on a lighter note

who else is as excited as we are for college football season? autumnal saturdays are like a corporeal general conference on the gridiron. a veritable medley of athletic prowess, strategic enlightenment and old-fashioned suspense.

reagan and thomas have been watching a lot of espn classics, practicing reading plays and boning up on positions and player stats. i happened upon this little father/son interaction last week:

you should know that i live with the football Master with a capital M. no one knows more about football, lives football, breathes football, eats football and loves football more than thomas. perhaps bear bryant himself would be the exception, but it would be a closey.

and watching a game with thomas is unreal. i have a few suggested behaviors:

1. don't talk during key moments. show viewing awareness.

2. don't ask dumb questions. i know this from experience.

3. carefully plan bathroom breaks.

4. don't be flippant if thomas' team is not playing their best. if you want to joke, you should probably just leave the house.

5. don't cheer for florida. not even jokingly.

6. if you like a team, you better be able to back it up. don't be trendy.

7. sit on the victory blanket. we have one for BYU and one for georgia. and they work. modern day relics.

8. don't check your messages if you are watching a recorded game that everyone else already knows the score to. it's really hard to finish watching a game and pretending you don't already know the outcome.

plus, living in south carolina has opened several new football worshiping avenues. having steve spurrier coaching the gamecocks of south carolina(plus) and clemson university(minus) only a few miles up the road makes saturdays in the south cackalacki almost as lovely as being back in the college football capital of the universe tuscaloosa, alabama.

thomas used to write a weekly college football newsletter. i would like to see him resurrect it. if you would like to see him resurrect his newletter also, please bombard him with requests on facebook. i think it would only take 2 or 3 requests for him to be swayed.

i feel pretty good about this year.