Even I noticed it! Football fever and Omaha

Background: I am not an avid sports fan. I like the winter Olympics and some racket sports but watching a football game from start to finish is like Chinese torture to me. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy parts of the game (besides the half time show!) but it would be very hard to get me in a stadium unless you have a box seat ticket with a bar and bathroom.

The beloved husband, however, is an avid football fan. He loves the (Philadelphia) Eagles mostly, but enjoys other games as well. It’s playoff season now and there are always football games on TV.

Last Sunday as I was zipping around doing incredibly important stuff like solving world peace, cleaning up cat barf and writing a blog post, I was able to catch bits and pieces of the two playoff games.

Even in my dense and preoccupied brain I kept hearing Omaha, Omaha. Curious, I sat down to watch and sure enough it was Peyton Manning who kept yelling it.

I was fairly certain he came from Louisiana. Is there an Omaha in Louisiana and why would you yell it out? Are you saying hi to your grandma?

Not one to dilly around I asked the beloved husband what was going on. He gave a very technical answer which I interpreted as “I dunno.” It’s some sort of play signal. Maybe.

Game over. Life goes on. All of a sudden I am inundated with news articles about Omaha, Omaha. Omahaians are proud and there is hype going on.

I was so stunned that I knew what they were talking about. I never get culture jokes especially sports related ones. My five minutes worth of watching a football game put me in the know. I was cool. I got it.

The chance of it happening again are similar to blue moons, Thanksgivukkah and all those other events that won’t happen in my lifetime but for one game, I was super cool.

Omaha! Omaha! Yay team!

 

27 thoughts on “Even I noticed it! Football fever and Omaha

  1. I am a football, baseball fan when our teams are winning.. University of Missouri Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals Baseball. I have given up on our football team, the Rams. I was clueless about Manning and Omaha untill I clicked on the link. Pretty cool.. 🙂

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    • I like things that make the games interesting and aren’t necessarily related to the game itself. I loved way back when the Chicago Bears did their song for the superbowl. Made it fun for us non-sporters.

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  2. Oh to be ahead of the curve on anything sports related! Had I not heard something on the radio today, I wouldn’t have had a clue! Good for you! To give you my thought about football, I’m currently trying to come up with an excuse that won’t hurt someone’s feelings for the Super Bowl invite I know is coming…I’d rather do almost anything! 🙂

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  3. Okay, I’ll confess… I like football. (3 brothers, 1 husband, 2 sons. Except for Mom “0” other girls. I had no choice.) A little info on Omaha… For today’s game 8 businesses based in Omaha pledged a combined $800 for each time Manning said Omaha. He said it 31 times raising $24,800 for Peyton’s Foundation for at-risk youth.

    …and being a lifetime Washingtonian I am a Seahawks fan… Go HAWKS!
    (there…my secret is out. 0_o )

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  4. Gosh, and all along I thought Peyton was related to Warren Buffet and Omaha was code for “Hi! Uncle Warren.” BTW heard an interview with Peyton where he was asked what the Omaha call meant and his answer was, with a straight face at first, ” broken play, pass play, run play….any and every play.” Now that’s how you protect the code.

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  5. Great you are cool like that. Thanks for sharing. I was confused at first. Having lived in Omaha, I was under the impression that all radio and TV could talk about was Huskers. Now I’m in the loop. 😉

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  6. Hi Kate, Um, I still don’t know what Omaha means?????  But, yesterday and this morning were banner barf cleaning days!!!!!!  YUK!!!!

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  7. Um……I live 35 miles east of Omaha. Other than knowing that Omaha is in Nebraska and many Nebraskans have Cornhusker fever (for some, similar to a religion) and they heartily support their University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, I have no idea what you are talking about.

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    • Then perhaps it’s an east coast thing? The news stations have been showing people from Omaha cheering for the Broncos after their city was used as a play signal. In the game it was very clear Peyton was yelling Omaha and no one really knew why. Even a group from Omaha Steaks employees were shown cheering (which I don’t even know if it’s in Omaha!).

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      • Maybe the problem is my habit of turning off the ten p.m. news after the weather report and not sticking around for the sports reports. Maybe I missed it – oh, woe is me. Yes, Omaha Steaks is in Omaha. They ship beef world-wide.
        You have cat barf; I have other problems to clean up due to an aging black lab. Almost time for doggy diapers.

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        • I have one of those cats too although his accidents are always in the same spot so I can use piddle pads. Aging isn’t for any living thing. I always ask my husband if he will use piddle pads for me.

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