Dr Frankenstein at your service

It seems I may have created a monster. Those close to me know my affinity (or obsession if you ask my wife) for sports and their fantasy counterparts. My dad always used to say that if someone was sweating on tv I would watch it. As I have grown up I've refined that a bit to basketball and football, with some golf thrown in. O has foregone interest for the most part, but Q has shown some interest, but was too small to understand much. That all changed this past fall, as a four year old, he is now old enough to understand a lot of what's going on. I was excited to have him want to use his season ticket to U football games. That was only the beginning, the NBA season started and his interest exploded. He knew the Jazz players from a poster he had and a few of the other superstars, but now he is like a walking basketball almanac. He can tell you teams and who plays for them and what number they are. I was shocked by how he knew all the players numbers, but then we realized it's because he's just starting to read and could only tell numbers, not names.

Q is a bit of a front runner, his favorite team is Miami, mostly because his favorite player is LeBron (he even used his own money from his birthday to buy a half off Cleveland jersey). I figure it could be worse, it could be Kobe and the Lakers, then I'd have to disown him. Actually, the only team he is forbidden to EVER root for is byu. A couple of months ago, the Jazz played in Miami against the Heat. It turned into an epic game where the Jazz came back from a huge deficit to force overtime. Q consistently cheered positive Miami plays, never wavering in his support. Ultimately the Jazz prevailed in OT to my cheering. At this point Q, who was in front of me watching, turns around with tears streaming down his face. I ask why? "Because Miami lost", trying to stifle a laugh, I took him in my arms and comforted him. At that moment I knew I had created a bit of a sports fanatic monster.
Things have only grown since then. O asks to see my iPhone to play Angry Birds and Plant Vs Zombies, Q asks for it so he can see who is playing that day or who is winning. We watch tv and he asks what game is on he can watch. In the morning he no longer wants to watch Curious George, he wants NBA Gametime or Sportscenter. I finally, after much nagging from him, got him his own fantasy basketball team (he's very upset football season is over and he didn't get his own team). He can tell you all about the players on his team, who they play for, and what they are good at. He is especially taken by Blake Griffin and Kevin Love on his team, but doesn't understand why I can't trade for LeBron for him. He can also tell you about the recent Orlando and Phoenix trade. He can name all the Jazz players and their numbers, including who the rookies are. He can tell you where former Jazz players are now. For Christmas he got basketball and football trading cards which he constantly peruses and tells you about. Ask him what he got for Christmas, and he will tell you he got NBA Jam for the Wii (and basketball shoes). It is now his favorite activity and all he wants to play, even over the Kinect we got. If we watch NFL games he can tell you the teams, and some players, he even knows Drew Brees is QB for New Orleans and was mommies fantasy league QB. He always picks who he wants to win and has his favorite teams, the Bengals, the Cowboys, and the Arizona Cardinals, although he calls them the Arizona Birdies. He also faithfully roots against the Broncos, much to his Charger fan daddy's delight. Sometimes I just have to sit back and laugh at him, but it is pretty fun having a partner for the games. I think my wife dreads having two of us in the house.