The end of July/beginning of August always signify the start of football season in our household. Yes, I realize the season doesn’t actually start for another month or so, but for those of us who are dating/engaged to/married to/related to football players, football season begins when training camp begins.
For my man, training camp means staying in a dorm room for two and a half weeks filled with: meetings, film review, practices, weight training, recovery sessions, etc. etc. And for me, training camp means two and a half weeks by myself.
One of the biggest things that I had to adjust to when I first started dating my boyfriend was the amount of time that I would spend by myself. During training camp, players are sequestered in the dorms/at the football stadium from 5:00am to 9:30/10:00pm, with bed checks at 10:00pm. That means I’m lucky if I get to speak with him a few minutes each day. Now, I know it may sound like I’m complaining a lot about how difficult this is for ME, without taking into consideration how difficult it is for him… trust me, I get it. As a former Division I athlete, I have gone through a few training camps myself. So I understand just how much work he is doing each and every single day. BUT, I feel like the one thing that gets thrown to the wayside, is the effect that it has on relationships. Girlfriends/fiances/wives of football players go through it too. Though we aren’t there every day putting in the physical work, we go through hardships that tend to get overlooked.
I don’t want to play the “woe is me” card. That’s not what I’m trying to do here. I’m simply trying to find an outlet for the things that myself, and hundreds of other women, go through on a daily basis in this world of football. For example, like I mentioned earlier, the loneliness. I am in a city where I don’t know many people, I don’t have a ton of friends, we don’t have any children and (at the moment) I don’t have a stable job to keep me busy. I spend most of my time sitting in our apartment, by myself, watching youtube or applying for jobs. It gets monotonous. It gets mind-numbing. But most of all, it is incredibly lonely. I miss my boyfriend while he’s away, I miss my family who live in a different city, and I miss the stability of a 9-5 job, because football is anything but a 9-5.
For anyone that may be reading this I would like to end this post by posing a few questions: 1) Before reading this, what was your perception of football wives/fiances/girlfriends? And 2) Had you ever thought about the people behind the players on the field? Finally, if you have any questions/comments or any topics you would like me to cover, please feel free to drop a thought below!
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