How A Relationship Develops

One key to developing a successful relationship with another person is maintaining a good relationship with your own pursuits.  Lizzy’s attraction to the NFL was ignited during the Super Bowl XXXVIII party. You know, the year Janet Jackson had a costume malfunction.   

During the party, she participated in the football pool and won 2 out 4 squares. Pretty good for a novice!  Between the excitement of the party plus winning the squares, she was hooked.

Lizzy was single at the time. Their courtship was gradual. She liked the camaraderie surrounding the Game and the way it brought people together. Cheering for a team got everyone in the room hyped especially when there were fans of rival teams in the same room.  

She watched more games to learn about the technical side of football.  Whenever Lizzy talked football, guys were totally supportive of her new hobby and excited that she was really into the game.

Lizzy committed to the Game when she joined the fantasy football league at her first position out of college, a tech startup.  During a company luncheon, the CEO said, “Lizzy is going to pick her team based on her favorite color."  Needless to say that totally motivated her to win.  She won the pool.  The CEO still owes her $10.

The turning point came in graduate school.  During the Ray Rice controversy, some of her women friends stopped watching football as a result of the NFL’s embarrassingly lame response to Ray Rice’s assault on his wife in an elevator.  Was she going to continue with the NFL?   Would the players’ behavior impact her love of the Game? 

Football had become a religion by this time, church every Sunday.  Ultimately, Lizzy decided that the players’ behavior was not football.  Her relationship was with the Game, not the players.  Yet, it is the Patriots that indirectly brought she and her husband together.

Lizzy’s husband responded to her online profile, which stated “Have to a Pats fan”.  He is French and had no clue what Pats meant, being French and all.  So, he asked his roommate.  Then, he diligently researched and learned everything he could about the Pats team, the who and the what.  He talked football in French.  How can you resist that!

Maybe she would have met her husband without football.  However, the effort this Frenchman made to learn the game so that he could make a connection with Lizzy almost guaranteed that she would meet a man that was thoughtful, smart, resourceful, adventurous and fearless.  Learning something new just to talk to a woman is pretty ballsy and damn sexy.