Try “sitting on the bench.”

“This will sound kind of funny, but hopefully, we beat Yale so bad that I’m on the sidelines, watching the second team close them out,” Payne says. “Then, I can go home to my wife and celebrate the victory.”

His significant other agrees. “I hope it’s not close, because they kill me up in the stands,” Rachelle says. “He enjoys giving me a heart attack, every week.”

If love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage, football and marriage go together to like a horse and spaceship. But Brad Payne and Rachelle Willis have made it work.

“Brad is living a different a life than the other players on the team,” Murphy says. “But he still fits in extremely well.”

When the final whistle blows in New Haven and Payne’s football career comes to an end, he can look up to his wife, cheering in the stands, and realize he’s got plenty more to look forward to—a post-game meal.

“Are you kidding me? I married for the food,” Payne says with a smile.

Rachelle is more than willing to comply.

—Staff writer Alex M. Sherman can be reached at sherman@fas.harvard.edu.