Fall is my favorite time of the year because that means football season is here!
Once both the college and professional football seasons come to an end each year, I go into a state of mourning, counting the days until football season is here again. A few weeks ago, I started watching the countdown ticker on the daily blog that I read in regard to LSU football. The ticker starts counting down at 100 days until kick off and as of this column, LSU football will kick off the season against BYU at NRG Stadium in Houston in two weeks and five days from tonight. Or to be exact, 19 days, 9 hours, 11 minutes and 57 seconds from now.
So you see, this fan is literally counting the days, hours, minutes and even the seconds until kickoff. And once the season starts, that means Saturdays and Sundays will be spent watching football games with Dad.
All of my life, I have been a football fan. I used to play football up through middle school. 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, it surely didn’t mean that I quit watching or that I quit being a 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 remember standing there with my Dad at the fence so that we could see Johnny Unitas emerge from the tunnel.
A few years later, I remember watching the Dallas Cowboys’ 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 Cowboys supporter 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 accomplished last season? Just wow.
To be fair, I also root very hard for the New Orleans Saints. I was ecstatic over the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl Championship in 2009 (finally)! And of course, as a lifelong and diehard LSU fan, I am still reveling over LSU’s football national championships in 2003 and 2007. And, the fantastic winning seasons our Tigers have put together over these last several years.
Locally, like I have mentioned in previous columns, I simply can not wait to be on the sidelines taking photos at Bossier Parish high school and middle school football games. It’s hard to believe the season arrives in just a couple of weeks.
If you see me out at some of our local football games this season, please stop me and say, “Hello.” That always means so much to me and I like to meet our supporters and readers.
Only 19 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes and 13 seconds til kickoff….
Randy Brown is Publisher of the BPT. He can be reached at rbrown@bossierpress.com.
