Sports Radio and My Dad

I like sports radio. This puts me in the minority of women, and puts me in the minority of people listening to sports radio, as they are almost exclusively men. It's funny, because I'm not and have never been an athlete (my softball team tried to vote me off the team), and I'm pretty girly, most of the time. I like to get all tarted up and have a good time in my heels and tiny tops in the summer. But give me a good sports radio rant on any particular sport, and I'll listen in...

I listen most often during football season, usually, because I'm a big Bears fan, and I find it important to keep on top of what's happening with my team, and hear interviews from the players for how it's going on the inside, etc. But I have found myself lately each night turning my radio to the local ESPN station for my entire ride home. Maybe because I don't like the nighttime DJ's on the pop/hip-hop station in Chicago. Maybe because the music options aren't particularly stellar. And maybe because I like to hear people talking, giving their opinions, and sports will bring out the trash talk and the competition among dj's like nothing else will. I listened to the NBA finals game on the radio last night when I went to pick up Scott from the play. I don't even really like basketball, but I'll definitely tune in for the finals, on TV or the radio, even if I don't have a vested interest in either team. Probably because I'm bored with TV and radio options that are out there, and want something that's at least interesting to entertain me. Some people would say that it's not interesting. But I have to tell you, not only do I find it interesting, it gives me good conversation topics at social gatherings. Especially with guys. Not necessarily from the theatre crowd, there are exceptions but as a whole, they are thoroughly uninvolved in the world of sports of any kind (perhaps it is from their bitterness at being the drama kids instead of the jocks in high school. I say this as a high school nerd (and drama girl) who came the closest to being an athlete when she was a flag girl for the junior high marching band, and everyone knows it's not rocket science to twirl a flag...). But for the most part, guys can talk sports. And they will. And so I've gotten into some fascinating conversations with doctors that I work with, guys at school, and strangers on an airplane about various sports topics, and I can hold my own. And while they are almost always surprised, there is usually a twinge of respect that I am not just one of those girls who watches sports because they guys look good in their uniforms, or because I like the colors of the team, but because I like watching sports. I like watching people excel at what I could never even attempt. I like knowing what I'm talking about when guys are talking sports at a party. I like laughing at honest guy-to-guy teasing on the radio, because there is an honesty to sports radio from the guys that lets you in on the guy secret conversations that they never have around girls. Because they assume that few, if any, women are listening, they talk as if we're not around. So I hear some pretty funny things about everything from sports to indigestion to actresses to being husbands and dads. It's worth a listen for all these reasons.

But I think the main reason that I listen to sports radio is because of my dad. My dad and I got in a lengthy conversation about sports the other day, because we both listen to the same station driving home, and discussed what they had been talking about that night. It was a great father/daughter moment that didn't make me any less his daughter, but we enjoyed having something in common like that. I am going out of town this weekend to visit Scott's extended family for Father's Day and a birthday celebration. But I'm glad I got to talk to my dad for a long time the other night about sports, and we both enjoyed it. And I take comfort knowing that when I get in my car and turn my radio to ESPN, he is listening at the exact same time each night. And I am reminded that I am my father's daughter...and of how much I'm blessed to be just that. So ESPN, you may not have expected me, but count me in. I'm most definitely a listener.