What Is It About Football? by Sal Moriarity

If you're not in the parade, you watch the parade. That's life. Mike Ditka

Success isn't owned, it's leased. And rent is due every day. J.J. Watt

Football is just a game. What matters is what you play for. Ernie Davis

When I was a kid, I remember regularly sitting in church as noon approached. Noon meant kickoff, often for the Cowboys. I got my first wristwatch so I could monitor the time on such occasions. When the service ended, I ran straight to the car and watched, restlessly, as my parents hobnobbed with the other worshipers. My folks were not Cowboys fans. We usually got home halfway through the first quarter. I still bear those scars.

There is so much about football that has changed in my lifetime. Don't like a lot of it. Was not crazy about the “in the grasp” rule, implemented so long ago. Remember the “tuck rule”? Tom Brady does, but at least they ditched that abomination years ago.

No fan of meddling owners either. As noted, I was a Cowboys fan (don't judge me) from birth until my late twenties. Perhaps, I was naive, but I was flabbergasted when Jerry Jones fired Jimmy Johnson in 1994 (and, no matter what either says, he was fired). The good news is, after that, I was done with the Cowboys and, thus, have not had to endure the intervening thirty-some-odd years of misery they have inflicted on their fans, which seems likely to continue.

A few years before the The Great Cowboys Debacle, I began to notice pea brained infants rising to superstardom, both at the college and NFL levels. Brian Bosworth and Deion Sanders immediately come to mind. It was the beginning of a trend which has yet to abate. Discouraging.

That said, college football started again this week. When the kickoff came for the team in white helmets, with the burnt orange bull emblazoned on both sides, I was in front of the television. It begs the question, what could I possibly have in common with the young men who play the game today, or the crazy-rich coaches patrolling the sidelines? Why do I endure the relentlessly stupid, and seemingly endless, commercials? I didn't even go to the school, for crying out loud.

So, what's up?

One, I remember football from a boy's point of view. Those guys were my superheroes. I remember the Doomsday Defense taking the field wearing the silver helmets with the big blue star, in the stadium with the hole in the roof (so God could watch his favorite team, according to “Dandy Don”). Second, I played. Granted, only to the high school level, but it was in Texas. Scoring touchdowns, with pretty girls on the sideline screaming your name, makes a lasting impression. Sad, but it is what it is.

But why do I still care? Truth is, I don't nearly as much as I used to. I am nominally a fan of the Texans, but only pay close attention, and watch the games, if the playoffs are on the line. I still watch all of the Longhorns' games but, thankfully, my week isn't ruined when they lose.

Maybe the reason I still care a little is football can (not always, but can) build character (actually, I think Marv Levy had the better interpretation: football doesn't build character, it reveals it). Whatever you think of this or that player in major college football or the NFL, no one gets to that level without being tough. I am including kickers and quarterbacks. Kickers are often denigrated as not being real players, and quarterbacks as pampered. Truth is, they are the only players on the field, who regularly find the eyes of everyone in the stadium focused directly on them. Ask Scott Norwood. That rarely happens to a linebacker.

The physical brutality one has to endure to make it to the NFL is mind boggling and, as we've recently learned, can end horrifically (look up Mike Webster and Junior Seau, among many others). You can't do that without possessing some form of character.

Also, sometimes one does encounter the profound in football.

After Texas beat USC to win the 2005 National Championship, Mack Brown gave one of the more stirring sports speeches I've heard. No idea why it is not more widely circulated. He told his players, young men, not to let a football game be the highlight of their lives, but to use it to be great brothers, sons, husbands, fathers, and citizens.

That's pretty compelling in my estimation, and one of the reasons I haven't given up on football (or sports) altogether.

Hook 'em.