HERE COMES COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Yeah, it's that time of year again. Two weeks from now, college football will reign supreme in my thoughts, and those of my family.

Yesterday I attended my four-year-old grandson's debut game at Texas Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys) along with our big family (five kids, two boyfriends and one girlfriend) in 100-degree Dallas heat, before heading for a North Texas Seminole Boosters kickoff meeting. Regular readers will note that our family are rabid FSU fans (The Sage and I both went there, along with our oldest son and 78 members of our extended family). The funniest thing about the day was that my grandson,
Valor, was happier on the sidelines digging into the turf to find bugs than he was in playing the game. He spent most of the game pouting, arms crossed, because he couldn't join us in the stands. I'm convinced that four-year-olds are not ready to play team sports, although I'll concede that such activities may prepare them for the future. Team spirit is a worthy value, after all.

The real excitement was hearing, at the FSU conclave, insights into the team and the coming season.

And why, may you ask, with all the problems in the world, would a blogger such as I focus so much attention on college athletics?

I can't answer that definitively. I'm not under the care of a psychiatrist. I'll only say that it's not so strange, given that football is a metaphor for the entire, competitive, U.S. population. We root for "our team," whether it's in a military battle or otherwise.

And we have a whole lot better chance of winning.