B: “Hi, Brandon Marshall, what are you doing? Playing football? Ok bye.”
We have a little 3-player (QB/WR/RB) TD only fantasy football leage in our family, and this year my 2 ½ year old picked Brandon Marshall as his wide receiver. Mostly because “Marshall” sounds a lot like “marshmallow” (his RB is Marshawn Lynch, giving him the 1-2 marshmallow brothers punch).
So this past Sunday night was the Bears-49ers game – a big game in our family as I’m a lifelong diehard Bears fan and my husband is a 49ers fan, and we are both vying for our team to capture the heart of our little guy.
Now, I know I’m a longshot in this quest. We live in the Bay Area and had season tickets for the past six years until the new stadium priced us out.
I wasn’t counting on much. The past two times the Bears have visited the 49ers I’ve been there in person for the misery. The Jay Cutler 5-INT game in 2009. The battle-of-the-backups in 2012 that saw Colin Kaepernick emerge as a star (and Jason Campbell, well, not). I expected heartbreak once again.
Blocked punt? Of course. Down 17-0? Yep. But then there we were, watching Brandon Marshall score a touchdown. And then another one.
B: “Where’s Brandon Marshall?”
Me: “He’s sitting on the bench now, but in a few minutes he’ll come back and score some more touchdowns.”
And then he did! Man, if only B were a few years older, this would be the kind of memory that would be seared into his memory and lock him in as a Bears fan for life.
But for now, I’ll settle for a nightly game of B running around the house saying “I’m Brandon Marshall. You can be Brandon Marshall, too. We have two Brandon Marshalls. Touchdown!!!”
Leigh Winter Martin 