But LOVE. Love stopped me being wild. Love even stopped me being a one-eyes Blues fan.
Let me get off the game of football and look at the families at the end of the game. Guys bring their kids onto the paddock these days after the game. It's just what they do. Sometimes it's a bit old; not last night. Billy Slater was back in Origin after a horror run of shoulder injuries, surgeries, and rehab. And he was awesome.
I used to not be a Billy fan. I thought he was dirty, especially when he went feet first into tackles. It made me wild. But he was penalised, copped many serves about it, and changed the way he plays...which forced me to change my mind about him. Recently, he scored his first try back from injury at the Storm vs Dragons game when I was there watching (I may have even cheered loudly in the middle of all those Dragons' fans).
Anyway, end of the game last night and they're interviewing Billy, when his daughter comes sneaking up to curl against his leg. My heart started to melt. When he finished speaking, he swoops down to hug her, and is swamped not just with his kids but Cameron Smith's (his Storm teammate) as well. Lots of hugs all around. Then he picks his daughter up and more melting on my couch.
Next time we see Billy, he's heading for the stand and his wife, and there's no deviation; he's on a mission. She's beaming and reaching for him. They kiss, then swamp each other in a hug. In that hug, there's so much love but also signs of all the sacrifice, cooperation, determination, and support.
I stalk her on Instagram. I started because I saw a timelapse video of her painting lorikeets. I can't paint to save my life; my artistic skills are stunted at about an 8 year old's level. She went from a few fine lines to this amazingly, bright, gorgeous painting with just a few sweeps of a paint brush (I exaggerate a bit!). It was beautiful to watch. Her art work is amazing (@NicoleRoseArt) but while admiring her art, I've come to admire her love of family.
Their world is not all about football. There's also kids, pets, horses, farms, friends, and love.
I know it may just be the rosy-coloured glasses of social media and TV, but I hope not. I hope this kind of love exists.

I wanted Team Player to celebrate life and love. Like the Slaters did last night.
Do you believe in love?
I'm so glad I'm reading Team Player while reading this post. You've definitely captured some of this in the story. You know I'm a maroon fan, so I was glad to see QLD win. JT is out now, I hear, which will make the final game all that much harder for QLD. It's a great series!
ReplyDeleteThanks :) I never know what I've got in a story. I write, and when I read it back, it shocks me sometimes to see what's in there. Super glad what I wanted to put in, actually went in!
DeleteI actually cheered for Qld and I was damn glad Mr E went to bed early! There was a Coops dash, then he almost scored, and by then I was really annoyed at NSW, so I cheered for Qld to get up and teach the idiots a lesson. That's so bad. I never do that with Parra. Too weird.
I'm really sorry JT is out. He's such a tough guy and he seems to really rattle NSW. Just quietly, I hope QLd can win it even without JT, just to put NSW back in place and so they stop thinking they won once, and they're invincible. Gee, I'm such a bad supporter...but man they make me wild with their stupidity that they can't even see!
Cate xoxox