Football

Football!  It is amazing how little it had to do with my childhood.  My father believed, truly believed, that it was an insanely dangerous game and refused to allow my brothers to play.  No one in our house watched sports unless it was the local little league when my brothers were young or a holiday when one of my uncles was there.

This did not make my brothers happy and one of my nephews was the local quarterback whose fame carried him as far as he wanted to go.

I became interested in football when the Rams had that unbelievable 1999 season and so I thought it was a lively game where players ran the field end to end and made amazing plays.  It was a fairytale year, almost a caricature of  game I've never seen played that way again.

Now I am more interested in college football, specifically the Alabama Crimson Tide.  "Roll Tide!"  the way Tuscaloosians say good morning!  It doesn't matter where in the country I am, if I see  a Bama shirt I know if I shouted out, "Roll"  they will respond, "Tide!"

I admit that I like the idea of football more than the actual games.   The energy, the way it pulls communities together, a game that rivals mythic wars astounds me.  It is stirring, fascinating and frightening to watch our modern day gladiators out there defending their cities and schools.  While the local goddesses urge them on with gymnastics and shouts that bring the Lorelei to mind.  These are the university royalty, the ones who bring in the money and keep the doors of higher education open.

Football season starts and I am settling in to continue my observations of these amazing anomalies that rule the weekends like nothing else I know.