Football is my favorite sport to watch and I have two teams that I follow no matter where I am:  the Mogadore Wildcats and the Cleveland Browns.  For years we went to every Mogadore football game with a great group of friends who I miss terribly every Friday night.  We met at the home games and sat in “our” seats.  We rode together to the away games, laughing and talking the whole time.

Tom and I went to the second Mogadore football game this season, even though we had to drive two hours to get there.  At least we were still in Ohio!  Ever since then, however, we have had to follow the games from afar with some help from our friends.

Mogadore had a great regular football season, finishing 10 and 0 with most scores so lopsided, the varsity didn’t even play the second half.  I know this because my friends have texted me play by plays of most of the games.  A couple of games I had to rely on quarter by quarter score updates, but most of the time they have done a great job of helping me feel like I’m right at the game.

This week Mogadore starts the play-offs.  They will be playing McDonald at home.  I know my friends will be there and let me know what is going on.  If Mogadore goes deep into the football playoffs, Tom and I will be back in Ohio and maybe we can get to one or two more games before another season wraps up.

Following the Cleveland Browns has been easier in some ways and harder in others.  The Browns games are all televised – somewhere.  So while we were in Ohio and Michigan, we were able to watch the games on the television in our RV.  When we were in Alabama, we were able to pick up the game on a Tennessee radio station (they were playing the Titans that week).

John is willing to send us play by play of the game, but we enjoy watching the football games – even though the Browns can be really frustrating most of the time.  So the last three weeks we have headed to the nearest Buffalo Wild Wings where they broadcast all the football games every week.

The first week we only had to drive 30 minutes.  Since then we have had to drive an hour to watch the games.  This might seem extreme, but we have found in Texas that people routinely drive an hour to get to anything – they do everything big in Texas!

The Buffalo Wild Wings this last week was packed!  The Texans and Cowboys were playing at the same time as the Browns.  I don’t know why some of these people didn’t stay home to watch their game, but people were lining the walls watching the games as they waited for a table.  The entire bar area was filled with Texan fans and it was really noisy – until the Eagles finally shut them down in the fourth quarter.  The Cowboy fans were just as raucous until they also were beat.

We were the only Browns fans in the restaurant – for the second week in a row – and we didn’t have much to cheer about for most of the game.  But the Browns finally scored some touchdowns and won so we were happy with the end result.

The Browns are the only football game on television on Thursday night this week so we are hoping to find them on a screen closer to where we are staying.  But, if we are unsuccessful, we know how to get to the closest Buffalo Wild Wings!  Being a long-distance football fan isn’t easy, but it is possible with the help of family, friends, and Buffalo Wild Wings.