First down ...
We're back we're back! Sort of. The NFL preseason started on Monday with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game (that sounds like a game show, doesn't it?) and then this weekend are the preseason games all over the country. NFL Network has gone into hyperoverdrive covering training camps and doing preseason breakdowns of the teams. We need to get our Tivo cleared off before this season so we have space to record the new games.
It's funny, I never watched sports religiously as a kid. I loved sports all through high school but I am not what you would call a lifelong sports fan. And I especially never had any allegiance to any particular team, collegeiate or pro. Until I moved down to Chapel Hill. Down here on Tobacco Road it's a do-or-die attitude about college basketball. With one of the longest standing rivalries in college history, Duke and UNC make college basketball a sport that sucks you in and makes you take sides. Especially if you're a student at either place, and me being a student at UNC, well, I believe that's all I need to say about that.
Then there's football. College football is fun ... until I became a little bit more clear about how the silly BCS system works and I came to the conclusion that even though there's a game labelled the "national championship" game that there is no REAL national champion because they don't play elimination rounds ... no quarterfinals, semifinals or final games. Just a ranking and bowl games. This is not to say there's not pride and glory and sacrifice in those games. I'm sure that there are all of those things. I'm just saying it's not my cup of tea.
Pro football, though? It's got it all ... playoffs, finals, pride, glory, sacrifice, team ... everything. And it helps that my husband is perhaps one of the greatest NFL fans in the history of the sport, and it helps that he has the world's strongest allegiance to one of the truly great NFL teams in history: the Pittsburgh Steelers. His enthusiasm, though bordering on insanity, is contagious. And once he allowed me to watch the games with him (which was, trust me, a momentous occasion) his enthusiasm became more than contagious, it was infectious. I am now a loyal follower of the black and gold so bring it on ... let the 2005 season begin!