Well, it is now September 2006 and in the sports world it is a crucial period on the calendar. NASCAR and Baseball are winding down, NHL and NBA camps are either in session or about to start, and the All_american ritual Football has begun. NASCAR's elite series, the Nextel Cup, is in it's final 10 races (the chase) to decide the 2006 series champion. The pennant races are getting closer to being decided which means my beloved and beleaguered Pittsburgh Pirates are already making their winter plans. Chcago Cubs fans are sadly all too familiar with this rite. Yet the Flordia Marlins are still within spitting distance of a wild card. However, a fever hits this country this time of year that infects many Americans, Football. The Canadian Football League is winding down but I'm sure some diehards in the Great White North try to catch some games that eminate from "Gringoland". I am proposing a little test to see how bad your fever is. If you follow at least 3 of the levels then you have it bad. We'll start at the different levels of football.
Kids' leagues:
With leagues geared for kids as young as eight, we see many of our nation's children putting on pads and helmets for the first time. For some, the biggest question of the season is "Do we get to keep our jerseys at the end of the season?" They play on shorter fields and sometimes require the fathers to act as goal posts for the extra point attempts. Many games don't keep score, some are low scoring affairs, and others end up with all the kids looking in the grass for all sorts of bugs. Betting lines are STRONGLY discouraged at this level. Not too many people follow this level as the next levels.
JV
These games count as far as wins and losses, but for te most part they do not have playoffs for the Junior Varsity teams. Some areas divide the JV levels between Junior High and Juinor Varsity. The betting lines sometimes start at this level and are strongly discouraged (as it should be at any level)
High School Varsity
For many players on theses teams, this is the first time of getting exposure beyond their neighborhood or school. There are some high school stadiums that seat more people than the towns or areas the schools represent. Handicapping often begins at this level so people (not all people use the odds lines for betting but as a way to get an idea of how the game is expected to end) can get an idea of who is exected to win. The best of these often move up to the next level, collegiate football. These games are often played on Friday nights. All teams play for te chance to be considered the best football team in their state and have playoffs to determine who is the best.
Collegiate Football
On Saturdays and, in recent years, Thursday nights many people descend upon our institutions of higher learning and fill the stadia of these campuses to root for who has the best team between the disputing schools. There are many levels of college football, there are two sanctioning bodies for collegiate athletics The National Association of College Athletics (NCAA) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The NCAA has four dvisions for football while the NAIA has two.
The division that gets the most attention is NCAA Division 1-A. The next division down is D1-AA. These are considered the two elite divisions of the American college football scene. The biggest differences between these two levels is that D1-A has no playoff while D1-AA does. The National Championship is determined by a consensus. In recent years there have been steps taken to provide a clearer picture and a quasi-playoff system. There is annually a bowl game that is designated and rotated between the four biggest of these bowl games between the two top ranked teams (sometimes there is a split in that and is still argued and disputed). There are problems in this setup. One is that the smaller conferences have teams that have great records but are left out of consideration for the BCS (Bowl Championship Series or as some have come to call it Bull Crapping Shit). Another is that sometimes there is a split amongst the polls that are used to determine who goes to what bowl. The big thing is that some schools get screwed like a cheerleader at homecoming (no offense to the cheerleaders out there). It is time for a playoff at this level.
D1-AA has a playoff system in place and has more schools playing football in this division than D1-A. The powers that be don't see the need for a playoff and come up with excuse after excuse for why there will not, should not, and cannot be a playoff in D1-A football. The main reason is the money that the bowls generate. I and many others feel that you can tie in thee lucrative bowls into a playoff system and it can be more lucartive for te schools involved. Sadly, as they say you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink, but you can beat the horse over the head and drown the fucker and get a new horse. One day there will be a playoff system in D1-A. There are lines on these games as well.
Professional Football
Since 1920, there has been a league that has provided football fans with football on a professional level. That league is the NFL, or National Football League. The NFL has become a juggernaut amongst the world's professional sports leagues since its humble beginnings in a car dealership in Canton, Ohio. Like many other succsess stories, they struggled around for many years before finding a niche and sticking to it. Their season is culminated in the world's largest and most watched single day sporting event called the Super Bowl.
There have been many leagues spring up to compete with the NFL and they eithre died off or merged or were absorbed into the NFL. Unlike baseball, there isn't much complaints about expansion ruining the game. Fans of the NFL teams see a new team as more fodder for their cannons. It is one of the expressions of the American dream and ideals. Every year these teams enter training camp with every team havng a good shot at winning the Super Bowl. Every year there are teams that are expected to dominate and do as well as teams that are expected to fail and do. There is also the element of surprise. Every year there is at least one tema that is expected to be among the bottom dwellers of the leauge and end up having great years that are unexpected of many (sometimes the teams themselves) and the reversse also happens where a team that is expected to excell ends up losing more eoften than a scandal popping up in DC.
The Lexicon of football
Even people who do not like football often use the jargin of the game as adjectives or analogies. Phrases like "armchair quarterback" "Monday morning quarterback" and "when in doubt, punt" fill classrooms, boardrooms, and bedrooms of many Americans. Like it or not, the sport of football has the USA by the short hairs. It is a great distraction fro the perils and problems we fave very day.
If you follow High School, College, and Pro football with much regulatrity, you have football fever and have it bad. This condition cannot be cured but can be treated. Treatment is simple take your self to the nearest football stadium on a thursday, friday, saturday, or sunday and watch the game and root for your favorite player and/or team. If you cannot get to a stadium, turn on your tv set or radio on a game that is being broadcast accompany with some favorite convenience foods and enjoy. Come February you will have gotten much of this fever reduced but there is arena football to help the worst get a fix.
Te main point I'm making is that with all tat is wrong with the world, all that is wrong with your state and community, football is a great way to relax and take yourself away from your worries for a bit and worry and let out aggressions and strees at the screen, radio, or folks on the field. By the end of November, we will have a new champion in NASCAR, a team will win the World Series, The NBA will be sharing many arenas with teams of the NHL, and it Santa will be visiting after we've stuffed ourselves on a thanksgiving feast (which football is played, this year with four games). So go long and enjoy this new football season.
