Life as a diehard football fan.

Yep, shoulda known one of these would happen. Me, Brandon Hall, THE diehard Pittsburgh Steelers and Alabama Crimson Tide football fan. Im the first person you run to when we lose, and the first person you run from when we win. Most kids at age six color in coloring books with crayons, or watch some stupid cartoon on tv, teaching you the ABC's and 123's. Not me. When I was six, I was wearing a two sizes too small Terry Bradshaw or Franco Harris jersey (with the numbers stretched a foot wide, but it was still the biggest kids size they had). The same as my older Steeler bro, Derek, who also at age six, was wearing the same jerseys and helmets, and passed down to my little Redskin bro. When I got a little older (like, 8 or 9), we would go upstairs on the "football field" (which was the floor in my brother Dereks room), and I would have to play on my knees, and Kiley would get to stand up, and we would play a real football game. Full pads, uniforms (most of the time, the "uniforms" were white t-shirts with numbers and names drawn on them with markers), and full contact. We would both end up bruised, bloodied, tired, and making up excuses for when mom asked us "what happened"?? Older Steeler bro would line us up, call penalties (usually facemasking), play quarterback, whatever. Or he would sometimes just watch us battle it out, like an emporer watching gladiator slaves battle to the death, for nothing more than his sheer enjoyment. Im sure even though I was his little Steeler bro, he was pulling for "Even littler" Redskin bro, usually because I tore all the stickers off of his toys, or broke the wheels off of his model cars because they, stupidly, lacked  four free rolling wheels. If Derek bought a General Lee model, you could place a winnerbet  that the wheels would be broken off of it. For whatever reason, I couldnt resist playing with (and destroying) every orange '69 Dodge Charger with an 01 on the side, that I ever seen. Anyways, looking back at those days, as I oftentimes do, graduating to full contact football in the backyard with neighbor kids, it makes sense why my teams losing mean so much to me. I am not an average fan. When my Steelers or Bama boys lose, I take it personal. I grieve the entire week. Ive came up with a couple of catchy slogans, "I'd rather be a Steeler fan on a losing day than anybody else on a winning day", or my favorite one, "Tide rules, Fulmer sucks!" Yeah, I know that last one was sorta spur of the moment, but it brings out the very best and the very worst in me. In the early to mid 80s, there were a handful of Steeler fans around here. Because not too many stuck with them after the glory days of the 70s, and to them, what fun was it to root for a 9-7 team every season? When you love a team as much as Ive loved the Steelers, going to the Super Bowl (over and over and over again) actually means something. Guys like me are a part of something. Its Steeler Nation. The tried and true Steeler fans that suffered through a 26 year drought (from '79 to '05), only to be paid back with three championship appearances. The Pittsburgh Steelers players recognize the fans. Every interview you will hear, theyll mention the Steeler fans, and how theres nothing like them in the world. Thats what I get out of it. No theyll never mention my name specifically, but when they say stuff like, "this is for you, the fans", then hold up that big trophy, its gratitude for sticking by our team, and being loyal. Being a Bama fan in this state over the last 28 years "Bears" another story (get it? Bears...Bear Bryant? Forget it). I am just as rabid about Bama football as the biggest UK basketball fan around here. My last two dogs? A miniature collie that I got in 1984. I called him Beardog, after guess who? He died Valentines Day '99. I got another one that March. He too, is named Beardog. And my next dog? Yep, you guessed it. Anyways, football is more than a sport to me. Its a way of life. Its six months out of the year that brings me unparalleled happiness. I am a better person. Im the guy that will stay up late on a Wednesday at midnight to watch Utah State and Louisiana-Monroe. I love having conversations, or debates with true fans of other teams. I dont care who you like, if youve stuck with them, I will respect you. But if you are trading in your Drew Brees jersey for a Big Ben jersey, because theyre your new favorite team, I probably wont waste my time debating with you. I know, its a dickhead move, but its a free country. Go Steelers and God Bless the Rooneys.

The 80s.

I know, most of you are obsessed with the 80s. Those ridiculous "lets see how high we can tease this bastard" hair days.The hair bands (wonder why they call them hair bands? Hmmmm). The age of $700 vcr's and cd players that were 8 feet wide and 7 feet tall. Mullets. And, whoever owned a Camaro, usually took a hot chick to prom. If you owned a Z28, you took the HOTTEST chick to prom. And scored. You seen rich guys in mullets wearing all white suits, telling girls they were gonna be detectives, only to find out that the local police departments didnt issue Ferraris (Damn you, Don Johnson!). You sang sappy love songs to girls (These five words I swear to you, when you breathe, I wanna be the air for you, I'LL BE..THERE..FOR..YOU!!) and it probably didnt work...If you tried singing Richard Marx, you struck out swinging. Even in the 80s, you didnt cover Bon Jovi though. No matter what flight of desperation you were shooting for, you dont sing Bon Jovi to chicks. Sing something from a crap band, like...I dunno, lets say Milli Vanilli. If it sounds bad coming from them (which it didnt, but you know where Im getting at), then it wouldnt sound THAT much worse coming from you. And dont ever...EVER...EEEVVVERRR try to cover "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". EVER. That will get you a beatdown from everybody, from pickup truck boys, to Mustang boys, Camaro boys, and even the rich Trans Am boys willing to mess up their perfectly sculpted angel mullets. If you lived in Jenkins, Hardees was brand freakin new, and the quarter pounders, and hot ham and cheese sandwiches were phenomenal. And there would be a line at the drive thru all the way to Burdine. Speaking of Burdine. We had Dairy Cheer. Mullets. Jenkins had a Dairy Cheer..that lasted for about 13 days..give or take a couple of hours. The bad boys drank, and spun the tires in their trucks or 110 horsepower "sports" cars (because ripping anything that resembled an exhaust off of your car made it loud) the entire length of downtown. Screaming all the way, with their long hair blowing out the side glass. The football teams fought other football teams. Mullets. I loved seeing people with the first cell phones when they came out. No wonder they had 20 inch biceps. Seriously, EVERYBODY in Pikeville had 20 inch biceps because of those 30 pound phones. And Trans Ams. Because all the rich kids drove Trans Ams, remember? And mullets. Yeah..mullets. Def Leppard ruled, with either two arm Rick Allen or one arm Rick Allen, it didnt matter, they ruled. There was pre-pop Metallica, and I wont go into everything good in the 80s, because for every Poison, there was Rick Astley. For every Bon Jovi, there was Wham. For every Van Hagar (and yes, I prefer Van Hagar to Van Halen), there was that annoying "She Drives Me Crazy" from what might be the most annoying band in the world, the Fine Young Cannibals. And mullets...Anyways, I may dive into this later. Ill probably hit up a 90s blog soon. Have a great night.
Brandon.

Its just a game

I have two brothers. I love them more than anything in this entire world. I would maim, destroy, shred and kill someone at the drop of a hat if they messed with them. We are all so different in many aspects of life its crazy. However, we all share one characteristic. We are competitive. Everything is a game. And there is a score to everything you do. We could be walking in the house, and I'd feel a behemoth slam into the side of me, so they could beat me, and then a fight would break out. No, not the punch in the face, get mad and fight, fight. But a fight. Figure four leg locks, choke outs, stuff like that. Im 35, my two brothers are 41 and 32, and still, to this day, we act 12 when we're together. People ask my mom and dad, "how did you raise your boys?". Answer to that question? They're still raising us, lol. My mom has to jump on us every single Sunday we're together for wrestling and fighting. When we play video games, that jumps to another level. Many Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Playstation, and X-Box controllers have met their little electronic maker due to being slammed to the floor and broken. If it didnt break the first time, it broke the second. Or third. Or fourth. Or however many times it took to break it into a million pieces. The x-box controller I use today is held together by good ol black MSHA tape. It survived (barely) my brother Derek scoring a go-ahead touchdown six years ago. A nice, conservative estimate on broken controllers would still run around 75 or more. Anytime we play Tecmo Bowl, Super Tecmo Bowl, or NCAA Football, someone always leaves in a bad mood, lol. If Kiley is beating Derek, he'll flash a crap eating grin and a wink, and you can see the blood rush to Dereks head...I dont take anything out on them. Just the stupid controllers, lol..Ive basically quit playing anything past 2005 sports related. I havent adapted to the times. I mean heck, I just traded my giant brick cell phone a couple of months ago. It was hard to stand in Walmart pretending to text someone on a phone with no screen. Im not sure anyone bought it. No little phone pouch for me. I always liked the huge black bag tied to my belt loop that screams 1987. My new phone? Yeah its snazzy. It has the little slide out typewriter and everything. Ringtone? Whatever Samsungs basic ringtone is, lol..mine dont play music. And it wont until someone puts it on there for me. Internet is super awesome, although its ruined pretty much every facet of life as we know it. We just dont know it yet, lol..Identity theft (internet), the music industry (internet), relationships (internet), among other things..but Ill take it. It gave us YouTube, and that balances everything out. Anyways, Im in an awesome mood because the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing in the AFC championshp after they beat the Baltimore Ratbirds. I hope you all have a nice night and a great Sunday.

Thank a soldier.

There is nothing that brings out the kid in me than listening to an old vet tell war stories. I can honestly say that as a 35 year old man, and the proud son of a Vietnam Veteran, I have never taken for granted the ultimate sacrifice our men and women of the Armed Forces paid for us. The very first priority our country should have is taking care of these men and women that fought for this country. Everything else should follow under it. I dont care about foreign relations, seeing as we have a president that apologized to other countries for being an American. This guy doesnt get it. But I'll save that for another day. Everytime I shake the hand of a WWII or Korean veteran, I cant help but think to myself that at one time, these were young men and women, full of life, making decisions that would save the world. Literally. Think about that for a minute. Sixty-five years ago, the world was saved by a bunch of American twenty-somethings. Whats even more tough to fathom, is that the current American twenty-somethings for the most part, just blow off the sacrifice those soldiers made. Something even more tough to fathom than THAT? Is how our society blows off the sacrifice made by our CURRENT soldiers fighting. Our country got a wake up call on September 11, 2001, and a few short years later, went right back to sleep. We still live in the greatest country in the world. And we owe that to the fighting soldier. Im a war history buff. I love reading war books, watching war movies, war documentaries, anything. But more than anything, I love listening to an old vet tell war stories. If you know a soldier, thank them. Whether you realize it or not, you owe your existance to them. If they appear brash, or arrogant, theyve earned that right. Not all will be, but a lot of my blogs will be war related. Thanks, and I hope your having a great day.
Brandon.