Friday Night Fever

If you think this blog entry is going to be about football, you are right. However, before you shut it down you might want to read it because there's a slant that might surprise you.

A little background first. I never played the game, not in an organized fashion at least. Growing up in a time where real competition decided who played, not some PC rules set to build up self esteem, I was never a good enough athlete to make the team. However I was smart enough to recognize this and turned my interest to music and playing in the band. I was pretty good at that, participated in the game, and didn't get the crap kicked out of me every Fall Friday night. So I was never a member of the club, but I watched it, studied it, and understand it. All modesty aside I probably know and understand the game better than most of the rabid fans in the stands every Friday night.

With all that said, there is nothing so surreal as football season in a small town, especially if the team has a winning record on the last Friday in September. By that date the local heroes have played either four or five games and have a shot at the playoffs. And is the local team doesn't have a particularly storied history of state championships (in other words they generally suck) the hopes and dreams of most of the community ride on every game. Having lived here and observed 35 seasons of Lockhart Lion football the scenario usually plays out in one of two ways. The first and most predictable is that the team sucks from the gitgo. They end up winning two or three games and the coach is usually gone at the end of the season. The other way is the season will start out good. Maybe they are 3 wins, 1 loss at the end of September. Hope springs eternal and Lockhart Lions fans do a poor impersonation of Chicago Cubs fans. Then, true to form, the Lions fold like a cheap suit and limp to a mediocre season. In the odd season that they make the playoffs, the coach finds a better job at the end of the season and they start over next season.

So this season falls into the latter scenario, the team being 3-1 after last night's game. It's a weak three wins, but hey, a win is a win, right? So the seasonal insanity has set in. Otherwise rational adults wearing high school football jerseys, attending pep rallies on the square, breaking out team pictures of the few teams from the past that actually made the playoffs. Will this be the year? Why doesn't the Austin paper cover Lockhart? Marquees around town will have "Go Lions" on them and all will be great. Grown men meet every Thursday with the head coach to discuss football at a local BBQ joint! This enthusiasm will continue as long as they continue to win. They better hope the place kicker doesn't stub his toe!

If it sounds like I am complaining you are about half right. We all have our fantasies and I don't begrudge these high school football fans theirs. My complaint is that they expect EVERYBODY to participate in it! God forbid that you don't go all RAH! RAH! over a bunch of high school kids playing a game. I am not a cretin because I don't go to the games. I could about throw a rock from my house to the football field and wouldn't go to a game if they paid me to go! That would change obviously if my grandkids were playing but that's not the case so my time is better spent unwinding from a trying day, falling asleep on the couch, organizing my sock drawer, etc. If this makes me officially old, so be it! GET OFF MY LAWN!!!! (shakes fist)

There are a few of us in this town but we have learned our lesson. We avoid huddles of middle aged men as a general rule because the conversation will be about a particular play from the last game. I hang around women that I know really don't care about football. As long as they don't have high school aged kids they are pretty safe. I do not own a piece of clothing that says Lockhart Lions on it and never will! I read a lot.My cloak of invisibility is usually activated by September 1st. 

We could get into the detriments of this societal obsession but that is for another blog. My prediction is that the team will lose the next two games, the community will take this kick in the teeth, and start the chant about next year. I guess it is a somewhat harmless diversion, unless you consider stunted intellectual development a detriment. If not, carry on! GO LIONS!!!!!