Are You Ready For Some Football?

In response to Hank Jr.'s catchy tune that has become as closely associated with NFL football on TV as anything in recent years, yes, definitely, I am ready for some football! Tonight the National Football League kicks off the 2009 pro season with the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers, hosting my second favorite NFL team, the Tennessee Titans on NBC-TV. It has been what seems like a very, very long time since the Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl in early '09.

The NFL ain't what it used to be, at least as far as this longtime pro football fan sees it. I still watch the pro games on TV every chance I get, because I am truly a big football fan, but there just isn't that same ol' zeal for following the NFL from week to week like I once was addicted to. But, despite saying that, I still find myself getting a little hyped up when a new football season arrives each and every year. Unfortunately I will not be able to view tonight's NFL season opener on TV due to my work schedule. But that same rotating shift schedule that I have been a slave to for the past 20 years, working a set of daylights followed by a set of nights and then back to another set of daylights, provides me the opportunity to be off this coming weekend when there will be a full slate of football games (high school on Friday night, college games on Saturday, followed by the opening Sunday of the '09 NFL season) for me to enjoy.

I have already attended my first high school football game for '09. After missing my hometown team's season opener when an electric lightning display and rainstorm shortened the Roughnecks game against their intracounty rival, the Brazosport Exporters, because I was spending the night at the area petroleum refinery working the night shift, I had the luxury of being off this past Friday night. My Roughnecks, despite losing 36-22 to the St. Pius Panthers at Griggs Field in West Columbia, played exciting football and entertained the home crowd for the second consecutive Friday night. Columbia was leading Brazosport 17-14 when the season opener at Griggs Field was called off by the referees and coaches with about six minutes remaining in the third quarter due to a threat of lightning striking too close to the West Columbia football field. And this past Friday the thunder and lightning the Roughnecks were unable to deal with came in the human form of St. Pius's strong-armed, quick and elusive quarterback who led a Panthers' offensive attack that moved the ball up and down the field much too easily. If my hometown high school football team has any plans of competing for a playoff spot in their AAA district this season, adjustments will have to be made in their defensive strategy and improvements realized in the offensive scheme before such hopes can be turned into an actual postseason berth.

The Sweeny Bulldogs, who produced current Oakland Raiders wide receiver Johnnie Lee Higgins Jr. (pictured above), appear to be the cream of the crop in West Columbia's district in 2009. The Dogs will host the same Brazosport team this Friday night that the Roughnecks opened the year against two weeks ago. Both of those teams are 1-0 after the Bulldogs stomped Van Vleck in the season opener and the Shippers dominated Port Lavaca Calhoun last Friday night at Hopper Field in Freeport, a week after having their opener with the Roughnecks erased from the record books due to the lightning storm. Columbia travels to Alvin tomorrow night to line up against Manvel at the stadium the new high school in Manvel shares with the Yellowjackets of Alvin. I will be at one of those two high school games, depending on the weather Friday night. If it rains I will more than likely attend the Sweeny-Brazosport showdown about 10 miles from my home. Clear skies will find me and my wife taking the longer route to Alvin.

Keeping me interested in what happens in pro football from year to year are great players like LaDainian Tomlinson of the Chargers, Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson of the Vikings, Andre Johnson and Mario Williams of my Houston Texans, and my wife Peggy's favorite NFL players, the Manning brothers (pictured above). Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts will be playing under a new head coach following the retirement of their longtime mentor Tony Dungy, while younger brother Eli Manning and the New York Giants return for another season with hopes of fending off the annual challenge for division supremacy from the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles, who will feature Michael Vick as Donovan McNabb's key backup in '09. So the coming pro season should be just as interesting, with many tight division races throughout the year, as the battles being fought in college and high school stadiums across the nation from week to week. Man am I ever ready for it!

The college football season is already underway, with most college teams preparing for the second week of their 2009 seasons this weekend. My intentions are to attend at least one home game this season of my college alma mater, the Sam Houston State Bearkats, and hopefully make it to one or two games Texas A&M and the University of Houston play in 2009.

September 26th is circled in bright red marker on my personal calendar in my home office. That is the day former Columbia Roughnecks standout Jared Flannel and his Texas Tech Red Raiders travel to Houston to take on my son Brian's Cougars at Robertson Stadium. I have one son (Bret) going to college at Texas A&M so I have to pull for his Aggies every chance I get; and another son (Brian) attending classes at the University of Houston so I will proudly wear my Cougars red when following the Cougs. But the ol' home cooking theory puts me in Jared Flannel's corner and rooting for the Red Raiders whenever Texas Tech is not going head to head with my kids' Cougars and Aggies. And my Dad's little brother, Hank Gupton, graduated from Baylor University so I always cheer for the Baylor Bears when I get the chance. Cousin Dolores Gupton is an SMU grad and her younger sister Peggy Lou and her husband Kenneth Boone both graduated from TCU.

But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, ol' Tracy Bob just simply loves FOOTBALL!!! High school, college, pro, whatever, I love to watch football games . . . in person, on my new high definition color TV or (when lucky) on my cousins Jack and Angie's or Hank and Lynette's big screen sets in Cove or Anahuac. Even if it's at the corner bar or listening on my truck radio, if there is a football game being played somewhere nearby there is a good bet I will be tuned in or sitting my fat ass on my worn out Columbia Roughnecks cushion and watching.

My son Kirk is coaching youth football this season. So on the Saturdays that I am not working I will be in the stands, cheering on Koy and Koby Richardson (my future grandsons following Kirk's November wedding to their mother Tanya) when these little 9 and 10 year olds get down and dirty in the trenches for the Tri-City Cougars. So, hell yea, I'm ready for some football. Bring it on!

Former TCU Horned Frogs running back LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers is among my favorite current NFL players. Those pro players with Texas roots remain atop my personal list of "must see" gridiron heroes when I watch NFL games on TV.