Ok. Yes, I am guilty. This may be a just few weeks earlier than I normally run my annual column related to the start of football season. However, the truth is that I can hardly wait for football season to kickoff. So, I am running my annual football column earlier than normal.
Since COVID-19 reared its ugly head in late 2019 and early 2020, every aspect of our lives has been impacted. In 2020, this certainly included football at all levels. Schedules were changed, games postponed (or canceled all together). Yes, 2020 was a rough and crazy football season.
For me personally, as it relates to football season and so much more, I don’t know how I got through it all. That’s not entirely true, as I actually do know. I got through it with God, family and friends. As I have mentioned in my columns many times before, watching football was something that my Dad and I always did together for as long as I can remember.
So since I lost my Dad in June of 2020, my football watching activities in both 2020 and 2021 changed drastically. Watching football/sports without my Dad was tough. It just was not the same. Will it ever be the same for me again? In one way no, but yet in another way, it surely will. I see now that it will be up to me and what I make of it. And now, I get to watch football/sports with my father-in-law who loves it just as much as I do. So, I can’t wait for football season to get started.
And, football season is almost here. Here we go. It has been a long, hot Summer. Fall is my favorite season/time of the year and it is almost here. And with Fall, comes football. As such, I am counting the days until football season arrives! This year, our LSU Tigers will kick off their football season on Saturday night August 30 against Clemson in Clemson, South Carolina. Thats just 38 days away. It will be a matchup of two Top 20 teams and it promises to be a great game! I can’t wait!
All of my life, I have been a football fan. I played on football teams from a youth through my middle school years. Then, I became more interested in music and band (realizing that I could not do it all and still keep my grades where they needed to be). Just because I no longer played football surely didn’t mean that I quit watching or that I quit being a fan. I have always been a huge football fan.
When I was six years old, I vividly remember flying down to New Orleans one Sunday morning with my Mom and Dad (my first airplane flight) to see the New Orleans Saints play the Baltimore Colts and QB Johnny Unitas at the old Tulane Stadium. The year was 1967. It was the very first season for the New Orleans Saints. I still remember standing there with my Dad at the fence by the tunnel where the players ran out of the locker room. Dad wanted to see Johnny Unitas emerge from the tunnel.
A few years later, I remember watching the Dallas Cowboys play their traditional Thanksgiving Day game in 1974 (the game where Clint Longley came in for an injured Roger Staubach and threw a bomb to Drew Pearson for a touchdown with less than 30 seconds left in the game). The Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins that day 24-23. I was a big Dallas Cowboys fan back in those days and I remain so today. As such, I was really excited over the Cowboys Championships in 1971, 1977, 1992, 1993 and 1995. And, to see what Dak Prescott and the Cowboys have accomplished these last few years! Wow! Looks like the Cowboys are in for another successful season this year. I truly believe that the “Big Game”will happen for the Cowboys one day in the not too distant future.
And, to be fair (and also politically correct….and hopefully smart too), I also root very hard for the New Orleans Saints. I was ecstatic over the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl Championship in 2009 (finally)! Hopefully, the New Orleans Saints appear will be set to achieve success this season.
And of course, as a lifelong and “die hard” LSU fan, I am still reveling over LSU’s football national championships in 2003, 2007 and the magical 2019 season. And, all LSU fans remember so fondly all of the fantastic winning seasons our LSU Tigers have put together over the years! At this point, it looks like this football season holds in store a really tough schedule for our Tigers, However, expectations are high and everything looks good. We have hopes and expectations for a great LSU football season! There is a very real opportunity for great success this season with our head coach now in his fourth year !
And, I simply can not wait to be on the sidelines taking photos at high school and middle school football games. The season arrives in just little over one month! And, if you see me out at some of our local football games this season, please stop me to say hello. That always means so much to me! So, here’s to Fall and here’s to football!
Randy Brown is Regional Publisher and Executive VP of Specht Newspapers, Inc.