10 years ago this weekend...

So, I'm watching the NFL Hall of Fame game right now. And it reminds me of what I was doing exactly 10 years ago this weekend: I was actually covering this game as a writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. This time, in 1999, it was the Cowboys against the Cleveland Browns, who were playing their very first game since their former owner, Art Modell, moved the original Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore a few years earlier.

Anyway, the summer of 1999 was a turning point in my life (and, it wasn't the right turn, I'm afraid to say). Back then, I was dating one woman who was really great. Just great. She got me. Not only was there physical attraction, but there was intellectual stimulation as well. Problem is, she was a mom. And I just wasn't ready to be an instant father. But I still went out with her because she was fun, and smart - (and not to mention good looking).

Now, what does the Cowboys-Browns game have to do with this story? I'd actually spent the first few days of that road trip in Wisconsin locales such as La Crosse, River Falls, or Green Bay covering NFL training camps. While I was in Green Bay, a really good friend of mine sent me roses and a bottle of wine to my hotel. This was a friend I had known for 5 years and I was really kind of crazy about but she had a boyfriend. She sent wine and roses and let me know that she was breaking up with her live-in boyfriend.

I was ecstatic and stopped going out with the girl whom I had so much in common with to be with the "friend" whom I had known for five years. Me and that "friend" would marry each other in September of the next year.

We had NOTHING in common.

And it was the biggest mistake of my life. I'm not going to bash my ex-wife here. Half of our problems were my fault, half were hers.

The interesting thing is, 10 years later, I've never met a woman like the one I was originally going out with, who totally got me.

I'm not in mourning or anything.

But it is funny what a football game makes you think about.