Midweek Musings: Weddings Vs. Football

I'm 28, so for the last 4-5 years I have had to deal with a friend or family member getting married during football season on an annual basis. My understanding is that pretty much everyone in their twenties and thirties has to deal with this same phenomenon every year as well. It's something that we all have to suffer through each and every fall. It's the love that you have for your friends and family vs. the love that you have for your team. It's real, and it's hard.  It's something that I like to call: #WeddingsVsFootball.

Just off the top of my head I have missed some pretty epic games. The 56-53 triple overtime loss TCU had in Fort Worth against Texas Tech back in 2012 (to which I had tickets). The 17-point comeback that TCU engineered against Kansas State to win 52-45 in Manhattan earlier this year. Those are the two that really stick out, but I know there have been others.  I've even missed weddings that I've been invited to because I wanted to be able to attend games, although I didn't know the parties all that well.

I've not always been kind to those who had the gall to plan weddings during football season either. I've complained as much as anyone I know when people plan their weddings during football season. It always seemed to me like it wasn't that hard to avoid a conflict. How hard could it be? There are only 12-14 games per year for every team, and there are 52 weeks in a year. That means that, at worst, 73% of the year there are weekends available that don't conflict with games. That's not even factoring in Thursday games, which, for some reason, are still a thing.

I balked at all the explanations, like that there wasn't a game on that date when the wedding was planned, but that the schedule had changed after the wedding date was set. I, self-righteously, always thought that when I got married I would have no trouble keeping it from interfering with my friend's and family's football interests. At least, I believed that I could avoid a conflict with my beloved Frogs. I told myself that the last thing I would ever do is rob my loved ones of the joy they receive from watching Gary Patterson and Co. take the field on those few, precious weekends when we get to experience that together.

So, when my fiance (who also loves the Frogs) and I planned our wedding, we wanted to make sure that we planned around TCU's most anticipated football season in years. We even heavily considered planning our honeymoon in Arizona the week of January 11th.  Had the team not been hit with such a ridiculous amount of injuries, we might very well be kicking ourselves next week for not doing so.

Still, with all the talent we were returning on offense and Gary Patterson's track record on defense, we were anticipating that TCU would likely be able to win their way into the playoffs. We knew we wanted a wedding around December or January, but we didn't want to interfere with TCU's bowl game. If they made the playoffs, they'd play on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. If they didn't make they playoffs, they'd probably play in a bowl game sometime in December. So, we settled on January 2nd at 5:00pm for our wedding date. Fast-forward 9 months, and here we are, having our wedding at exactly the same time that TCU takes on Oregon in the Alamo Bowl.

Go ahead. Laugh. It's ironic. It's funny. Not to me or my future wife, but we get it. We love each other and marrying her will absolutely be the best thing that I have ever done. I guess I'm putting this out there in the hopes that people will read it and understand that sometimes, even when you think you have planned around every contingency, life is funny.

Now all of my friends and loved ones are going to have to miss the game to be there for me. I appreciate that show of love more deeply because of the games that I have had to miss. In the future, when people have weddings during football season, I'll be there to support them and I'll never say a word. Except for Mazel tov probably. That's just fun to say.