JOAN’S BLOG- MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2013 – THE SUPER BOWL IN THE ALZHEIMER HOUSE

At the risk of being labeled Un American, I am here to confess that I do not like football. I do not understand the game; I don’t want to learn to understand the game. I don’t watch football. I don’t care who wins the games. However, in 2010, I went to see the movie, The Blind Side, the inspiring story of a homeless African American teenage boy with an incredible talent for football, who was taken off the streets, nurtured, loved, and eventually adopted by a wealthy white family. Being football ignorant, I had no idea it was a true story until the end of the movie, when actual footage of the Baltimore Ravens drafting the boy in the story – Michael Oher – was shown. I was so moved by the story that I never forgot Michael Oher, and checked often to see how his career was going. Pretty well, considering his team was playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

As I said, I don’t do football, but I thought – what a fantastic epilogue to the Blind Side story if Michael Oher won the Super Bowl. So, three days before the game, I announced to my Patriot’s super fan Alzheimer husband, that I was routing for the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday because Michael Oher was on that team, regardless of the fact that our son lives in San Francisco, the OTHER team playing in the Super Bowl.  And here is the story of Joan, Alzheimer Sid, and the Super Bowl:

Friday, February 1, 2103
Joan: Are you going to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday even though the Patriot’s aren’t playing?

Sid: Who’s playing?

Joan: Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco. I want to see Michael Oher win a Super Bowl.

Sid: Who’s Michael Oher?

Joan: I told him the story of The Blind Side movie that we both saw, but of which he had no memory.

Sid: Oh

Saturday, February 2, 2103
Joan: I’m going to record tomorrow’s Puppy Bowl in case I forget to watch it. Then I’m going to watch the Super Bowl because I want to see Michael Oher win a Super Bowl ring. What an ending to a great story.

Sid: Who’s Michael Oher?

Joan: I repeated the story of The Blind Side movie.

Sid: Oh

Sunday, February 3, 2013 – Super Bowl Sunday
Now it’s time for the big game. He wanted to watch the news first, so I switched to the game at about 45 minutes into it. I must tell you that as ignorant as I am about football, he is, or was, very knowledgeable. He knows (knew) all of the rules, terminology, and whatever else goes with what I consider a confusing mess.

My expertise is this – I know that when a player goes over the line into the section that has the other team’s name on it (or is it the other way around?), he scores a touchdown. I know that when a player kicks a ball through the goal posts, he scores one extra point after a touchdown. There are other times he scores points when kicking the ball through the goal posts, but I have no idea why or how.

He sat silent throughout the game, as the Ravens started to rack up points.

Joan: Wow! Michael Oher is going to win the Super Bowl.

Sid: Who’s Michael Oher?

Joan: I repeated the story of The Blind Side Movie.

Joan: (In response to the Raven guy running down the field after half-time to score a touchdown). This is looking good, huh?

Sid: No response

Then the unthinkable – a 30+ minute power outage at the Super Bowl.

As everyone who watched the game knows, San Francisco blew through the Ravens lead after the power came back on.

Joan: Oh, how sad. I really wanted the Ravens to win for Michael Oher’s sake.

Sid: Who is Michael Oher?

Joan: I repeated the story of The Blind Side Movie.

Sid: Oh

At the end of the game, when there were about 12 seconds left, and the Ravens were ahead, whatever was happening was a complete question mark to me. I had no idea why they were calling time outs, arguing over plays, and honestly, I don’t know what they were doing, so I turned to the expert (Pre- Alzheimer’s Disease) next to me:

Joan: What’s going on?

Sid: I don’t know.

Joan: What are they doing?

Sid: I don’t know.

Joan: Can San Francisco still win?

Sid: I don’t know.

And then, finally, the game was over, and the Baltimore Ravens won.

Joan: Well, how about that! What a great ending to the Michael Oher story.

Sid: Who the Hell is Michael Oher?

And that is the story of The Super Bowl in the The Alzheimer House.

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The Alzheimer Spouse LLC
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