The warm days and cools nights signal a change is coming. There's a smile on my face; it's football season.
Sorry folks, I just can't help it. Football was always this littlest kid in the neighborhood's favorite sport. It was fun to watch and fun to play.
And it was the safest place to hit the bigger kids. I used my helmet and shoulder pads to my full sixty five pound potential. Then the whistle blew and the play was over.
Football stars were the heroes of my youth. Johnny Unitas, Gale Sayers, Bullet Bob Hayes, Dick Butkis were all posters on my wall. I wanted to be a wide receiver so I owned a Fred Belitnikoff jersey, black and silver.
I played organized football from the fifth grade all the way through high school where I topped out as a 135 pound second team guard of the water cooler. I learned a lot about the ups and downs of life on the gridiron, memories and lessons I wouldn't trade for gold.
From Coach Haynes to Coach Sykes and Coaches Rowe and Powell to Coach Thomas, imperfect humans but great teachers, I learned the fundamentals of getting along. I learned to jump up and dust myself off.
I learned how to be part of a team and how to overcome pain. I learned it's great to win and sucks to lose. I learned hard work pays off most of the time and loafing never.
I learned raw want to nearly always overcomes size and talent. Nearly always.
So these days always flood me with the exuberance of more youthful times. That makes me ready to hit something. Where's my helmet?
Unlike me, conservatives and progressives alike are done with football. It's dangerously close to falling out of favor on all sides.
My more liberal friends never really liked the violence. Or the raw masculinity. Or the rah-rah religion of it. Now they can point to studies showing long term effects from concussion and head trauma are killing former players. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd let my kids play tackle either.
Of course conservatives don't really care about that negative health stuff, but they are ready to give it up for good when uppity players remind them there are certain injustices in our society. Only white people who make too much money are allowed to say and do what they want. Ask any Trumpet, justice is something you're born into.
That leaves weirdos like me whose primary faults with football are artificial turf and "the play is under review". Contact sports are meant to be played in the elements because not one single war was contained to a dome. Not one was overturned by replay, either.
My football playing days are long over. I traded my football helmet for a kayak helmet. But I still watch football whenever I can. I don't care if it's the NFL or college or the high school game of the week.
I'm glad I learned to take a wallop long ago because water and rocks can hurt. Sometimes life can, too.