Ahead of Divisional Weekend, I'm in an intreresting conundrum in that I might miss one of the games. Actually, probably better put that I might miss the tail end of the final game - with a flight to London on Sunday taking off at 10pm, more or less when Chiefs @ Bills should end. The last time I unintentionally missed part of Divisional Round weekend, was back in 2005-2008, when region band took over that weekend annoyingly three straight years.
Now, there are a few exceptions that I'm overlooking. First, in 2010 (so 2011 January), I was on the way back from India, but had my Dad DVR the games so I could watch them effectively live when I got home. In 2012, I rejected watching the Sunday games, too desolate after the Manning loss against the Ravens. In 2013, I intentionally skipped the Chargers @ Broncos game - too nervous to watching Manning (yeah, I was in a weird place....). I've intentionally missed various Brady/Belichick thrashings over the years (and one Brady loss, in 2021 to the Rams). But this is a first, where I want to watch all four games and I'm deathly scared the Chiefs @ Bills game will be close at the gun and me 35,000 feet above the Atlantic when it ends. It got me reminiscing about the last time this was a concern... so here we go....
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However, divisional weekend also matched up directly with the New Jersey Region Band - a prestigious tryout-only band that was the apple of so many musicianed eyes back in my high school days. Of course, I was in no position to say to my parents 'hey, I'm not going to try out for region band, to shine in something you've poured a decent amount of money into, because I want to watch football'. So I tried out. I made it (I was rather good at the old tuba). And I learned the early ills of DVR, and trying to hide an increasingly mobile world.
Music was a big part of my high school experience. I started with the trumpet in 5th grade, playing that through 6th grade. I was decent, but not great. I decided then to switch to tuba, an instrument no one in my grade played - because then it wouldn't matter if I was good or bad, I would automatically be the best because I was the only.
I ended up being quite good at the tuba, and parlaying my expertise to playing it in our school's full Orchestra ('band' instruments joined in Orchestra starting in High School) which itself led to both a series of amazing experiences (Orchestra trip to Vienna) and a love of Orchestral music that remains through to today.
Anyway, back to region band. We used to try out in November or so, and if picked you would be part of a long-weekend practice and concert. It was all-day practices Friday and Saturday, and then a performance on Sunday, always overlapping with the best damn weekend in football. The hours practicing were excruciating mainly because it was slightly boring band music. I guess it is the life of a musician, but that life wasn't for me, especially when football was on instead.
I still remember racing home after each Saturday practice, trying to catch whichever divisional game was on. During this period, we got a Comcast box that had DVR, so it made life easier to not miss the games, but then it also brought with it a now-endless challenge of trying to both watch games way after they happen and avoid any type of stimulus that could potentially give me information on who won.
It wasn't always easy, and sometimes just outright failed. The worst moment was probably in 2007, when after our band's concert I came home, turned the TV on, but it was left on NFLNetwork, that was already talking about the Colts harrowing 24-28 loss to the Chargers - the game where Philip Rivers would tear his ACL and Billy Volek would lead a comeback. Now, in a way maybe it was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed me to avoid watching three hours only to have my heart-broken, but I wasn't ready for that drive-by.
The year earlier, it worked perfectly when it had a lot of stakes, with me being able to watch the entire Colts vs. Ravens game on DVR when I returned home, enjoying every minute of that ridiculous chess-match. That said, I missed to many of the Sunday games. I missed most of the Colts loss to the Steelers, reaching home just in time to watch the fumble by Bettis and that ridiculously painful ending (still my 2nd worst loss as a sports fan - #1 being the Tuck Rule).
Overtime, I've gotten much better at avoiding seeing what happens. Be it memorizing the buttons that need to be pressed to open a recording prior to putting the TV on, or putting your phone on Airplane Mode to avoid texts. There's been some times I've really stretched the limits, like avoiding scores when taking flights and only watching games days later (2010 Divisional Round, when I returned from India), or avoiding watching the 2013 AFC Championship Game by watching The Godfather, Pt. 2 instead.
It all starts with those damn weekends in regional band. It's somewhat surprising those years coincided with my highest love - if not outright obsession - with football, which really wasn't a thing week-in and week-out until high school. Region Band still forced me to miss watching a bunch of games live, but it was the natural end result of being good at the tuba. And given what that led to in terms of the Orchestra side, a few all-day practices, and a few tape-delayed games isn't too much of a price to pay.
