Father's Day - Final Thoughts

I cannot help but close out the Father’s Day edition of this Award Winning Blog (don’t ask which awards – too many to recount) without reflecting on the fact that I am actually here at the World Cup in Brazil and my son is going to wear the badge of the USA.  I was talking this morning to Chris and Brad Davis and it seemed to me that they both were still trying to put this experience in perspective.  It is so great to see these two guys together at this point in their lives and careers … they have been great friends since Chris’ first year with the Earthquakes and ended up buying houses across the street from each other in Houston.  Heather Davis used much of her spare time (before children) driving to whoever had picked up Chris and Lindsey’s escape artist dachshund and bailing him out to bring him home.  That was a very special part of this morning.

Chris is a good soccer player but his number one skill on earth is sleeping.  He sleeps better, quicker, longer, deeper, and more consistently than anyone I have ever known.  So it might be fitting that my Father’s Day started at 9am (after Stephen and I got to bed at 5:30am) with Chris nagging us to come to his hotel to spend a few hours together.  His logic:  “You guys have woken me up enough in my life it is my first Father’s Day and I cant go wake up Emmy so I am waking you guys up … come over.”  Strangely we could not argue with his argument but we both were working on less than 4 hours sleep in the past 36 hours.  However I should point out that calling Chris at any time of the day or night has a 70% chance of waking him up.

The short answer to the common question I get:  “How does it feel to have a son at the World Cup?” – it feels strange. This morning I was introduced and shook hands with just about every team member and while the soccer fan in me wanted to get a picture with them the father in me told me to not embarrass my son by doing that.  So how does it feel to have a son at the World Cup?  - I had a chance to get a picture with two of my favorite players:  Michael Bradley and Kyle Beckerman but didn’t because I have a son at the World Cup and I didn’t want to embarrass him … that’s how it feels.

(But the rest of it is pretty awesome)