Five Dollars Well Spent

Well, I did it. Those of you who read my article
on Yahoo Sports several years ago, might remember me writing about the unique  mother/daughter bond that I have with my oldest.   It's our love of football and particularly our team – the Pittsburgh
Steelers. That's us in the photo, by the way.

So, last Sunday, on our way out of church, we
stopped and bought one $5 raffle ticket to win a four-pack of preseason
Steelers/Redskins tickets.  And we
won!  So yesterday afternoon, we
embarked on another crazy Ayers family adventure – to FedEx Field to watch our
boys in person.


I was apprehensive about wearing our jerseys – after all, I had  never been to an away game before.  Would people harass us?   Well, hardly.  Half the  stadium was wearing black and gold and waving The Terrible Towel.  I was super glad we wore shirts and brought our Towel!  
 
The trip was long but totally worth it.  We ate super expensive, terrible food  and were coaxed into buying souvenir cups that won't last one round in the   dishwasher.  As a matter of fact,
my oldest left hers in the stands when we  left.

We saw our favorite players (#43, #7, #56) and added some new  ones to our list.  We lost the  game, sad to say and even though people say "well, it's preseason", it is still  an indication of what's to come. Our first string guys played lousy.   We left when we heard the announcer state that our backup quarterback  threw a pass and hit the referee with the ball.  
 
Everyone was amazing and friendly. We laughed  with our seat mates who wore Redskins' colors.  A few people acted like jerks to other  Steeler fans, but not to us. My youngest really got into the game and stood and  waved The Terrible Towel with abandon. We laughed the whole way  home.

We added some amazing memories to our repertoire of good times to  think back on: the baby wearing black and gold and chewing a Terrible Towel, the  scalper who tried to buy our extra ticket for $5 but we just ended up giving it  away because my dad wasn't able to join us at the last minute, the worker who  told me I couldn't carry my Towel in plain sight so I had to "complain" to some  police officers that they needed to take him away, the way my kids cracked up  when Party in the USA came on and then suddenly stopped but I kept singing.  
 
I love how football brings us close together and how the joy of  the game is spread throughout my little family.  It was worth the long drive and the  lousy food and the expensive parking lot. Because, in a few short years, they  will be off doing their thing. But hopefully, they will often look back on  Sunday afternoons with the boys and a very special Monday night ride with their
mom to see our team in action.  To  me, no matter what the scoreboard said, we  won.

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