I Am Ready for Some Football!

Last night was some happy times in the Valentine household. The Cincinnati Bengals were on national TV for their preseason opener against the local favorite Washington Redskins, and I got to hear and see a full four quarters of Bengal action with the good commentary of Al Michaels and John Madden on the new Sunday Night Football lineup.

(btw, I was cracking up last night when Jerome Bettis was getting booed like crazy in his first booth gig. Sitting next to Cris Collinsworth, he took it very well, which is no surprise as he seems to be a very good-natured guy. I was clapping and hooting when Collinsworth said to The Bus, 'On behalf of all these fans here in Cincinnati, I think I can speak for them in saying congratulations on your well-deserved Super Bowl victory last year, but you never would have made it if Carson Palmer hadn't gone down on the first drive of the game.' The Bus responded with a 'Yeah, yeah, yeah...woulda, coulda, shoulda.' And I thought, Hmmm...I'm not sure you get that phrase, Jerome. We woulda...had Carson focus on the possibility of a late, low hit instead of playing his game? We coulda...had him play on a blown-out knee after the injury? We shoulda...prepared for our second-stringer to play almost a full four quarters of playoff-level football even though our first-stringer was one of the top-ranked quarterbacks in the league at the time and totally injury-free? Whatever. Enjoy your bling, Bus, but everyone knows Lady Luck did you a major favor. She must be a Yinzer.)

Living on the East Coast, it's hard to come by Bengals on network TV. Even last year, when they were arguably one of the best teams in the AFC - if not the whole league - they were only on locally or nationally a handful of times. This season, they've only got one Monday Night Football appearance (against the Colts in Indy - WOW!), though they will be playing one random Thursday night game in November against the Ravens.

Even the Washington Post gives Chad, Rudi, Carson and T.J. the short shrift. The Bengals rarely got more than a paragraph recap in the Post's Monday sports section. (I get that Washington is an NFC town, but there were plenty of times when AFC teams like the Colts or the Patriots got print space.)

Having lived the better part of my life in the Cincinnati area during a time when the Bengals were only the Bungles, I never thought I would be pining for the ability to watch my guys in black and orange. While I always pulled for them, they were downright embarassing for a number of years, and the highlights reels during the halftime shows were cringe-worthy. But now they're the real deal and I feel like I don't have to hide my stripes (get it?) on Sundays.

So I'm doing what most other red-blooded American football fans have already done: I'm getting the NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV. Our friend Brian (also a Cinci native and Bengals fan) had it last season and spoke very highly of it. And then Sarah recommended it highly as well. After looking into the cost of switching from basic cable to DirecTV and cable modem to DSL, I think I'm on board. Aside from being able to get the Bengals games whenever I want and DVR them so I don't miss a minute due to doing laundry or talking on the phone to a clueless friend or family member who has the audacity to call during non-halftime moments, I'll be able to watch what games I feel like. The local market is covering Baltimore versus Cleveland? Hmmm...maybe Tampa Bay versus Chicago would be a more interesting matchup.

If I sign up in the next week or two, the NFL Sunday Ticket deal that DirecTV has going right now will carry me through the end of the regular season, which means that it will be paid for by the time the playoffs roll around. So I think I'm going to do it. Now that I've bid adieu to my choir duties at church, I'm going to have more time to myself on Sundays. And football is just the way I want to fill that time up. As a child, my mother would park herself on the couch in the family room at 12:55 on Sundays and instruct us not to bother her unless (a) there was blood or (b) it was half-time. She is a wise woman, my mother, and I'm only too proud to follow in her footsteps.

Speaking of mom and football, she's been a proud Bengals season ticket holder since before the new stadium was built. While she splits the tickets with some friends of hers, it's usually not overly competitive as to who attends which game. So when I mentioned how cool it was that Cinci was playing Pittsburgh at home on New Year's Eve and that I was jealous she'd get to be there, she said, 'Why don't you come with me?'

So I'm going. I'm going to ditch my husband and daughter on one of the most festive nights of the year to fly to Cinci and watch the Bengals play the Steelers in the Jungle on New Year's Eve in the freezing cold with my mom. We'll be in the south end zone, so keep your eyes peeled.

In the mean time, I'll get my inner football fan revved up and trained for the New Year's festivities by camping out in front of my new NFL Sunday Ticket. Cross your fingers that the ordering/installation experience goes well, or you're going to be subject to another one of those Consumer Reports-type rants that Prurient loves so much.