My Dear, Sweet Football

THE SPORTS BOTTOM - August 6, 2010

Football. Sweet football. You will be back in our lives again very soon. All will be good once again. 

Football has been so unbelievably awesome to me the past few seasons. First the magical college football season of 2007. When the end times were upon us and the Mizzou Tigers were actually ranked number one in the nation. Not in basketball, in football. Still can’t believe it as I type those words. 

Two losses to Oklahoma were the only blemishes on the season. Had there been no Big XII championship game the Tigers would have played for the national championship. I still love Chase Daniel. And who can forget that memorable game on Thanksgiving weekend at Arrowhead in Kansas City when the Tigers beat Kansas to get the number one ranking? So freakin’ exciting. And Kansas went to the Orange Bowl and Mizzou to the Cotton Bowl? Really? OK, but it still makes no sense.

Then who can forget the magical 2008 NFL season? End times were continuing because who represented the NFC in the Super Bowl and had the lead late and damn-near pulled out the victory? The freakin’ Arizona Cardinals.

I was one of the 25,000 or so Big Red fans who went to the St. Louis Football Cardinals games at the old Busch Stadium. Sunday mornings were church, then drive to St. Louis and go to the football game. Nobody ever went and the team was relentlessly mediocre. Though after enduring the last three Rams seasons, a six-win season looks pretty awesome right now.

After the 1987 season team owner Bill Bidwill made good on his constant threats to move the team out of St. Louis if a new stadium wasn’t built. Really? Gonna move? Most folks in St. Louis just really didn’t care. The Baseball Cardinals just finished their third pennant-winning season since 1982, and St. Louis was on its way to becoming the best baseball town in the USA. The football team was pretty much an after-thought.

So the Big Red moved to Phoenix to play in a college stadium in the middle of the desert. OK. See you later. No biggie, right? I missed the team. I may have even cried a bit after the last home game. But the team left and St. Louis was football-less until 1995. It sucked, especially on Sunday afternoons when there was no game to go to.

Then what happens? The Big Red beat the Philadelphia Eagles and won the NFC, and damn near beat the Steelers for the Super Bowl title. Go Big Red!!

And finally the 2009 NFL season. And your Super Bowl champions? The New Orleans freakin’ Saints!!! So awesome. No bags on the heads of Saints fans anymore. Drew Breese and the boys made New Orleans, the state of Louisiana and yes, possible the entire nation, proud and ready to raise their collective glasses when they beat the Colts for the Super Bowl title. So exciting. It was very difficult not to cheer for the Saints. New Orleans deserved it. The people of New Orleans deserved it. Party on, New Orleans!!!

Thank you, Football! I still love you!!!