My son’s fantasy football team is cracked, but he doesn’t seem that concerned about the development.

In fact, in all the years he’s participated in fantasy football, I can’t recall a time he has been more excited about the team he drafted.

His league’s draft was Monday, and this is our actual conversation by text:

Kyle: My team is cracked.

Me: Sorry about that. Hopefully it will still be fun. Maybe things will work out.

Kyle: So good.

Me: ???

Kyle: I’m OTW home. I got an A-plus draft.

Me: ???

Kyle: This is by far my best draft.

Me: ???

When I was a kid, things were constantly being cracked around my house, and I don’t remember a time when I was excited about the experience.

Windows always seemed to get in the way of a football, baseball or basketball.

Crack.

If I gathered a dozen eggs from our hen house, at least three of them didn’t make it the entire 100 yards from the nest to the house.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

We played a lot of backyard football in the neighborhood. This was tackle football with no pads or helmets, which typically led to a lot of ankles, legs, arms, noses and an occasional skull being re-arranged.

Crack — and I think I now understand why our high school football team’s win-loss record was, to put it nicely, below average.

I’m not sure when being cracked became a good thing, but I assure you when I went to my parents and told them I had cracked a window, some of the eggs we were counting on for breakfast or any of the bones in my body or a neighbor’s body, the announcement was not met with a pat on the back and an “attaboy.”

It’s not the first time my son or another young person has confused me by using words I used to think meant one thing but now have an entirely different meaning.

Here are a few examples gathered from my own experiences and from a quick search of the World Wide Web (I think they call it the internet now):

Dope: This used to be stuff you stayed away from or someone who wasn’t smart. Now it means cool or awesome.

GOAT: Not a farm animal like the one we owned that tried to kill me on a daily basis (Chester was the spawn of Satan). This means “greatest of all time.” Again, probably a very dope person. Possibly cracked.

Lit: I assume the GOAT could also be lit, which no longer means something is burning but is now amazing, cool or exciting.

Fire: We used to avoid this also, but not anymore. Now it means something hot or trendy. Same as lit, or maybe even dope. I’m not sure why young folks need three trendy words that mean the exact same thing, but I’m also afraid to ask for fear of being called “cheugy.”

Cheugy: This, by the way, means something that is out of date or a person who is trying too hard.

Salty: This has nothing to do with food. It means bitter, angry or agitated.

Curve or Ghost: This means to reject someone romantically or to end a relationship by cutting off communication. When I was growing up, we called it “breaking up.”

I hope this short course helps those of you who, like me, simply want to be able to communicate with others without sounding like we just fell off a turnip truck.

For you young folks, that used to actually happen. It was neither cracked, fire or lit, but it sure made a person salty.