The entire state of Ohio lost its
collective breath. Braxton Miller, heisman candidate and senior captain of the
Buckeyes injured his shoulder two weeks before the season began. JT Barrett was
now at the helm of a team that was picked in the preseason to make the
playoffs, yet in one day Ohio State was projected to come in third place in the
Big Ten. In years past, it would have taken me a solid three days to get over
such news. This year, it took me 20 minutes.
I grew up in Marion Ohio. Its a
town 45 minutes northeast of Columbus Ohio. Directly behind my house is Route
23, which turns into High Street, which takes you to the Horse shoe stadium,
home of the Buckeyes. I grew up with the lore of Ohio State football. Like
everyone else who will read this, and is passionate about college football, you
know what it is like to have a team that you wait anxiously each season to see
play. In places like Ohio, Alabama, Florida, Southern California, and anywhere
in the SEC its a tad different. Every single season the unrealistic fans of
their powerhouse teams fully expect a national championship or the season is a
failure. I think I became a "rabid" fan in 1997 when Ohio State lost
to Michigan State, beat Michigan, and then won the Rose Bowl by beating Jake
the Snake and the Arizona State Sun devils. When Ohio State beat Miami for the
National Championship in 2003 for the national championship, it went into an
even higher gear. Actually, it went to annoying levels of fandom.
This crept into my oldest child.
Elijah, at age 6 had become an Ohio State Fanatic. His Grandpa Syswerda,
lifetime Michigan Fan, would have hilarious interchanges with each other during
the football season. We had a countdown calendar for the first game. We
followed recruiting. We woke up every Saturday morning and watched College Game
Day after our walk to the local farmers marked dressed in every Ohio State piece
of clothing we could wear.....in Michigan. I had created a monster, and I loved
it.
At age 8, Elijah got the
opportunity to see Ohio State play Florida for another national championship.
We were favored to win this game. He painted his face, wore his AJ Hawk jersey,
and donned a multicolored wig hat. Elijah was amped. Daddy was amped. When Ted
Ginn ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, we went absolutely bonkers.
This was it. I was going to see my son celebrate a national championship. Then
Florida scored. Then Florida scored. Then Florida scored again. 41-14 Florida.
We got drubbed! Elijah began to stomp on the ground and huge alligator tears
were flowing down his chubby cheeks. He was so broken. Or shall I say, he was
TOO broken...
I began to ask myself some
important questions about my passions.
What had I created? What were my
priorities? What do I worship? What is he seeing and how is his little mind
translating it? For the next week I felt like I was deprogramming a brainwashed
runaway. It literally took him a week to get over it. My heart and my mind was
in sync as God spoke 6 very direct and pointed, almost audible words-
"this is too important to you". God was right. It was way too
important to me.
Over the next several weeks I
began to talk to Elijah almost daily about being more passionate about the
things that God is passionate about than we are about Ohio State Football. I
began to ask him questions like "What would you rather see happen? Ohio
State win a national championship or see your friend who is without a father
experience a better family life?" It paid off.
Three weeks later I found a
somewhat morose Elijah in our back yard. He was aimlessly walking around,
kicking the ground, and tears were falling fast on his cheeks. I walked outside
and asked him what was wrong? Are you being bullied at school? Did you lose in
kickball? Was math harder than usual today? He said nothing. Then he
courageously and almost vindictively looked at me and said "did you know
that there is still slavery happening in Africa? I said "I do" He
then peered at me with narrow, focused, almost rebellious eyes and asked
"what are we going to do about it"? We went inside and found a coffee
can, put a piece of Duck tape on it and wrote "Africa Fund". My
thought was that we could throw our change in it and make a donation. Nope. Not
enough. Elijah went door to door. To make a long story short, Elijah raised
over 1500.00 in two weeks. No one donation was over 20 dollars. We donated it
to Poetice, http://poetice.org
It is our favorite missions organization that best fits our passions as a
family, and works each year setting those precious children caught in the
nauseating world of sexual slavery free. Wow. Priorities in order? Check! So how
did I respond this year? If you are a football historian, and even a buckeye
hater, what happened was truly miraculous. Ohio State put in a freshman
quarterback, JT Barrett, who became one of the best quarterbacks in the nation
and led Ohio State to an undefeated record in the Big Ten. There was an outside
chance we would make the first College Football Playoff. Then it happened
again. JT broke his leg in the Michigan game. From the sidelines Cardale Jones,
our third string quarterback lumbered onto the field. Somehow, and I am still
not sure it was real, Jones beat Wisconsin for the Big Ten Title, Beat Alabama
for a chance to play in the national title, and beat Oregon to win it all. It
was unprecedented.
We watched the game, we cheered,
we screamed, we jumped up and down, and then we went to bed. I don't think I
have heard Elijah talk about it since. Why?
There are still slaves in
africa...
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