Do your kids care?

#1
imw8n4u

imw8n4u

RT -YAB-HSHTM--G-O-R-T--RT-TN
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#1
Just curious....I have 2 daughters, one is 14 the other 12. Tennessee has been bad or irrelevant their entire lives, certainly all the parts they can remember. I've tried to indoctrinate them as orange blooded, Vol loving, true to the end fans, but they don't care to watch or even follow Tennessee football. They don't know if we play, who we play, whether we win or lose, or what the score was. All they really know is that their dad seems to be in a bad mood almost every fall Saturday recently. Is this just because I have girls instead of boys, or are we losing a whole generation of fans?
 
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#2
#2
My son (29 now) isn't Football crazy like I was / I am. When he was young, Tennessee was still doing well and exciting, winning way more than they lost. Now he hardly watches at all. I feel the last 10 years have driven away our young football fanatics.
 
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#3
#3
Not to be a preachy, but they probably dislike it.cause it puts you in a bad mood. I learned a long time ago, its not worth.getting upset over. My.kids.like it more now that they can enjoy.being around their dad, regardless of the result of a game we have no control over.
 
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#5
#5
imw8n4u said:
Just curious....I have 2 daughters, one is 14 the other 12. Tennessee has been bad or irrelevant their entire lives, certainly all the parts they can remember. I've tried to indoctrinate them as orange blooded, Vol loving, true to the end fans, but they don't care to watch or even follow Tennessee football. They don't know if we play, who we play, whether we win or lose, or what the score was. All they really know is that their dad seems to be in a bad mood almost every fall Saturday recently. Is this just because I have girls instead of boys, or are we losing a whole generation of fans?
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My 19 year old son does
My 17 year old daughter not so much
 
#8
#8
On the bright side, your kids will still be young when the Vols once again rise to the top.
When that happens, they'll surely start paying attention to their home team.
They'll have tales to tell their children and grandchildren about.
 
#9
#9
My 17 y/o is a die hard fan just as I am and he don't watchin miss a game with me if possible, but my 24 y/o somehow is a Texas fan (I've asked his momma who he belongs to) so im not sure where I went wrong there.
 
#10
#10
Spawn said:
My son (29 now) isn't Football crazy like I was / I am. When he was young, Tennessee was still doing well and exciting, winning way more than they lost. Now he hardly watches at all. I feel the last 10 years have driven away our young football fanatics.
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Nope not all. I am also 29. I get together with a large group of friends every Saturday to watch UT play, no matter who we play or the result of the last game. It’s a fun time but man it would be a lot better to get to see some W’s pulled out.
 
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#11
#11
I’m 24 years old, I’m here and never leaving. I’ll go down with the ship. I’m fortunate to have a really good memory of watching games and listening to games on the radio with my dad all the way back to 4-5 years old. I can vividly remember the 2001 Florida game, 2003 5 OT thriller in Tuscaloosa (4th and 19 to CJ Fayton), 2003 at Miami, 2004 at Georgia, 2004 Florida just to name a few. I know we will be back to that level soon enough under CJP. It’s in my DNA, and I’m thankful to my dad who passsed away at 46 years old in 2015 for that. He gave me a love for a lifetime and I will pass that on to my kids one day. Go Vols!!
 
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#12
#12
TheBigOne10 said:
I’m 24 years old, I’m here and never leaving. I’ll go down with the ship. I’m fortunate to have a really good memory of watching games and listening to games on the radio with my dad all the way back to 4-5 years old. I can vividly remember the 2001 Florida game, 2003 5 OT thriller in Tuscaloosa (4th and 19 to CJ Fayton), 2003 at Miami, 2004 at Georgia, 2004 Florida just to name a few. I know we will be back to that level soon enough under CPJ. It’s in my DNA, and I’m thankful to my dad who passsed away at 46 years old in 2015 for that. He gave me a love for a lifetime and I will pass that on to my kids one day. Go Vols!!
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Great post.My grown kids and I still have a strong bond with each other over Tennessee football.
 
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#15
#15
imw8n4u said:
Just curious....I have 2 daughters, one is 14 the other 12. Tennessee has been bad or irrelevant their entire lives, certainly all the parts they can remember. I've tried to indoctrinate them as orange blooded, Vol loving, true to the end fans, but they don't care to watch or even follow Tennessee football. They don't know if we play, who we play, whether we win or lose, or what the score was. All they really know is that their dad seems to be in a bad mood almost every fall Saturday recently. Is this just because I have girls instead of boys, or are we losing a whole generation of fans?
Click to expand...

Same here. My daughters will watch a game with me, and are even interested in the outcome. But if I'm not there as a catalyst, they will never choose to watch football on their own. Nor their male friends.

I think a large part of it is, you are most interested in the things you've done in your own life. A lot of us grew up before the internet or even computers became a common thing. Some of us grew up in houses without air conditioning. You spend a lot of time outdoors when there's no computer game demanding your time, and when the inside of the house is an oven even with the windows all open.

So we played football (and baseball and basketball).

And now, we like watching football, because we understand it in our bones. We get the sport intuitively. We can visualize ourselves in the players' places, because we used to be there.

The vast majority of kids and young adults these days, they don't have that.

I have one nephew who loves to follow football. He played football in junior high and high school. None of the others in that generation of our extended family do. Because none of them did.

Does that mean one day football will become a niche sport, even in America? Maybe. Then again, maybe 50 years from now all our consciousnesses will be uploaded into some virtual domain, and ALL true physical sports will become a thing of the past.

*shrug* it's life.
 
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#16
#16
I am 59 years old. Yes, I am an Old Fart! When I was a small child, I lived on Hwy 58. This was back before there was an I-75. Hwy 58 was the main road from Chattanooga to Knoxville. We didn't have extra money so going to a game was out of the question. We only had 3 channels on the TV way back then so most games weren't on TV. On game day I would get my little lawn chair, radio and UT Flag and sit out on the side of the road, while Vol fans were headed to the game. They would all blow and wave and I was waving my flag as hard as I could. I would listen to John Ward on the radio. When I got older and moved out, I would watch the game on TV with it muted and listen to John Ward do the play by play. We won way more than we lost back then but I am still a VFL ALWAYS will be. Two of my Grandchildren live with me. The other set of Grandparents are Georgia fans. The 7 year old boy and I watched a highlight film this past summer. After watching the film he looked at me with a tear in his eye and said I get it now Poppy. This is much more than a game it is a way of life. He got up and left. A little while later he came back and said Pops I need your help. He walked me outside. He had piled up the Georgia stuff his other Grandparents had bought him. I said what do you need me to do? Since you told me to never play with fire, I need you light this sucker up! He told his other Grandparents I know we are not very good right now but we will be. He told them DON'T buy me anymore Georgia Crap. I am a VOL. God I love that boy!
 
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#17
#17
I don’t have kids but I’m 25 and I bleed orange. Before moving to Orlando I was a season ticket holder year in and out. UT has a big spot in my heart. Admittedly the last decade has made me negative but I’ll still always love the Vols
 
#18
#18
My oldest 2, 27 year old daughter and 23 year old son don't care about football at all. I don't think they even care about sports. Now my 17 year old daughter is an orange blooded Vol fan to the core. She gets more animated during the games than I do.
 
#19
#19
Mine have always bled orange and will continue to bleed orange as long as their alive, period.
GBO!
 
#20
#20
Three kids, 2 growed-up and one teenager. They always ask me how the game went, but they're not big fans. Part of that is growing up in Hawaii and Oregon and part is probably that they didn't go to school at UT. I always followed the Vols when I was a kid, but I didn't turn rabid until after I went to school there. I keep thinking some day I'll take them all to a game, but other things always seem to get in the way.
 
#21
#21
I’m 23 and I’m a huge vols fan. It helps that UT is my alma mater, but I personally have never experienced UT being very good (at football) since as a child both parents were not vols fans.
 
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#22
#22
imw8n4u said:
Just curious....I have 2 daughters, one is 14 the other 12. Tennessee has been bad or irrelevant their entire lives, certainly all the parts they can remember. I've tried to indoctrinate them as orange blooded, Vol loving, true to the end fans, but they don't care to watch or even follow Tennessee football. They don't know if we play, who we play, whether we win or lose, or what the score was. All they really know is that their dad seems to be in a bad mood almost every fall Saturday recently. Is this just because I have girls instead of boys, or are we losing a whole generation of fans?
Click to expand...

No! In fact mine leave the house on Saturday when UT is on. My son is 17 and daughter is 15. Both aren’t Vols because all they have ever seen them do is lose. Even when they went 8-4 UT still lost to Alabama. So they have Never seen the Vols win.
 
#23
#23
imw8n4u said:
Just curious....I have 2 daughters, one is 14 the other 12. Tennessee has been bad or irrelevant their entire lives, certainly all the parts they can remember. I've tried to indoctrinate them as orange blooded, Vol loving, true to the end fans, but they don't care to watch or even follow Tennessee football. They don't know if we play, who we play, whether we win or lose, or what the score was. All they really know is that their dad seems to be in a bad mood almost every fall Saturday recently. Is this just because I have girls instead of boys, or are we losing a whole generation of fans?
Click to expand...
Both.
 
#24
#24
My boy loves it, my girl even enjoys it a little! She plays football at recess at school, and comes homes and has a different story everyday. My boy went with me to the Florida game and that’s all he can talk about lol.
 
#25
#25
My son has 2 good friends that go to UT. They like football but never go to the games. They go to most of the basketball games though. Kids follow a winner
 
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