I Can't Wait Until Football Season!

There's a very slight cool breeze among the sweltering heat out there--have you felt it?

I have. And, it's that hint that FOOTBALL SEASON is drawing ever so closer!! Yes, that faint hint of fall that reminds us that 2-a-days loom a mere 6-weeks or so from now, with the regular season for the colleges about 9-weeks, the NFL in around 10.

My appetite got whetted when I interviewed three Central Texas high school standouts and Baylor Sophomore QB Robert Griffin for a piece I'm writing for "Waco Today" magazine's August edition. To hear the anticipation in the guys' voices about the 2009 season, to see their eyes light up with the fire of competition that burns within their being--kind of lit mine as well.

This will be my 20th-year of covering NFL, major college and high school football. And, I'll tell you: at least in these parts, no other season defines a sports guy like football season. It's where you earn your stripes as an interviewer, as a researcher, and as a story teller. Football means so much to the men and women of my profession, and to a large degree, to Americans in general--much like soccer to much of the rest of the world. And, if you've ever wondered why we took to American football instead of "futbol", consider this from the book, "The Meaning of Sports" by Michael Mandelbaum, that football is game that came of age during the industrial revolution of the early 20th-century, and the game of football mirrors that. I quote Mandelbaum in the following excerpts from page 120:

"Industrial life is measured by the clock and football, unlike baseball, is played by the clock. Measured time is indispensable for the coordination among different members of the team on the field that football requires."

And in the next paragraph:

"Football is a sport of the machine age because football teams are like machines, with specialized moving parts that must function simultaneously. Players are like workers in a factory. They must perform their tasks in a precise sequence."

Yes, football resembles the revolution that, other than the one around 1776--made America the great country it is today, and I think that's one of the reasons we embrace the game the way we do--we just may not have known it.

And, let's face it--the hittin' has a lot to do with it, too!

Either way, I can't wait for the season to get here, and I'll try to keep feelin' those fleeting cool breezes until then.