by Leslie Lello

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 28, 2009

Daddy's little girl remembers finding herself on the couch every fall weekend as a child watching the Giants brutalize their competitors throughout football season.

To this day, watching Sunday football is an intense ritual, and a close game still gets me jumping up and down, gripping pillows with white-knuckled fists and yelling so loud that I know those bastard refs can hear me all the way from my living room.

Unfortunately, my boyfriend does not share my passion for Sunday football, much less for my beloved Giants.

Occasionally, I get the impression that he'd like to join me, and that he longs to throw Cheetos at the television with the same fiery passion with which I launch them.

Most of the time, however, when he comes in to lovingly serve me a plate of nachos he's made for me or bring me another beer, I catch a glimpse of him glancing at me both confusion and sadness, as if to say, "It's just a game, honey. And shouldn't we be spending the weekend doing something we BOTH love? Oh, and I've never seen a woman punch a couch like that before. WOW."

In a way, he's right. Weekends are precious, and during off-season, he and I enjoy the entire weekend together with a variety of shared activities.

And he will occasionally join me for a game. Even though he's not as emotionally pulled in, I believe he still finds pleasure in sharing the experience with me.

So the keys to us managing my football passion and other divergence of interests we have is to be comfortable with being involved with different activities once in a while.

Simple.

While football does take up several afternoons, it is matched with the time he takes to meditate every day. Even if I wanted to join him meditating, it's an inner activity, like reading, and so I would just have to stand by or to meditate myself.

All couples have activities that the other partner is not keen on.

As I mentioned earlier, he occasionally joins me for my Sunday afternoon ritual. And while he might not be as into it as me, we have a good time eating and drinking and offering commentary on the commercials.

Additionally, it's really challenging to watch a competitive sports team play frequently and not become attached to their emotional journey and the excitement of seeing them win. And so I think he's started to enjoy following the Giants.

He already knows football, but if he didn't, this would also be an excellent time to start explaining the rules and this would help him to enjoy it more.

For example, I didn't watch hockey until I

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