"My wife thinks I put football before marriage, even though we just celebrated our third season together."
Question: This was a cartoon quip; can you please explain for me?
ANSWER: "Put football before marriage" means to place or consider football more important than marriage, i.e. to devote more time to football than marriage.
And, to add insult, perhaps unwittingly, he declares in defense (meaning she's wrong) that they just celebrated their third season together. Of course, he would have done better to have said "even though we just celebrated our third anniversary together," which would have been a better defense.
Both come around once a year. However, the anniversary lasts a day and the American pro football season lasts approximately six months from September to February.
Thus, the irony of the cartoon quip is that he supports his wife's sentiments by putting his foot in his mouth by referring to the third year of their marriage in terms of football seasons.
