The Olympic Games aren’t always about glitzy opening ceremonies and gold medals. In the past 100 years, there have been some shocking scandals that have rocked the international games. Take a look at some of the most astonishing events to occur at the games thus far…

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I’m not trying to say I don’t like hockey.  All I mean to say is that every screen in my house is commandeered from April to June every night with hockey games, hockey commentary and hockey stats.  It’s a little much.

To make matters worse, my husband’s team, the Red Wings, just got kicked out of the playoffs, so instead of watching with someone who’s excited and engaged, it’s with a grumbling sourpuss who can’t help but complain about how all the teams left fighting each other for the Stanley Cup are…

Not so stupid that we don’t have to watch it every night.

Did you know that if you have enough channels, you never have to be without hockey-related programming for even a minute of every waking hour?  I have the channels but I know even if I didn’t, we have a PlayStation 3 with NHL2012 just waiting to be played.  In our house, the Red Wings deserve to win the cup and they’ll win it again next year too, and I’m pretty sure Gordie Howe still plays for them or at least inspires them!

Again, hockey is ok; it’s fast, it’s exciting and the guys that still have teeth and noses that haven’t been flattened by pucks and punches are cute enough, but it’s on every single night!  How do the player’s wives put up with it?   At least football is only on Sundays and Mondays.

I’d love to make some sort of compromise, to drag him away from his obsession but I know this two month ritual reminds him of when he was a kid with his father, and I know that he’s been watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a lot longer than he’s known me.  So, like in other years, I’ll just let him enjoy his game and catch up my reading.  Once in a while I’ll look up from my book and see my husband cheering and gyrating on the couch across from me, and then I’ll look up at the mantle and see the framed autographed Steve Yzerman rookie card sitting in front of our wedding photo.

June can’t come soon enough!

Check out our other Hockey Posts – Love is like the Stanley Cup
Also try our All About Hockey and or Ready for Hockey DiscoveryGames

I love snuggling up on a lazy Sunday and watching the NFL game with my husband (maybe not three games, but one game),  yet when I try to get engaged in the game and ask about what’s going on I usually get snarled at like I just tried to start a conversation about tampons. I think people who haven’t grown up playing and watching football don’t really appreciate how intricate and complex the game is.

So let me get this straight, the guy dropped the pass, but they’re still moving the ball to the line where he dropped it, because of a flag?

So he tackled the quarterback a bit late, but that means the ball moves up?

So the time ran out but they’re still playing an extra kick?

Sure, makes sense to me!

There is a steep learning curve when it comes to football, and nobody wants to teach anybody anything.  I’m pretty sure the only way you learn is either by way of little league initiation or through watching it for years on end.  If I’m going to spend that much time and effort studying up on a subject, I’m going to learn a new language or how to cook Japanese food; it’s not going to be learning the ins and outs of men pushing each other around for an hour.

I think if my husband put as much careful thought into work as he did into the rules and stats around football they’d probably end up awarding him a Nobel Prize.

I know millions of people really really like Football, and almost every one of them hates soccer, a game where you kick a ball into a net for a point.  There is something to be said for simplicity boys, and I bet all those European girls don’t have to pull out a rule book every five minutes just to know what’s going on.

So, until they have a “girl’s guide to football” that I can look up on my iPad every time I’m confused by a play, I’ll just keep on bugging my husband for an explanation.  To be honest, I think behind the annoyed eye-rolling he enjoys handing out little pearls of pigskin wisdom, and I like the Sundays on the couch.  So I guess Football is my favorite sport; just don’t ask me to explain what’s going on.

Check out our other football posts,
An Indoor Girl’s Guide To Football
Tales of a Playoff Widow
Also try our All About Football and our Ready For Football DiscoveryGames

Tokii Puts Our Sports Obsessions into Perspective!

Ever since Meatloaf Used the “Stealing Home Base” metaphor in Paradise By the Dashboard Light, the only sport anybody can ever equate with “Doing the Nasty” has been slow, boring baseball.

Not me, Not this guy.  You want to talk about love and love makin’, you want to talk about getting married and gettin’ down, then you look no further than the coolest sport on ice.

HOCKEY!!!

For the uninitiated, It’s just like Basketball, only 3X as fast, there’s all kinds of body checking, and everybody walks on knives.

Far Out.  Now Listen, Hockey is the all-encompassing sports metaphor for relationships.  I called it, it’s done.

Why you ask?  Ok, let me walk you through a relationship as seen through the hockey lens.

You lock eyes across the room; you make your move through some people and you’re on a breakaway for the girl/guy of your dreams.

You show off your fancy stick work, you shoot, and you score (once you get a little more comfortable you might even go upstairs for a video replay).

As the relationship progresses, you have to be careful not to go “Offside” by putting yourself ahead of the puck, and if you really mess up you’re headed for the penalty box.  Two minutes for interference, fighting, or unsportsmanlike conduct.  Or you could just spend an entire day playing NHL ’12 with your buddies online and get ejected from the game (as we’ve so admirably demonstrated in our video here!)

Contract negotiations with your franchise player can get tough, but you have to give a little to get a little, and if you want to wear the ring and hoist the cup, you’re going to have to put in a “no-trade” clause.

For the longest time, Hockey’s been a dividing force in my marriage, time spent watching the game, tinkering with my fantasy teams, lugging extremely pungent goalie equipment in and out of the basement.  Frankly, it’s about time it’s started to pay off!  So honey, I’m coming home soon, so let’s sit down to some Sportsnet as a couple!  No?  How about wearing my jersey to bed?  Now we’re talking!

We at Tokii are all about getting couples to communicate their interests and passions, and using them to find common ground, and making their relationships better and better.  Whether it’s movies, wine, exercise, sex, or even sports.

Tokii.com is getting couples closer.  We’ve Made up Two Free Hockey Specific DiscoveryGames for our members:  All About Hockey and Ready For Hockey.  They’re designed to find out just how much you knowabout the game, and just how much of your life it’s taken over!

Hockey, like romance, breaks down to fundamentals, communication, hard work and practice.  So lets keep our heads up out there, and most important, keep your stick on the ice!

If you enjoyed this post, you should check out Tales of a Play Off Widow

“I’m an indoor girl” has always been my go-to line when the conversation turns to sports. Not only do I not understand most sports, namely football, but I also don’t play them (Let me put it this way: my “sporting” career ended in elementary school when my hair swooped around, blinding me, during an agility run and I face planted in front of the entire student body).

So, now that the season has clicked to fall, football is on everyone’s minds. Every man in my life has tried to explain the rules of football to me over the years in hopes that my eyes would stop glossing over during games. “Each team gets four chances, and those chances are called downs.” Yep, you lost me. I checked out when you said “team.” I really like the idea of football, though. It has always intrigued me. Dressing up in your team’s colors (yes, it’s all about the outfits) and cheering them on (and actually knowing when and why to cheer) seems like it could be fun. But the game itself is just so…boring. I decided this was the year I would turn that around.

So, I set up shop in front of the Ohio State/Miami game Saturday with the greatest of intentions. I had my non-alcoholic beer (I’m preggers), my chips and my iPad (I needed something to take the edge off). It was going pretty well (although I had no idea what that arrow thing on the field was. How did it have a countdown clock on it? It must not really be there). My husband even came home and saw me watching and I could tell he was super impressed.

I did surf Etsy a bit (um, the Halloween decorations aren’t going to buy themselves), but I lasted until halftime at which point I needed to change the channel to avoid the announcers confusing me. I eventually switched back and it was kind of exciting I have to admit. When no one is scoring it’s kind of a snooze, but it gets good when they run the ball into that area with the team’s name on it and the crowd goes wild. I can’t say I knew everything that was going on, but I think I got the jist? Mostly they just pile on top of each other a lot. I mean, it’s like reading for school. No one really reads 6 novels a semester for English Lit. You skim. I went to a liberal arts college. Trust me, you skim. Maybe my school is to blame (and my biological makeup) for my lack of interest in football. We had a polo team–not a football team. The boys that went to my college didn’t want to get dirty.

After doing a bit of research, it’s clear I’m not alone in that football makes my brain hurt. There are whole websites devoted to helping women understand the pigskin. As I got to thinking, I remembered in college my brother and me were planning to write a book explaining the rules of football in terms of shoes and purses–you know, shit women understand. Like my idea for Doke (a combination of regular and Diet Coke), that idea never came to fruition, but we obviously would be rich by now.

Strangely, I have girlfriends that claim they not only like, but they actually comprehend, football. These chicks

voluntarily go to games and own jerseys. That’s hardcore. They even play Fantasy Football, which, by the way, baffles me. Why would anyone want to pretend play something? I mean, you’re not really playing football. Uh, OK, then I’m in the Ice Capades.

I don’t think I’ll ever be one of them, but I think I’m one step closer to being able to use the excuse “but the game’s on” to get out of helping with Thanksgiving dinner. Additionally, I ponder if I am able to converse with my husband about the Giants win over the Panther’s and possibly even suggesting we watch the game together next Sunday what might that mean for our relationship? Any bets on that?

Check out our All About Football, Ready for Football, and Tim Tebow: Immaculate Reception DiscoveryGames: