Last week I wrote about the exciting sport of college basketball. It was so exciting that I have already forgotten which teams I saw play. Two weeks ago, I briefly mentioned football. A lot has happened in two weeks. It has brought us closer to the highlight of the NFL. Can you believe that it is already time for the Super Bowl? Yup, just like that, 17 weeks of another football season has passed us by and now we are on the precipice of Super Bowl 50. Time really flies when your kids keep asking you to leave the room so they can concentrate on their game.

Fifty Super Bowls. 50 years of watching a bunch of men try to catch a ball, try to tackle each other on the field and attempting to obtain the bragging rights of being the best team in the National Football League. Over the years, the commercials have been even more exciting than the game itself. Wonder what the commercials were like 50 years ago? I am assuming things like cigarettes and rotary telephone ads were the highlights…boy have times changed. They have entire shows dedicated just to the commercials. And then there is the halftime show. Another reason why people tune in to watch the game, I guess they figure if you don’t like football, maybe you will like the entertainment.

This year’s game has a special significance in my home. You see, the Carolina Panthers are going to be playing the Denver Broncos and son #3 is a HUGE Panthers fan. Please don’t ask me why, because I have no idea. It is just as random as son #2 following the Los Angeles Rams (sorry St. Louis) and son #1 following the Minnesota Vikings. We have no relatives in any of those locations, but my boys just love their teams. They love them so much that the mom-of-the-year has been to two out of three of those teams’ training camps—almost as exciting as college basketball, but not as exciting as watching grass grow.

The Panthers surprised us all this season (well, surprised my family; I am sure that 98 percent of you reading this could care less and are hoping that I start writing about husband #1) and they had an almost perfect season. It was absolutely incredible. Week after week, Cam Newton, the Panthers quarterback and a really nice guy, helped lead his team to victory. It is also exciting when you have been a fan for so long and don’t just jump on the winning bandwagon like so many Mets fan did this past season. Son #3 has loved the Panthers for years and he has the memorabilia to prove it.

Sour grapes did ensue in my happy home as son #1 kept muttering under his breath, “Could’ve been the Vikings.” But it wasn’t and son #3, the baby of the family, the brother who takes the brunt of the abuse, has a winning team. Super Bowl Sunday is going to be a very nerve-wracking day in my house because if the Panthers lose, even though they came oh-so-close, son #3 will be tortured by his brothers—with love, of course, always with love.

So even though football is my least favorite sport, I am invested in the game this year. But I will not be allowed to watch it because if the Panthers lose, it will be my fault. Because, as I have said many, many times before, everything is my fault. However, I am not alone. On a recent episode of The Goldbergs, the ‘80s family sitcom, the mom was first accused of being a jinx, but then brought the family team good luck. I love the episodes that hit close to home because it helps me feel better about the abuse that I take from my own family. If there is a television show that mimics my own life, it must happen to other moms and not just me. I am not alone and that makes me happy.

Fifty years of Super Bowls, so much has changed around us, but the game has pretty much stayed the same. Though I think the protective gear has gotten a little better, I still don’t understand how those 300-pound guys can run up and down the field when I have trouble running up and down the steps, but that is another story altogether. Son #3, I love you with all my heart and if the Panthers do not win, I promise that I had nothing to do with it. Go Carolina!!

By Banji Latkin Ganchrow

Banji Ganchrow is looking forward to the end of football season so she can start concentrating on hockey and trying to figure out who all of those new guys on the New Jersey Devils are…