The Holtonian

The Sad State of Football in the South

So as the fall approaches here in the south one of the most pathetic scenes in southern culture begins... football freakdom.

Growing up in St. Louis we didn't really have the football mania that is rampant down here in the south or in texas or ohio or pretty much anywhere that has a good team. With Mizzou a constant under achiever and no real other team in the state, college football is kind of a joke in St. Louis. I pretty much followed the Irish just because their games were always on and Rudy.

So the whole hysteria of college football is a little much for me. Now I consider myself a big sports fan, granted of baseball and hockey the latter of which is a word that doesn't compute with 99.9% of southerners, but I would never go to the levels that some of our friends seem to.

Wifey talked to a friend of hers the other day and they were trying to plan a time that her and her husband could come up the mtn for a visit (they live in another state). She basically said, "well with football season starting we're pretty much booked every weekend because we go to all the home games."

Fair enough my wife thought, "OK... well what about a weekend where they're away?"

She replied, "Weeell.... the thing is we could get there and the game might not be on TV there."

And I'm not trying to single out this particular friend of wifey's, I have plenty of other friends who are the same way, this isn't just her but pretty much the majority of the people down here in the south... and frankly I find it down right sick.

You base your entire weekend life from now till December on football? How pathetic is that. In 10 years are you going to think back on the fall of 2006, "I remember September 30... the Gators were playing the Monsters and that was the game where the QB Frank Jones threw 4 interceptions yada yada yada. We were supposed to go up to the Holtons for a fun weekend but we had to stay home and watch the game on TV because if we didn't the fate of the known world might have ended..." TIVO if its that important to you.

But that's the thing, should you even tivo it? Are we so handicapped and handcuffed to our entertainment that we just CAN"T!!!! Miss it?? I just don't get it. I made a conscious decision to never have my life revolve around TV a few years ago. I pick one show that I'm pretty faithful too (Lost) but if I miss it one week I don't cry my brains out. If we have friends that want to go out on a Lost night I'm more than willing to hang out because I realize that real people are better than a couple of actors on tv.

Same I think applies to football. They'll always be a million more games. If its say a championship, a rivalry game, or the last game of the season and they need to win to go undefeated.. sure stay home that's cool I understand. If it was the Cards in the WS I'd do the same thing.

Another friend of ours got married last year on the same weekend Auburn and Alabama had big games against some SEC's foes and the wedding was in Birmingham. People actually didn't come to the wedding because of the two football games. It blew my mind! These football games were more important than a couple making a life long covenant? How screwed up are people's priorities? And then some people at the wedding were listening to radios the whole time... let it go people.

My big thing is I want my life to revolve around Christ... and I'm not trying to be super pious here because we all know I'm not and I'm in general a pretty sleazy guy. So I strive for Christ centered life, doesn't happen most of the time, but its what I strive for. The next thing is Family, I want my family to be the number two thing in my life and I'll put them ahead of pretty much anything else. Then there is friends. Last place is my entertainment, and there's other stuff between friends and entertainment... Football is entertainment, just plain entertainment.

Posted by holtonian at August 26, 2006 11:25 PM | TrackBack