-gating

You are probably familiar with tailgating.

The outdoor gathering, usually in a stadium parking lot or near the stadium where your team is playing, where friends and family and the occasional passerby enjoy some burgers, brats, or other fare from the grill; a cold beverage or two; maybe a game of catch or Frisbee or corn-hole.

This football season, however, I've heard (and maybe you have as well) variations on that theme.

Couch-gating and Home-gating are entering the sports vernacular.

With 75 million inch high definition television sets and a 500 watt sound system ready to pour the grunts and signals into your living room - who needs to go to the actual game?

When I sit in the easy chair or couch today watching the Packers take care of the visiting Lions I won't think of myself as a couch-gater or home-gater.  Maybe to do that I'd need some friends or family to come over to watch the game.

It's true, with the advancement in TVs and better broadcasts provided by the various networks you can see all you can and then some from the couch instead of a stadium seat.  But, you miss the parking lot sights and smells before the game - the sound from the crowd as a pass just creases a receiver's fingertips - and the communal personality you put on while your guys fight it out on the field of play.

Given the opportunity, I'd love to be in Lambeau Field today.  I'm thankful for the TV that sits six feet away from my perch on the couch.  And, failing that, I'd live and die each Packers play with Wayne and Larry broadcasting the game on my radio.

I'm not going to go "old school" on the new terms because there is a place for them.  I think of the times the boys were growing up and we'd gather in front of the Packers on a Sunday afternoon.  Snacks and drinks at the ready thanks to Mom and a convenient bathroom nearby with no line in sight!

Couch-gating may be the next best thing to being there - and it is a way in sharing vicariously in the fortunes of your team, whether on the diamond, gridiron, or court.

If you can't do that and are the one serving the couchgaters... then you can be something else... maybe a standinthekitchengater!

Whatever you are and wherever you do it - Go, Pack!