What it Was Was Football

Football has been in my life ever since I started high school, moving from the small country grade school in Jerome Prairie to the big 1,500-student body in Grants Pass.  It took only a short time for me to realize that in my new environment, football was King.  Admitting to being socially ambitious, I committed to the freshman football team and it was a serious commitment because football practice was after school and there were no activity buses.  It was a mile and a half walk from the high school, through Grants Pass to the Redwood Highway, where I could hitchhike the seven miles home. I usually hitched but more than once I hiked.  The last two years I had a car.

Playing football in high school definitely had its rewards. Girls became easy to talk to. Every Friday you wore the white dress shirt under your letterman sweater, rubber band holding the bottom shirt button to the top button on your fly.  Then that trot with your teammates onto the field surrounded by your cheering fans beneath the Friday night lights.

In college I moved from the locker room to the grandstands and while it didn't match the thrill of playing the game,  it came close.  Oranges injected with vodka.  Girls who loved football (or said they did).  Watching really good players (Norm Van Brocklin) play the game I loved.  As good as it gets.

Then, later, actually being paid to work where football was produced for the alumni.  In the eye of the hurricane that is big time college football where,  during the season, you produce a new show every week and it better be good because there are multi-thousands of coaches warming those seats who know the plays to call better than the play callers listed in the program.  And they have all seen professionals play the various positions so they expect nothing less from those wearing their colors.  They're on scholarship, for God's sake.

It's a violent game and I don't know how much longer we can tolerate all the injuries.  But let's wait until I've slipped out eternity's waiting door before we let the game clock go to double zero.