I'm Ready For Football

I haven't written in awhile, but I'll take this opportunity because it is opening weekend of NCAA football and a week away from the start of the NFL season. I have tried convincing myself in the past that these are not special occasions, but that is pretty foolish. The fact is I love the game of football, and no matter what level the players are on (including high school and junior college), I will stop and watch if I have a chance.

Oddly enough, I barely played any organized football growing up. In Texas, school athletics begin in 7th grade rather than 9th as in California. I was still in Texas for 7th grade and had originally registered for a theatre class. After the first day, feeling uncomfortable with the ad libbing and expressive nature of the surroundings, I opted to get out. I wasn't in the frame of mind at 13 years of age to "find" myself through obsolete characters I didn't feel connected with. The only other elective I had the opportunity to join was the football team, which couldn't refuse people. Not that they would have refused me because by my own cocky volition, I was an athletic kid with a soccer background and was used to running. My favorite part of football was getting to play both offense and defense, but my game time was limited so all my glory occurred in practices. I was a lineman on offense and a linebacker on defense. Clearly, linebacker was the most fun. At that age, the coaches basically instructed my position to find the guy with the ball and tear his fucking head off. In soccer, I was more of a finesse player at forward because with only shin guards as protection I felt exposed. As a football player, I played with reckless abandon. When you are wearing full body protection, you feel bigger than you really are. Because I had missed the summer practices, I was third string everything and the coaches probably didn't expect players of my ilk to test the starters. We were more or less the practice squad that got them ready for games, but we took that shit seriously. I remember more than a few occasions busting my way through the line of scrimmage on a blitz and putting hits on the star quarterback of our school. Of course, that led to all his first string cohorts hurling playful insults at him and he probably hated us third stringers when we threw him down to the ground.

Of course, it wasn't always fun. There's a reason I was third string. Before our first game, which took place on the road two days after I joined the team, I had no cleats to wear so I boarded the bus with no option but to wear my Converse All Stars. At halftime, our head coach was asking who hadn't played yet. I stepped up and asked to play defense. He looked at me and laughed in my face. Can't really blame him. For another game, I washed the football pants but switched the knee pads with the thigh pads. I thought it felt wrong when I put them on, but I attributed that to nerves more than anything. Turns out it actually WAS wrong. But all in all, it was a fun season. My glory on defense was relegated to practices, and strangely enough all the game time I eventually did receive that year was on the offensive line, which I found really boring but that's how I was used. The drills in practice helped my athleticism and probably made my soccer skills stronger. And on weekends, I followed the high flying Houston Oilers with Warren Moon at the helm. They had the best uniforms, the best offense, and the worst playoff loss in NFL history, which I think started their move to Tennessee, a team I refuse to cheer for. They are the same franchise, not the same team. You don't see people in Cleveland rooting for the Ravens just because they used to be the Browns.

Nostalgia is a funny beast. It creeps up on you at unsuspecting times. Watching the first weekend of college football has me remembering so much. We had season tickets to Texas A&M games in the early 90s when Corey Pullig at QB and Leland McElroy at RB were leading the charge. We went to every home game for a few years at a time when they never lost at Kyle Field. They had an amazing band, which has the best halftime performance you will ever see. I remember one Saturday I had a soccer game where I got violently and blindly slide tackled as I was taking a shot, resulting in a badly sprained ankle which kept me out for almost the whole season. We iced my foot for the remainder of that game, after which point I was carried to my Mom's car. Instead of taking me home to rest, we had a football game to go to. I wrapped my arms around my mom and stepdad to avoid pressure on my ankle, and we made our way to the gate. Our season ticket seats were high up in the stadium, so I had to grip the railing and hobble my way up the steep concrete steps. All for the love of football and a game the Aggies won. A loss would have been highly unacceptable for the amount of work it took to get there.