thank you, but would you like to come over and watch football? I dragged friends to sports bars in different states while on vacation during two of the last three Pirates wild card games. Friends from other states commend me on my loyalty. I always thought it odd that other people weren’t as loyal.

I am gradually learning to temper my emotional investment in sports teams and to enjoy the action rather than focus on the season outcome. As a kid, I was devastated if the Steelers didn’t make the Super Bowl. Watching Mario Lemieux play for the Penguins spoiled us, and the Pirates of the ’70s and early ’90s were tremendous. We all know what came next. The old saying goes, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” I must be mellowing in my middle age, because even though the Bucs lost the wild card game, the sun still rose the next day. And it sure was nice to still be invested in baseball in October rather than counting the days until Steelers training camp.

Which reminds me … I have to set my DVR for the Steelers game since I’ll be working.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.