Hi, everyone! I’m Darrell, and my WIFE and I are thrilled to be joining this wonderful little endeavor that Kevin and The WIFE have going over here. I’ll be doing the writing, but my WIFE will definitely be contributing thoughts, opinions, comments, snark, and the like.
Before I begin writing the occasional article, I thought I’d share a little bit of information about us; I’ll start with the lesser half. I spend my days working as a transportation planner. It’s a time-consuming job, but I love making places better than I found them. I spend much of my free time enjoying a variety of sports. From my days as a young child watching part of Monday Night Football before bed, I’ve always enjoyed sports. The first team I loved was the Dallas Cowboys, but I ditched them when Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry. I adopted the Buffalo Bills, who have brought me all sorts of happiness and joy … or something. In keeping with that theme, most of my other favorite professional teams cause similar levels of pain:
Ajax – The Dutch giants are one of the most storied clubs in European football.
Arsenal – The ’14 and ’15 FA Cups notwithstanding, Arsenal find creative new ways to break my heart, but rarely do they buy creative new players.
Boston Celtics – They’ve been my team of choice since the days of Larry Legend.
Buffalo Sabres – Pat LaFontaine brought me into the fold. Also, Brett Hull cheated, and Gary Bettman condoned it. No amount of logic or fact will ever change my feelings on this topic.
DC United – RFK isn’t a great place to watch an MLS match, but DC United were the league’s first royalty.
Los Angeles Dodgers – Like Arsenal, the Dodgers find clever ways to disappoint me.
Fortunately, my alma mater makes up for much of this; I’m a proud graduate of The University of Alabama. Football has been great lately, but so have golf, gymnastics, and softball. Avery Johnson is going to make Alabama basketball great again. (Please, Mr. Johnson. Please.)
As for my WIFE, she is an archivist by trade; in fact, she’s using her master’s degree in the manner in which it was intended. She has roughly no interest in watching sports, but she graciously tolerates my need to watch televised Arsenal matches and Alabama games. Also, she enjoys cooking and knitting, and occasionally dishes out some very interesting sports-related commentary. She coined the term “just kidding time” to describe the time added to the end of each half of a soccer match, and she does prefer soccer to other televised sporting events. She’s very fond of attending minor-league baseball games, where we usually find seats behind the big net.
Darrell’s WIFE will never be fooled by soccer stoppage time ever again
My WIFE and I are both very amateur athletes. We both run (mostly half marathons), and my WIFE has completed a few triathlons. We’ve each completed a marathon, and we’re running two half marathons in two days this May. I did that last year, too, proving that I learn nothing from pain.
I’ll do my best to keep it light and interesting, and I’m sure you’ll let me know if I don’t. Regardless, I’m looking forward to it, and I hope I don’t disappoint Kevin.
> Darrell
Darrell Harden is a Guest Author at The Wife Hates Sports and a good friend. You’ll frequently find him on Twitter (@Darrell_Harden) talking sports, fretting about Alabama football or helping Kevin Paul (@kevinspaul) realize that there really is more than one WIFE that hates sports.
