Turning on the AC: Another football season beckons
What is opening day of the football season like?
As a new campaign kicks off Friday, there are some similarities with other holidays.
The start of a new football season is sort of like New Year’s Eve.
While there are no renditions of Auld Lang Syne, last season becomes history and the present is now. Hope is in abundance and promises, some kept and others broken, are made.
A 9-1 or 1-9 season is replaced by 0-0.
As New Year’s Eve brings together people of all backgrounds for one night so does a new football season put elite, average and downtrodden programs on even footing for one day.
Then again, maybe Christmas is a more apt comparison.
The start of the new sports season is a gift that is eagerly anticipated throughout the year.
Much like opening that first present, there is an excitement and an anxiety before throwing that first pass, making that initial hit and scoring that inaugural touchdown.
Though there won’t be any caroling, there will be national anthems, fight songs and alma maters galore.
From another viewpoint, maybe opening day is more like Thanksgiving.
That first football game of the season gathers groups of people who haven’t seen each other in months.
Like a traditional Thanksgiving dinner requires many helping hands, so does opening day. A great turkey is only half the battle and the meal is incomplete without stuffing, mash potatoes and other fixins.
Likewise a great football program can’t exist without the complementary efforts of outstanding cheer and song squads, an exciting band, an enthusiastic announcer and an army of parent volunteers.
I may be a little off here, so bear with me, but opening day does remind me a bit of Veteran’s Day.
Many former student-athletes dust off their old letterman jackets and swap stories from their eras. The start of a new season continues a legacy that goes back generations. Every student-athlete joins into something bigger and greater than themselves.
Yes, the start of the football season can mean many things to many people.
Perhaps, it’s best to say that while there are many good comparisons, there is nothing quite like the beginning of a new season.
