Are You Ready For Some....Football?

Last night, my favourite sports season started up again – yes, after a six-month hiatus, Hungarian midget wrestling is back. Well, not exactly. NFL football started. (Please stop rolling your eyes.) I know, you’re problay thinking not another sports blog, but I really do enjoy the American game. College too. Go Irish! And some of the best games of the year at the collegiate level are played in the SEC. (South East Conference)

I enjoy it much more than the CFL, which I used to watch religiously as a kid, but it doesn’t compare to the NFL. For one thing, my team - wait, God’s team- the Cleveland Browns, play in the NFL. Go Browns! Although the way my Browns have been playing lately – lately being the last fifteen years – the Alouettes could give them a run for their money. Apparently, God has a sense of humour.

As much as I like hockey specifically the Habs (Guy Lafleur is a god-like figure in my house) the NFL trumps the NHL any day of the week. Sacrilegious talk from a Canadian for sure. But like I always say, hockey – it ain’t football.

With the new season comes new hope. The Browns, who are picked by everyone to finish last in their division again, may surprise some people. Hell, if we win 7 games, we’ll surprise the hell out of everyone. But us die-hard fans, those who cheer and pray on Sunday mornings and afternoons, those of us with posters on our walls and carry fan club cards in our wallets (which is really a cry for help), go in hoping for the best. We have to – it’s all we got.

Well, not all we have. I’m in about six different football pools and play the ponies – ponies being ProLine - every week. I don’t bet much and I win less. But it’s fun and makes the other games meaningful – not that I need another excuse to watch football.

My wife is a football widow who is content to let me watch 12 hours of football on Sunday’s. So win, lose or draw, I'm lucky in that sense. She’s seen the pain over the years. The drive, the fumble  (I still hate John Elway to this day) and the1980 AFC Divisonal playoff when Brian Sipe threw an interception in the endzone to lose to the Raiders 14-12 (who eventually won the Superbowl  that year) when all they had to do was kick a field goal. It's been that long.

But every Dawg has its day. Eventually, I hope. Go Browns.