Football Season

Yes, Football is a season. It starts around Labor Day, takes a hiatus in December and wraps up just after the new year. It's one of my favorite seasons. It means that there's always a party somewhere to watch some game on Saturdays. Chores are much more entertaining with almost any game on in the background. And bragging rights are challenged.

As a student at Mizzou, I went to almost every home game. I didn't care that much about the game, but I was proud of my Tigers....and besides, all my friends went. We added temporary tattoos to our faces, bought new black and gold sweatshirts and bundled up for the events that overlapped with autumn. If we won, Columbia lit up like a sky filled with fireworks on the 4th of July. If we lost, strangers became friends because misery does love company.

Yes, football season. One of my favorite.

For all but one season, I've lived in the land of the Big XII and have started caring and learning more about the game itself. I called Denver/Boulder home for four seasons, getting feisty when the Buffs talked trash about my Tigers and even went to a Mizzou game at Colorado one November. Then it was Austin, home of the University of Texas and many proud Aggies. Yes, Big XII dominated social schedules, church calendars and was the center of the universe for a few months. Mizzou is my team. They aways put up a good fight against the Longhorns and A&M in their place. I knew the teams. I knew some of the players. I recognized most of the coach names. It was familiar.

Now I live in the land of the SEC and the ACC. It's strange and unfamiliar. I'm sure that eventually, I'll actually care about UGA and Georgia Tech, but for now, I'm a little bit sad not to be surrounded by the burnt orange of those obnoxious Longhorns, adorning my Mizzou t-shirt proudly. Most people here have on some shade of red and are not phased by the Black and Gold. Football Season feels a little deflated to me. And maybe - just maybe - it won't be so strange and unfamiliar one day...