The Wright Angle
Aug. 6, 2007

Might favorite time of year is finally here

By Scott Wright

It was extremely tempting to write a column this week reminding everyone what a terrible job George W. Bush is doing as president. Or I could have fruitlessly demanded the immediate resignation of the nation's highest ranking, brown-nosing yes man, Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales -- but that's been done to death already. I also considered using this week's column to call out Rep. Mike Rogers for his vote against a farm subsidies bill that better protects peanut and cotton farmers and enjoyed the full support of the Alabama Farmers Federation. (Note: A press release from Rep. Rogers explaining his stance on the farm subsidies bill appears on page 9 of the Aug. 6 edition.)

Much as I love it, all that political mumbo-jumbo wears on me sometimes. So this week, I figured I'd write about something that really matters to folks around here: football.

One of my co-workers took her 6-year-old twins to their first-ever full-contact football practice last week. Webb Dillard's column, on page 43, details our Indiana friend's Crimson Tide learning curve from seasons past. Kimball Parker has an advertisement announcing another season of Upward Flag Football in this edition, and we'll have our annual full-page, full-color SEC football schedule in next week's Post.

I'm certainly not unique in this part of the world, but my demeanor changes a bit -- for the better -- every summer as we draw in on another season. Time to pull all my football-related apparel out of the boxes they've been cooped up in and re-bend the bill on that old cap I've let sit neglected in the laundry room all summer.

I'm sure I'll attend a few local prep games this fall, and I've already got trips planned to Nashville and Oxford, Miss. so I can watch Nick Saban's version of the Crimson Tide take the field. I may even try to make a game at that newly-renovated stadium on the Plains. Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't playing within 500 miles, or I'd probably be planning a trip to see Big Ben and Fast Willie in person, too.

A couple of good friends have these really terrific football-watching parties on Saturday afternoons and I can't wait to get together with that bunch so we can jokingly berate each other about whose favorite team is better. I've really gotten used to college football Saturday in a room filled with friends. It's a kind of camaraderie I can't count on during any other season of the year.

On the other hand, I'll watch most of those Pittsburgh games alone because there aren't that many professional football fans around. In middle school, when the other kids trotted out their Alabama and Auburn sweaters in the fall, I was wearing Steelers black and gold. Sixteen times this year, I'll don those colors, lock the doors, take the phone off the hook, dial up the Steelers Football Network on my computer, grab my Terrible Towel and jump and scream and gouge and curse and act like a total idiot for three hours straight. Depending on the outcome, I may or may not make it to work Monday morning.

Absolutely, the Steelers games are that important to me, but so is football in general. I began learning the organized version at the age of 7 and played through high school, and then in a Tuesday night flag league in college. I miss playing.

That's one reason I decided to volunteer to help Kimball and the folks at Upward a couple years back. The kids who sign up for the league get a good Christian message from the pastors and deacons who attend practices and, hopefully, they learn a little bit about football from guys like me who take a few minutes a couple of nights a week to recreate some of the same drills and bark some of the same orders we still remember so vividly from 20 years ago.

My co-worker's twins started out in the Upward league last year, and now they've moved on to full-contact football with the local pee-wee team. If you have a son (or a daughter, for that matter) between the ages of 5 and 14 who wants to learn more about the game but doesn't have the time or the inclination to play tackle football, then please bring them by the Upward evaluations at Centre Elementary School on either Aug. 9 or Aug. 11 (see the ad on page 8 for details). They'll hear the Good Word and they'll have a good time, and it will only take a couple of hours each week. At the very least, we'll pass along some basic knowledge of the sport so that parents won't have to worry about their kids making it all the way to 18 years old and still believing that the University of Alabama football team is called the Elephants.

I'll let Webb Dillard explain.